 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another episode of 31 Days of Halloween. Today we are talking about His Black Tongue by Mitchell Luthie, a 2021 collection, very short collection of novellas and stories. There are two novellas and there are two short stories and let's just jump right into the review. Okay, so I read His Black Tongue in one sitting. The highlight of the entire collection is the first story. I believe it's the titular story. It has the same name. And then there's another novella called The Bone Fields. And then you have two short stories, The Knights of the Non-Eclidian Table and Necropolis. I absolutely loved the first story. I was kind of wishy-washy about the two in the middle, but I did like Necropolis. The first one stands out the most, so that's the one that I'm going to be reviewing the most, because the other ones really didn't stay much, didn't stay with me much. And even Necropolis was something that a couple days after I had listened to the audiobook, I was already starting to forget it. So consider this pretty much a review of just the first story. The first story was absolutely amazing, epic. It's very dark, almost grim, dark fantasy. You have this group of people going out and the names of the town, and I listened to it on audiobook. I don't have a physical copy to check. The names of the town and the names of the characters were said different a lot of the time. Not because the narrator was messing up, but because they were different accents. They were Scottish, Irish, Old English. There was all different kinds of French because it takes place in 14th century France. All that stuff and all the characters sounded different. I also want to let you know that the audiobook is on Scribd. If you want to give it a shot, you can get a free month by clicking on the link down there in the doobly-doo. You get a free month. My kids also get a free month, so if you want to help them have access to more books, I'd appreciate it. You can't do it if you've already used my link before just as a heads up, but I listened to it on Scribd and the cover is absolutely gorgeous. I love the cover and that's what really brought me into the story. As far as the first one, I was not expecting what I got. It blew my mind how creative and weird and just overall creepy this story is. To give you a brief overview, there's a group of people that go to this town to try and help out. At sundown every night, a rift to hell hell opens up and they are trying to figure out what is going on. On top of all this, there was recently a witch burning in the town. There is some very very off-putting and creepy scenes in a cemetery where they're digging someone up to perform last rites and then arguing over whether or not that person should get last rites. I really love that scene, but the thing that I want to really hammer home here is the atmosphere. I look for three things in any story that I either read or movies that I watch. That's characters, pacing and dread, where the characters failed me, the pacing and the dread really saved it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give this book four stars because I would rate that very first novella five stars and then all the rest of them kind of it was like I wish I almost wish that the first novella had been at the end, but if that had happened then I probably wouldn't have finished it. That's unfortunate to say, but that's the truth. Maybe if necropolis came first and then those other two stayed where they were in the middle, I'm not sure. But when I say the atmosphere is off the charts in the first story, you just got to trust me and you got to read it for yourself. I don't want to say anything else, I don't want to say anything more about that story. And the other three, honestly, it's been a month since I read it. I don't remember much at all. Other than thinking had that first novella been at the tail end, it would have given a bigger punch. In fact, I might have rated the entire collection higher because it was like you come out the gate doing 90, just doing your absolute best and then you slam on the brakes for the next couple laps and then you kind of speed up toward the end, but you never reach that same speed, you're going about 50, 60 miles per hour, you never hit 90 again. That's what this felt like. And it's not that they left a bad taste in my mouth, it just wasn't up to par, in my opinion, with the first story, which brings me to the last thing I want to talk about here so often, especially in traditional publishing, sometimes in small press also. You really don't see this issue in indie because there are no rules when you go indie. We have a amazing, amazing novella that should stand alone and sit over by itself. Should have been published alone. It shouldn't have anything else with it because it is so, it's just that good. But they force the author, I don't know if this is the case in this author's circumstance, but I know from experience and other people who have dealt with traditional publishers, that they will force more content, whether or not that content lives up to the content that they are buying to begin with, just so that they can recoup the money for selling the book. Because if not, you end up having situations like with Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the end of the lane, where people are complaining because they're getting charged $26.99 for a hardcover version, and the book is only 100 pages long. When you can go get, you can't get a Stephen King book, but you can go get other author's work for that same price. And it just gives you more return on your investment. That is really my only criticism about this as far as the publishing side of things, where I don't feel like those other stories were needed at all. Necropolis could have been in a longer collection, or maybe even published by itself. But the two stories in the middle didn't do anything for me. And I'm trying to stay away from, you know, too negative of a review, mainly because I want you guys to read this book for that first story. If you're into medieval stuff, if you're into grimdark fantasy, if you're into creepy towns and riffs into other dimensions and hell and witches and all that wonderful shit, you are going to love this first story. I cannot really speak to the other three other than Necropolis. It was fun. But yeah, so take that for what you will. Again, if you want to try the book, it is on Scribd. The link's down there in the doobly-doo. Get you a free month, get my kids a free month. Anyways, I'd appreciate it. But yeah, so that's all the time I have for you today. This has been my review of His Black Tongue by Mitchell Luthie. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another episode of 31 Days of Halloween. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!