Reviews - We Can Never Leave This Place

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

610 reviews for:

We Can Never Leave This Place

Eric LaRocca

3.46 AVERAGE

afriendwithfiction's review

4.0

dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sylvestra's review

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

folkmare's review

2.0

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

I thought this was just okay, but the more I think about it, the less I like it. I really hated the nihilistic "life is about loss" perspective and there was some weird stuff about women, to be honest. "baby teeth to virginity" is such a stupid line, and fundamentally untrue if you think about it for more than 5 seconds.

LaRocca is trying far, far too hard to be deep and insightful. Parts of this allegory work, but other parts feel very lazy. I don't know anything about his demographic background, but I'm not sure he's really bringing anything of value to the experience of a teenage girl. I DO think male authors can write girls very effectively, but I kept getting distracted by the uncomfortable references to her anatomy, period, and other random things that didn't seem to add to the narrative or character development.

tysbooks's review

3.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

shereadsbecause's review

2.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lilybear3's review

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: No

I thought this was alright. I read a few of his other stories before this one and I think I liked the short stories slightly better. However, I liked that this was longer story that gave more time to develop characters and have more horrifying things happen. I don't think there's an official CW for insects, so this is your warning. This was definitely depraved and disgusting at many times, if not the whole thing. The questions I am left with are:

Where the bugs/creatures she imagined big? Why/how did she imagine the people as bugs/creatures? Were the people cannibals? Is the reason they can't leave their home is the outside war/apocalypse?

LaRocca's work usually leaves me with questions, but that might be the point. It was creepy and horror-filled.

Content Warnings