Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Everything the Darkness Eats

The two story lines didn't seem to mesh and they felt forced. It was definitely and interesting and unique story but I felt like there could have been more.

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bookishpriest's review

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dark medium-paced

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

1.5

This felt like two half-conceived short stories stitched together for the sake of making something long enough to publish as a book. Two parallel storylines that suddenly meet up in the last 10% of the book. Some of the ideas were interesting, but fell flat and didn't recieve their due. There were references to Sandman and Needful Things that could have been very compelling but did not deliver.

There were several depictions of extreme violence and homophobia (check the trigger warnings before reading!) that did very little for the story or character advancement,

didn't get much treatment and, in the end, were hand-waved away without any real follow-up.

This felt to me like a version of trauma porn and not at all helpful.

Whatever the author's intent, I couldn't find it in these pages and it was disappointing enough that I won't be looking for more of their work.

The narration of the audiobook is well done and a pleasant listen.

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butyougotmysoul's review

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slow-paced

1.0

This was an extremely poorly written narrative that held ableist and homophobic views aloft and kept harping on them at every moment. It’s also extremely disappointing to me that the characterization of Crowley was so disproportionately evil and of course he had AIDS. Malik’s whole storyline was terrible and the aftermath of his traumatic experience and Fleece’s explanation for his homophobia was disgusting. Malik sympathizing with Fleece was uncalled for and it seemed like the story went out of its way to humanize someone that would hurt another person in this way. Disgusting.

Gemma couldn’t accept her daughter’s disability and looked at her as a “monster”

Ghost consistently called himself a monster and a burden.

I don’t know if it’s the content or the tone, but I do not get along with this author’s books. Rather than horror, they’re all just vaguely gory, ableist, and meandering. I don’t think I’ll be trying anymore of their writing.

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