Reviews with content warning for Death - Everything The Darkness Eats

Do not underestimate the impact of the horror this book can impart based on its size. A collection of people all falling under the spell of a mysterious man in small town CT, with a side story of horrible homophobia and related crimes. Surprisingly a happy ending, but wow is there a lot to unpack here. I really loved it, you just have to experience it yourself.

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dokushoka's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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ericarobyn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca is a dark and brutal supernatural thriller set in a town where small-minded hatred runs rampant.

In the quiet town of Henley’s Edge, vulnerable people are going missing. The police are aware but don’t seem to have any leads. One officer is determined to solve the case but soon finds himself a victim of hate crimes that steadily get more violent.

Can both cases be solved before it’s too late for everyone involved?

Set up to focus on various perspectives, readers will get sucked into each storyline! Following the characters into their individual circles of darkness, orbiting around one another until they all meet in a dark basement.

I absolutely couldn’t wait to see where this twisted and dark tale was headed.

With Eric’s writing, you know he isn’t going to shy away from the darkness. As I highlighted some content warnings above, please be prepared for various scenes that will make you flinch and want to rage over the horror of it all.

My Favorite Passages from Everything the Darkness Eats

She mindlessly began to covet the lines around his mouth and eyes until they resembled the scratches at the bottom of a teacup. She thought of a silver spoon, circling the bottom of a cup–going over the dark thin lines like the immeasurable loop of time, the nauseating ache of infinity.

Ghost felt unclean, as if he could sense Mr. Crowley crawling around inside him, rummaging through his thoughts and overturning stacks of memories until he came upon the one thing that mattered most to Ghost-his sweet Hailey. He knew he should leave, but a curious part of him begged to know the answer to a question that needed to be asked.

My Final Thoughts on Everything the Darkness Eats

Horror fans, you need to have this book on your radar!

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dean_reviews's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Oh gosh, what do I even say about Everything the Darkness Eats?

It was an amazing book, but also such a hard and emotional read.
I don't think that I was fully prepared for what I was getting myself into when I started this book. I am still glad that I did read it though.

***Content warnings for this book:
Death, Injury/Injury Detail, Homophobia (including slurs), Graphic Rape, Graphic Sexual Assault, Graphic Abuse, Gore, Murder, Blood, Ritual Sacrifice, Ableism, Home Invasion, Terminal Illness, AIDS, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of a loved one, Death of an infant, Biphobia/Bierasure***

This story is told to us in a narrative form that follows multiple people who are effected by the events happening in the small Connecticut town of Henley's Edge. Our cast of characters is varied and diverse. A group of people who would be impacted by the internal workings of a small town in profound ways that intersect but are also unique and troubling.

I feel like a lot of this story is me going "yup... that tracks" when something happens that does feel into my pre-conceived notions of how a small town would engage with and deal with the particular issues at hand.
I know this is unfair in a lot of ways and it did make me stop and wonder if LaRocca was writing from personal experience, general stereotypical knowledge, or held beliefs?

I did find myself needing breaks from the contents of the books. Don't get me wrong, I am no stranger to a dark and traumatizing book, but something about this one just hit so differently... I am wondering if it was feeding off of my own concerns over treatment I might receive as a trans person in those places.
Harnessing real fears and concerns of those within the communities of the characters to make the struggles and pain feel more real.
I also wonder.... if maybe this would have been less needed had I been reading with my eyes and not my ears.

On that note.. the audio was really good. I loved the flow and tone that Andre Santana brought to the story. The depth that was given to the hard moments and the emotion that was brought into the characters.

Overall, I am happy that I read this book and I am curious to pick up more of their books in the future. I would recommend this book so long as I also gave them the laundry list of trigger warnings.

Literally my only major critique is that there is not a connected list of trigger warnings provided by the author/publisher on the listings.

***I was provided a copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion and thoughts about what I read.***

Content Warnings

micalyia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

It was uncomfy and dark and twisty. This book can be very triggering to check trigger and content warning.

It wasn’t scary but it was horrifying in the fact that it was just horrible how the characters keep getting knocked down by different situations

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hschlecht's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense

4.0

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