Review: Of Lips and Tongue by A.G. Carpenter

Of Lips and Tongue (2016)
Written by: A.G. Carpenter
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Southern Gothic
Pages: 113 (Kindle)
Series: Touch Trilogy Book 1
Publisher: Falstaff Books

Why I Chose This: I’ve heard amazing things about this book and been looking for something dark to sink my teeth into.

The premise:

Delaney Green is one of them that don’t burn. Possessed of the Touch — with the ability to not only see the future but manipulate it — she’s been kept in an institution for most of her life. When the Salesman, a murderous entity with a connection to Delaney’s past, starts burning girls to death, FBI Agent Percival Cox gives her the chance to leave the asylum behind. But he presents an even greater threat and she must risk flesh and bone in order to keep him from becoming a Power more destructive than the Salesman.

Some Spoilers Below

Discussion: I want to start by saying that this book is dark. The first sentence is literally: “On a hot July day Mama went cracked, locked my sisters and me in the tool shed, and lit us up like a Christmas tree.” There’s a lot of dark violence and while it’s never graphic in the sense of blood and guts, there is a lot of burning going on.

That said, I loved the voice of this novella. Del’s explanation of the world drips with southern charm and dark magic. Through her, we are introduced to the magic of this world.

This is the first thing my Daddy taught me.

Words are thoughts and everyone has them. Has the power them loose in the world like raindrops on a field. Small magic and easy to ignore from them…from those who don’t have the Touch. But words seep in and take root, and with them, thoughts. You take in the words of others and you take in their thoughts and let them shape you.

The words aren’t always bad. Some say witch and maybe I can see that’s just a name that means those words come like a storm. But some say it and they mean one who hurts or steals things that shouldn’t be taken or loses all sense of right in the world. If I slip and let that word take root, I let that thought take root too.

The small magic of many tongues. Because the power is in the repeating (Location 96, Kindle).

Those with the Touch can see and manipulate the future. Del has known that something wicked is in her future and try as she might, she hasn’t been able to stop that dark tide. Del is aware of what fate awaits her and is doing all she can to try to limit the number of people burned by the entity known as the Salesman.

It’s a fast read for sure, and I breezed through it on my Kindle. There were a few moments I wished the beats had been longer. I wanted more time to see the relationship between Agent Cox and Del grow and change.

The writing of this book is gorgeous, and I wanted to just wrap myself in it at some points. I highlighted so many passages in this, but the line I kept coming back to was, “The small magic of many tongues falling like raindrops on thirsty ground” (Location 170, Kindle). The imagery built with the way Del sees the world and the description is truly its own kind of magic.

The ending surprised me, and I actually read the last few chapters a few times because I was so shocked at what Del had done and what that meant for her. I’ll definitely be picking up the next novella in the series and continuing on this journey with Del.

In Conclusion: Of Lips and Tongue is a dark fantasy dripping with Southern charm and mannerisms. The magic of the world is fascinating and beautiful, and the way Carpenter crafts the voice of Del is truly amazing. Don’t miss this rich tale of the magic in those that won’t burn.