Senseless

Praise

PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR


“Malfi is horror’s Faulkner, and Small Town Horror might be his best novel yet. Stylish, dark, and with a haunting, salty atmosphere, this is a superb novel about how the ghosts of the past always dance with those of the present.” Gabino Iglesias, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson award-winning author of The Devil Takes You Home


“This is bedrock American horror fiction, sure to be a classic. Malfi deftly draws you down into the darkness of a group of friends in a small town (natch) who find themselves literally haunted by the secrets and mistakes of their shared past.” Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers 


Ronald Malfi is a talented storyteller known for the quality of his writing and the way he brings an element of elegance to the genre, and Small Town Horror—relentlessly creepy, unapologetically dark, and surprisingly heartfelt—might just be his best novel yet—Locus Magazine 


“Small Town Horror blends the sunburnt southern noir of S.A. Cosby with the homespun haunts of Raymond Bradbury, creating a brackish blend of sin-ridden horror unlike anything else scuttling across bookshelves today. Ronald Malfi is the Bard of Chesapeake Bay gothic and the outright brine of this beautifully terrifying book will be steeped into your subconscious forever.” Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters 


“An eerie and deeply unsettling horror epic with faint shadows of Peter Straub and Robert R. McCammon flickering at the periphery . . . Small Town Horror is the kind of masterful and deftly written horror fiction that makes me fall in love with the genre all over again.” Eric LaRocca, Bram Stoker Award finalist, and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke


“This isn’t only Malfi’s masterpiece, it’s a heroic swing at the Great American Novel, and will be nakedly terrifying to anyone who’s been a kid—and to anyone who’s grown up with regret. This is heavyweight horror, a total knockout.” Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestseller and author of Whalefall


“Malfi makes reading about the perils of reading a terrifying delight.” 
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review


“Malfi makes horror feel viscerally real by showing it to us through the eyes of his vividly described characters—if they are frightened, apprehensive, or just confused, so are we.”
Booklist




“Stunningly good, with echoes of King, Bradbury, Straub, and McCammon, but somehow purely Malfi. Full of malevolence and dread, and peopled by truly compelling characters, the book locks in Malfi’s place as one of the best writers in the genre.”
Christopher Golden, ‘New York Times’ bestselling author of ‘Road of BONES’ and ‘Ararat’


“‘Black Mouth’ is good magic about dark magic: a powerful meeting between adulthood and childhood, the people we pretend to be and the people we have to be. Smart, character-driven horror.”
Andrew Pyper, author of ‘The Residence’ and ‘The Demonologist’


“Malfi has established himself as one of the all-time great horror writers, and ‘Black Mouth’ shows him working at the peak of his dark powers. Equally terrifying and heartbreaking, ‘Black Mouth’ is a book filled with terror, ghosts, and murder, but also hauntings of the heart, and the soul. Riveting, bloody, and cosmic, this novel will tear you apart in all the best ways.” 
Philip Fracassi, author of ‘Beneath a Pale Sky’


Malfi is a modern-day Algernon Blackwood… I’m gonna be talking about this book for years
JOSH MALERMAN, author of Bird Box


Part mystery, part ghost story, Come with Me chimes with rare beauty and page-turning brilliance. I surrendered to it completely.
Rio Youers, author of Lola on Fire


Shines as both a nightmare journey of shadows and secrets, and a poignant testimony to love and loss. I read it in a single day because I had no other choice: it’s that damn good.
Richard Chizmar, author of Gwendy’s Button Box