Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Everything the Darkness Eats

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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mraible18's review against another edition

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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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owlribbon's review

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3.0

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aparker89's review

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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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afriendwithfiction's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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riflelizards's review against another edition

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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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chuckstafer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Goodness, this was a challenging read at times. VERY dark and subject matter that was very heavy for sure. LaRocca has a way of sucking readers in with his narrative and writing style though and even when parts of this book were difficult to read, I couldn't stop.

A very strange tale as well and touched on some interesting topics regarding idol worship, religion, homophobia more.

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