Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

17 reviews

deshanejt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Eric LaRocca's writing is intense. He's very good!

However, I can't for the life of me figure out the plot, the point, or the message in this story. 

What started in the beginning of the book, and what transpired throughout, LOOSELY connected to what happened in the end- IMO. 

I understand there's not always justice for victims of SA and hate-crimes, but it would have been nice to understand how being a witness to that brutality tied into the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Death, Violence, Blood, Rape, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Murder

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

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

silvermusic10's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Ableism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Religious bigotry

achay91's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Blood, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Murder

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

julesbarthe10's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Blood, Sexual assault, Death, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Grief, and Child death

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

angreadseverything's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Excrement, and Biphobia

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