Reviews with content warning for Blood - 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.

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r_o_s_e's review against another edition

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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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butyougotmysoul's review against another edition

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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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avisnoctua's review against another edition

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2.0

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erebus53's review against another edition

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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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julesbarthe10's review

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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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seagem's review against another edition

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3.75

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mfrisk's review against another edition

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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.

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