Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

59 reviews

amb_leigh's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Grief, Blood, and Excrement

rebekahmccubbins's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

I went into this book excited - I picked it up after seeing multiple recommendations in lists of queer horror novels. And I really wanted to like it.  I'm genuinely confused as to how this book was published. 

The author clearly enjoys flowery prose, which is fine when done well. But this was painful to read. Every third sentence was a simile or over-description, making it hard to keep track of what's actually happening in the story. The plot felt half-baked, and the details were confusing. I found myself constantly asking, 'why?'. The characters' motivations didn't feel reasonable.

And the extremely graphic violence against Malik and Brett felt uncalled for. Frankly, that subplot never tied in to a degree that felt justified. So I was left feeling that the author just... WANTED to torture and decimate a gay couple (confusing, because by all accounts, he is gay). 

I can't in good faith recommend this story to anyone. If you do choose to read, good luck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Ableism, Medical content, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Cursing, Classism, Confinement, Blood, Biphobia, Stalking, Kidnapping, Rape, Homophobia, Excrement, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

kodiskye's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Rape

hauntedantiqueshop's review

dark fast-paced

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

0.5

What an absolute JOKE. I’m truly at a loss with what to say about this unnecessary book but here it goes.

Imagine writing horrific sexual assault and then almost idolizing the attacker (calling him his God and seeing how attractive he really is is so fucking disgusting), making your readers that could get through it read it, to then haphazardly slap “don’t worry, God fixed it and they literally don’t even remember it now” at the end. Not to mention the weird ableism sprinkled throughout the book, mixed with utterly unreliable actions by almost every single character. Don’t get me wrong, ACAB all day long. But not a single officer in that department is fully investigating the disappearances of these people all over town or THE KIDNAPPING? The taxi driver is just cool with being an accomplice??

I can’t help but to think Eric LaRocca hates their audience and truly thinks of them as fucking idiots.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Violence, Torture, and Death

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Pedophilia

Do you like slurs? Don’t worry, it’s chocked full of the f slur!

912jae's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Excrement, Car accident, Blood, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, and Pedophilia

ecn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

So good but not much of a build up and the quickest resolution/wrap up, which left me wanting more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Body horror, Biphobia, Torture, Grief, Gore, Child death, Car accident, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Hate crime, Blood, Medical content, Homophobia, Rape, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Excrement

funyuns_the_movie's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

The pacing of this book was so weird. There's two main characters who have two completely different stories that connect in a pretty insignificant way at the end, so it feels a little bit like I'm reading two half stories. Also the climax is so strange--it feels like it lasts like 2 minutes in the grand scheme of the story. I think if the book took more time to flesh out the characters (especially the villain, whose entire ideology went underdeveloped), then I would have liked it much more.

Also I thought the prose was a tad obnoxious at times. The author sets the tone using A LOT of similes/metaphors--sometimes even multiple nested inside each other, and eventually it wore me down a bit.

That being said, I still derived enjoyment from reading it, and thought that the occult stuff was neat.

I wouldn't recommend this book personally, but I can see it resonating with certain people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Hate crime, and Violence

statefossil's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Docking a quarter star bc I wish LaRocca had let us see the assailants be punished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, and Hate crime

sixtimes's review

dark tense 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? It's complicated

I am so sorry, but this is the worst book I’ve read in my life. Character development is nonexistent, the word monster ceases to have a meaning with how often it is used, women and disabled characters are used as props, and gratuitous violence and sexual violence that do nothing to move the story, just
violence for the sake of violence. Yeah yeah I’m sure it’s a metaphor for how humans were the real monsters all along but god it was almost impossible to sit through. I HIGHLY recommend not reading this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Homophobia, Rape, and Hate crime

shutupsylvia's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

This honestly isn’t my fave from LaRocca, I felt like the pacing was super slow and it made it harder to stay interested, but overall I did enjoy the characters and story overall. LaRocca created such a cool cosmic horror, that I wish it had played a larger role in the story as a whole. Humans are the real monsters of this story 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Homophobia, Violence, Hate crime, and Kidnapping

Minor: Kidnapping

i wish we hadn’t gone with the violent hate crimes but it is an LGBT horror novel so i guess that is to be expected in some capacity.

Humans truly are the monsters of this story