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gorbon's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Excrement, Rape, Hate crime, and Torture
Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, and Child death
Minor: Islamophobia
micalyia's review
- 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 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
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Pedophilia, Hate crime, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Rape, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Gore, Physical abuse, and Torture
swalk's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence
howlinglibraries's review against another edition
- 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
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
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
rosage's review against another edition
- 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
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
enchantressreads's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
“Her world was darkness, and that’s often where the monsters felt most at home.”
Eric LaRocca is quite famous for writing messy, sad, grief horror. Everything the Darkness Eats is no different. We follow a few different points of view, all handling grief their own ways. Some worse than others.
Ghost Everling was in a car accident with his wife, Hailey, and she did not survive. It’s been three years, and he’s trying to navigate his new life with a ghoul on his shoulder telling him the accident was his fault.
Heart Crowley is an eccentric elderly man who manages his grief by trying to control every situation around him.
Malik and husband Brett are grieving the marriage they could have had, had they not dealt with the homophobia from the neighborhood.
For most of the story, you have no idea how the three different stories connect, but in the end, boy do they connect. As always, LaRocca weaves a tale that takes you by surprise while hurting your feelings the entire way.
This story is not a fast story, unlike their other works. There’s a lot underneath the words, a lot of subtext. I actually would like to reread this story in the future to see if I can pick things out that I hadn’t seen originally.
There were a couple slow parts, which makes this not quite a five star read, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Blood
Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Car accident
breacommelafromage's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Rape, and Violence