Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

26 reviews

ashleighreeb's review

dark medium-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

3.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Car accident, Blood, and Gore

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

alylentz's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

This was not for me! I think Erica LaRocca tends to do better with a less conventional narrative format. At times I found this to be annoyingly over-the-top both in terms of prose and story choices, missing all of the freshness and ambiguity of his shorter stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, and Gore

butyougotmysoul's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Rape, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Torture, Biphobia, Gore, Hate crime, and Violence

erebus53's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Racism, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Violence, Rape, Biphobia, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Abandonment, Blood, Car accident, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

mraible18's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

Giving this 2 stars instead of 1 because I saw some potential in the premise and also honestly because I liked the audiobook narrator. This is the first of Eric LaRocca’s books I’ve read and I still might give one of their others a try, but was not a fan of this one. 

I get that horror can be nature be very violent. One of my favorite horror novels is insanely, grotesquely violent, not necessarily in dissimilar ways from this book. But all of the violence and the trauma here felt entirely gratuitous,

especially once the trauma is literally erased from the character’s mind like nothing happened??

I didn’t care about any of the characters because the over usage of similes kept me at a distance or zoning out on what was actually happening. I found myself listening to the audio book on a super high speed just to get through the rest of the novella because I was bored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Car accident, and Hate crime

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Ableism, Gore, and Kidnapping

owlribbon's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Car accident, Sexual assault, Blood, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Death, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Excrement, and Homophobia

aparker89's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Grief

Moderate: Car accident, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Excrement, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Islamophobia, and Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Biphobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement

emilycarvelli's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Excrement, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual harassment, Violence, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

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