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swalk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Everybody has a secret, everyone has a fear, everyone has their own monsters.
At Henley’s Edge 5 disappearances have occurred within 5 months. Officer Malik is investigating the disappearance when him and his husband receive a brick through their window with a homophobic message attached. The book follows the two tales concurrently as they slowly converge.
This is a dark occult horror with an LGBT+ storyline and a lot of violence and gore. I won’t quite sure what to make of it to be honest, I felt like the two stories could have been linked better and it just felt like there was something missing for me.
The narrator was great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence
hschlecht's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Child death, and Death
howlinglibraries'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
2.0
Let me preface this entire review by saying that I have been a fan of Eric's since reading Starving Ghosts in Every Thread back in 2020, and I have given every release of theirs 4-5 stars. I generally think of myself as someone who "gets" (and thoroughly enjoys!) Eric's particular flair for traumatic, bizarre horror and purple prose.
Unfortunately, we all know the saying "there's an exception to every rule", and it seems that Everything the Darkness Eats is my exception for Eric's books, because this book did not work for me on multiple levels.
First, the biggest issue I had was the writing. The narrative voice was so heavy on metaphors and similes that it became distracting. I found myself re-reading paragraphs because my attention was continuously being snagged by lengthy similes, sometimes back-to-back with multiple in the span of just a few sentences.
Second, the split plot lines became frustrating for me. Everything the Darkness Eats follows two unrelated main characters, Ghost and Malik, and their stories have nothing in common until the last few pages. Even when the story all came together, it felt unnatural to me and I still found myself wishing that these had been two entirely separate novellas instead of one combined book.
Third, while I have no issue at all with queer trauma in horror, I do have a problem with sexual assault being handled poorly: specifically, a rape victim - in the middle of a graphic rape scene - thinking of his attacker as "his god", and then later empathizing with his rapist and viewing the man as attractive. I won't harp on about this one too much because I know everyone reacts to assault differently, but as a survivor, I was immensely uncomfortable with this depiction.
Fourth, the ableism regarding a blind child made me mad every single time she was mentioned. Whether she was on the page or being mentioned by another character, it was a constant barrage of comments about how pitiful and helpless she was, or what a burden it was for her mother to raise her, and so on.
And finally, there were many moments where the suspension of disbelief was too much of a stretch for me to accomplish. A little blind girl wandering off on her own all the time, a mother instantly falling for the man who (very creepily) plays with her disabled daughter at the hospital, a man stopping in the middle of a ritual sacrifice to answer the doorbell... the list goes on.
Truly, I'm heartbroken writing this review. It pains me to leave a scathing review for a hyped new release from an author I love with my whole heart, but I can't help feeling like this book needed much more editing work and to be split into two smaller pieces. If that had been the case, the base storylines had potential and could have been just as great as everything else I've read from Eric, but the end result here didn't work for me in any way.
I still love Eric's books and will excitedly read their next release because this is only one miss for me after a long line of hits, but I won't be recommending Everything the Darkness Eats and would instead strongly encourage you to pick up any other title from this author.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Malik is gay and Muslim, Brett is gay, Ghost is bisexual and disabled (walks with a cane), Heart is gay, Piper is blind
Unfortunately, we all know the saying "there's an exception to every rule", and it seems that Everything the Darkness Eats is my exception for Eric's books, because this book did not work for me on multiple levels.
First, the biggest issue I had was the writing. The narrative voice was so heavy on metaphors and similes that it became distracting. I found myself re-reading paragraphs because my attention was continuously being snagged by lengthy similes, sometimes back-to-back with multiple in the span of just a few sentences.
Second, the split plot lines became frustrating for me. Everything the Darkness Eats follows two unrelated main characters, Ghost and Malik, and their stories have nothing in common until the last few pages. Even when the story all came together, it felt unnatural to me and I still found myself wishing that these had been two entirely separate novellas instead of one combined book.
Third, while I have no issue at all with queer trauma in horror, I do have a problem with sexual assault being handled poorly: specifically, a rape victim - in the middle of a graphic rape scene - thinking of his attacker as "his god", and then later empathizing with his rapist and viewing the man as attractive. I won't harp on about this one too much because I know everyone reacts to assault differently, but as a survivor, I was immensely uncomfortable with this depiction.
Fourth, the ableism regarding a blind child made me mad every single time she was mentioned. Whether she was on the page or being mentioned by another character, it was a constant barrage of comments about how pitiful and helpless she was, or what a burden it was for her mother to raise her, and so on.
And finally, there were many moments where the suspension of disbelief was too much of a stretch for me to accomplish. A little blind girl wandering off on her own all the time, a mother instantly falling for the man who (very creepily) plays with her disabled daughter at the hospital, a man stopping in the middle of a ritual sacrifice to answer the doorbell... the list goes on.
