Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

13 reviews

bibliograflieg's review against another edition

dark tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Excrement, Rape, Homophobia, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia and Car accident

Minor: Islamophobia

illtakethenightshiftx's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

Eric LaRocca is a great short story author and this novel felt like it should’ve been 3-4 separate short stories in the same anthology. Nothing felt cohesive and when the two main narratives came together it was so quick and didn’t make a lot of sense. Also, considering this audiobook was only about 5.5 hours long, it was so wordy! 

Honestly, it felt like a draft that needed more work, between the use of language and extremely heavy-handed themes. The story as a whole was underwhelming and I didn’t find myself attached to any of the characters (which is a bad sign!). I’ve only been blown away/completely impressed by one of LaRocca’s short stories and found their other works underwhelming, so I honestly don’t know what I was expecting from this novel. 

If you really like LaRocca’s work, you might enjoy this.

I also cannot stress enough, check the content warnings and read other reviews.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Rape, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Islamophobia

Minor: Biphobia

theochick's review

challenging dark

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

This book had an interesting concept and incredibly poor execution. Definitely mind the content warnings (I probably missed some)! Prologue sets up a way more enjoyable/fun story than the book delivers which I think makes it even more disappointing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Islamophobia, Grief, Violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, Gore, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Pedophilia

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Homophobia, Car accident, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Hate crime, Islamophobia, and Violence

unlifeoftheparty's review against another edition

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Death, Sexual assault, 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

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

seagem's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Islamophobia, Rape, Violence, and Religious bigotry

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