Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Everything the Darkness Eats

The two story lines didn't seem to mesh and they felt forced. It was definitely and interesting and unique story but I felt like there could have been more.

Content Warnings

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

bookishpriest's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

This felt like two half-conceived short stories stitched together for the sake of making something long enough to publish as a book. Two parallel storylines that suddenly meet up in the last 10% of the book. Some of the ideas were interesting, but fell flat and didn't recieve their due. There were references to Sandman and Needful Things that could have been very compelling but did not deliver.

There were several depictions of extreme violence and homophobia (check the trigger warnings before reading!) that did very little for the story or character advancement,

didn't get much treatment and, in the end, were hand-waved away without any real follow-up.

This felt to me like a version of trauma porn and not at all helpful.

Whatever the author's intent, I couldn't find it in these pages and it was disappointing enough that I won't be looking for more of their work.

The narration of the audiobook is well done and a pleasant listen.

Content Warnings

butyougotmysoul's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

1.0

This was an extremely poorly written narrative that held ableist and homophobic views aloft and kept harping on them at every moment. It’s also extremely disappointing to me that the characterization of Crowley was so disproportionately evil and of course he had AIDS. Malik’s whole storyline was terrible and the aftermath of his traumatic experience and Fleece’s explanation for his homophobia was disgusting. Malik sympathizing with Fleece was uncalled for and it seemed like the story went out of its way to humanize someone that would hurt another person in this way. Disgusting.

Gemma couldn’t accept her daughter’s disability and looked at her as a “monster”

Ghost consistently called himself a monster and a burden.

I don’t know if it’s the content or the tone, but I do not get along with this author’s books. Rather than horror, they’re all just vaguely gory, ableist, and meandering. I don’t think I’ll be trying anymore of their writing.

Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I picked up this one at random because the title seemed interesting.
The story is weird, mysterious, supernatural, and bleak. It felt like there were actually 2 stories stitched together.

People are going missing, and one of the police officers investigating is a Muslim man who is getting flack from his husband for pulling long hours. They are a sweet couple, but continually on guard due to micro-agressions from their neighbours.. which escalate to macro-agressions and ultimately extreme violence, as someone in the neighborhood is trying to pressure the men into leaving.

The other protagonist is a depressed young man who is grieving the loss of his wife and unborn child in a motor accident that permanently damaged his own leg. He has this niggling voice that continually disparages him. It belongs to an actual demon (is it real?) with whom he has an oddly codependent toxic relationship. (Nowhere near as friendly as Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle). One day he meets a fancy old man with a swanky mansion who offers wishes.. this gives me real "Needful Things" vibes. The guy is about as suspect as you can get even before he introduces himself as Heart Crowley.

Mumble mumble, magic, cult, demon / God, zealots, creepy, blood and rituals etc. (step 4: profit!... or prophet?)
Meanwhile sadistic homophobic violence, rape, multilation, and all that bad stuff

but that's ok because we have God locked in our cellar and he can make it all miraculously better.
Kinda liked the whole Clockwork Orange feel of stumbling into the mansion in the middle of the night though. ("HOME")

I liked that most of the characters are gay or pan. Interesting to hear the widow character voicing experience of biphobia. I realize it's supposed to be gritty and horrific but the whole rape angle just felt awful rather than creepy. I kind of feel like the whole story might have had more going for it if it was either a supernatural horror with a paranoid anxiety sufferer OR the horrible side of be what can happen to a sweet gay couple just trying to live their best life, but trying to tangle the two together is just not quite doing either justice.

Content Warnings

mfrisk's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

This book is hard to describe. It is told in multiple perspectives and is surreal and supernatural and an incredibly slow burn. I don’t know if I fully understand how everything came together or didn’t in the end but I did still think this was an interesting read. I feel like we needed a bit more for this to feel fully resolved and definitely would warn everyone to check trigger warnings as this is not an easy read. This is a tough book to wrap my head around for sure.

Content Warnings

owlribbon's review

Go to review page

3.0

Content Warnings

aparker89's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A fast-paced supernatural mystery that will leave you begging for mercy. Not only will you feel sorrow, you can feel the slash of the knife. While you witness some truly horrific events in this story, most are not so far fetched as to be unbelievable. You feel for every person you meet and the evil lurking is both ethereal and too real! With any luck, you might finish unscathed.

Content Warnings

More...