Truly, I'm heartbroken writing this review. It pains me to leave a scathing review for a hyped new release from an author I love with my whole heart, but I can't help feeling like this book needed much more editing work and to be split into two smaller pieces. If that had been the case, the base storylines had potential and could have been just as great as everything else I've read from Eric, but the end result here didn't work for me in any way.
I still love Eric's books and will excitedly read their next release because this is only one miss for me after a long line of hits, but I won't be recommending Everything the Darkness Eats and would instead strongly encourage you to pick up any other title from this author.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Malik is gay and Muslim, Brett is gay, Ghost is bisexual and disabled (walks with a cane), Heart is gay, Piper is blind
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Violence, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Bullying, Murder, Ableism, Grief, Gore, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Islamophobia, Child death, and Terminal illness
kristen_mk's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Utterly disturbing and yet I can't stop thinking about it. I feel like this book will be haunting my dreams. I personally really enjoyed the author's writing style and now want to dive into the back catalog. (After I recover from this one) This cosmic horror story has 3 different POV's that all come together in a sadistic conclusion with a sliver of hope. While there are 3 different POV's, I felt like the audio narrator did a great job. The narrator really set the tone for the creepy uneasiness to seep into my mind.
If you want to be left wondering "What the f*ck did I just read?!?", I highly recommend. Be sure to check the trigger warnings for this book, there are a lot of brutal scenes.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book!
If you want to be left wondering "What the f*ck did I just read?!?", I highly recommend. Be sure to check the trigger warnings for this book, there are a lot of brutal scenes.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Torture, and Rape
Moderate: Death and Kidnapping
rosage's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
what did i just read? i feel like i say that every time i read one of their books but i never know what i just read. this was dark, gross, uncomfortable, and one of the best reads i’ve probably ever had.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Gore, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
hollielovesromance's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Thank you Dreamscape for an Advanced Listener Copy of this audiobook! All opinions expressed are my own.
I want to start by saying the narrator of this audio was fantastic and kept me engaged in the story even when I wanted to tune out. The production quality was very nice as well.
This book was an extremely ambitious swing at big complex issues of religion, grief, bigotry, homophobia, love, and community. While I liked the idea behind it, I spent most of this book trying to figure out what was going to happen and how all of these random pieces fit together. It was a shorter book (220 pages per amazon info) and I just don’t think there was enough space to unpack all of this story. I found myself wanting there to be more focus on either Ghost or Malik and his husband which I felt like could have made the story more focused in the short page count it had. I’m not opposed to violence and gore being used on the page as it can serve a purpose but there were multiple scenes that I felt like were too heavy handed and were used as a crutch to express the horror of the situation. Combined with some of the tell and not show throughout the book I found that it overall fell short for me.
I want to start by saying the narrator of this audio was fantastic and kept me engaged in the story even when I wanted to tune out. The production quality was very nice as well.
This book was an extremely ambitious swing at big complex issues of religion, grief, bigotry, homophobia, love, and community. While I liked the idea behind it, I spent most of this book trying to figure out what was going to happen and how all of these random pieces fit together. It was a shorter book (220 pages per amazon info) and I just don’t think there was enough space to unpack all of this story. I found myself wanting there to be more focus on either Ghost or Malik and his husband which I felt like could have made the story more focused in the short page count it had. I’m not opposed to violence and gore being used on the page as it can serve a purpose but there were multiple scenes that I felt like were too heavy handed and were used as a crutch to express the horror of the situation. Combined with some of the tell and not show throughout the book I found that it overall fell short for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, and Violence
ffi_reads's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this book that I received as an eARC from the author.
Spoiler free review:
I just love the way Eric LaRocca writes! He has a beautiful style of writing with a poetic flair to it that I really enjoy. At the end of most of the chapters I wanted to highlight the last few sentences and make note of them due to how well they were written.
There were a lot of parts to the story and I think it would have benefitted from being a tad longer just to ‘bulk out’ some parts a little further. That being said, the book did what it intended and was a fun read and I will be recommending this to others.
Spoiler free review:
I just love the way Eric LaRocca writes! He has a beautiful style of writing with a poetic flair to it that I really enjoy. At the end of most of the chapters I wanted to highlight the last few sentences and make note of them due to how well they were written.
There were a lot of parts to the story and I think it would have benefitted from being a tad longer just to ‘bulk out’ some parts a little further. That being said, the book did what it intended and was a fun read and I will be recommending this to others.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Excrement, Homophobia, and Violence
breacommelafromage's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Rape, and Violence
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