Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

23 reviews

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, and Grief

Minor: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child death, and Islamophobia

bookishpriest's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Ableism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Minor: Pedophilia

julesbarthe10's review

challenging dark

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

3.0

Eric LARocca never cease to leave me in utter "WTF-hood" after I read one of his books. I think I've become addicted to the utter confusion they cause me. Everything the Darkness Eats hits on topics of homophobia, severe grief, devote worship, idiotic adults, and of course god is there also. A luring old man seems to seamlessly convincing people to join him in his creepy home so he can show them something beyond there wildest dreams, and then no one hears from them again. Ghost (the MC) can save them though, at least that is what the old man tells him. Only he can set them free, and all he has to do is trust the weird old man. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Blood, Sexual assault, Death, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Grief, and Child death

mindysbookjourney's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, Homophobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Car accident, Death, Pedophilia, Ableism, Biphobia, and Child death

riflelizards's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, and Excrement

Minor: Child death, Death, Biphobia, and Medical content

mikepalumbo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Car accident, Violence, Rape, Gore, Blood, Homophobia, and Hate crime

Moderate: Pedophilia

dokushoka's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Homophobia

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, and Hate crime

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, Excrement, Murder, Islamophobia, and Grief

ericarobyn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca is a dark and brutal supernatural thriller set in a town where small-minded hatred runs rampant.

In the quiet town of Henley’s Edge, vulnerable people are going missing. The police are aware but don’t seem to have any leads. One officer is determined to solve the case but soon finds himself a victim of hate crimes that steadily get more violent.

Can both cases be solved before it’s too late for everyone involved?

Set up to focus on various perspectives, readers will get sucked into each storyline! Following the characters into their individual circles of darkness, orbiting around one another until they all meet in a dark basement.

I absolutely couldn’t wait to see where this twisted and dark tale was headed.

With Eric’s writing, you know he isn’t going to shy away from the darkness. As I highlighted some content warnings above, please be prepared for various scenes that will make you flinch and want to rage over the horror of it all.

My Favorite Passages from Everything the Darkness Eats

She mindlessly began to covet the lines around his mouth and eyes until they resembled the scratches at the bottom of a teacup. She thought of a silver spoon, circling the bottom of a cup–going over the dark thin lines like the immeasurable loop of time, the nauseating ache of infinity.

Ghost felt unclean, as if he could sense Mr. Crowley crawling around inside him, rummaging through his thoughts and overturning stacks of memories until he came upon the one thing that mattered most to Ghost-his sweet Hailey. He knew he should leave, but a curious part of him begged to know the answer to a question that needed to be asked.

My Final Thoughts on Everything the Darkness Eats

Horror fans, you need to have this book on your radar!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Child death

Minor: Car accident

dean_reviews's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Oh gosh, what do I even say about Everything the Darkness Eats?

It was an amazing book, but also such a hard and emotional read.
I don't think that I was fully prepared for what I was getting myself into when I started this book. I am still glad that I did read it though.

***Content warnings for this book:

Death, Injury/Injury Detail, Homophobia (including slurs), Graphic Rape, Graphic Sexual Assault, Graphic Abuse, Gore, Murder, Blood, Ritual Sacrifice, Ableism, Home Invasion, Terminal Illness, AIDS, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of a loved one, Death of an infant, Biphobia/Bierasure***

This story is told to us in a narrative form that follows multiple people who are effected by the events happening in the small Connecticut town of Henley's Edge. Our cast of characters is varied and diverse. A group of people who would be impacted by the internal workings of a small town in profound ways that intersect but are also unique and troubling.

I feel like a lot of this story is me going "yup... that tracks" when something happens that does feel into my pre-conceived notions of how a small town would engage with and deal with the particular issues at hand.
I know this is unfair in a lot of ways and it did make me stop and wonder if LaRocca was writing from personal experience, general stereotypical knowledge, or held beliefs?

I did find myself needing breaks from the contents of the books. Don't get me wrong, I am no stranger to a dark and traumatizing book, but something about this one just hit so differently... I am wondering if it was feeding off of my own concerns over treatment I might receive as a trans person in those places.
Harnessing real fears and concerns of those within the communities of the characters to make the struggles and pain feel more real.
I also wonder.... if maybe this would have been less needed had I been reading with my eyes and not my ears.

On that note.. the audio was really good. I loved the flow and tone that Andre Santana brought to the story. The depth that was given to the hard moments and the emotion that was brought into the characters.

Overall, I am happy that I read this book and I am curious to pick up more of their books in the future. I would recommend this book so long as I also gave them the laundry list of trigger warnings.

Literally my only major critique is that there is not a connected list of trigger warnings provided by the author/publisher on the listings.

***I was provided a copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion and thoughts about what I read.***

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical trauma, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Excrement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Biphobia, Child death, and Vomit

gorbon's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

If you’ve read LaRocca before you know by now that he never pulls punches, and this is no exception. While I wouldn’t consider this as fantastically visceral and nightmarish as his other creations, everything the darkness eats focuses instead on the emotional darkness that creeps on us when we’ve gone through trauma. Please read the trigger warnings! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Excrement, Rape, Hate crime, and Torture

Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, and Child death

Minor: Islamophobia