Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca

37 reviews

chellyfishing's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Murder, Self harm, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Incest

calamitydane's review

dark emotional fast-paced

4.5

I haven't read this writer before but I had heard that they're a great body horror writer. Totally agree. The short stories were just the right size. The descriptions were visceral and made my skin crawl. I loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Chronic illness, Cancer, Child death, Torture, Body horror, Death of parent, Violence, Self harm, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Vomit

Moderate: Incest

fatkidatheartreads's review against another edition

3.75

3.75 stars 📌 Body Horror centered stories at their best. 

Favourites:
🫀Bodies are for burning.
🫀The strange thing we become.
🫀You're not supposed to be here.
🫀Please leave or I'm going to be hurt you.

Very Horrific. Give me more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Minor: Incest

inkylabyrinth's review

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Cancer

Moderate: Incest

vulcanmoon's review

challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Grief, Sexual content, Incest, Animal death, Dementia, Adult/minor relationship, and Chronic illness

gruhuken's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Slow to start, but with (in my opinion) all the most memorable, nauseating and intriguing stories saved for the second half of the book. A very good and varied collection on parenthood, with my favourite story being "You're Not Supposed To Be Here" - I enjoyed the feeling of entrapment in plain, public sight, the voyeuristic appeal of secrets shared between both the hidden tormentor and the reader, and the hopless cyclical nature of the game. I would definitely recommend thus to anyone looking for a short horror anthology, with the caveat that the best stories come further in

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Body horror

Minor: Incest

anna_hepworth's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In general, i like my horror with a tinge of the supernatural; I am unenthused to bored when horror is about people being horrible (mostly). This is not my kind of horror, but I still loved several of the stories. I did find the collection somewhat uneven, with four of the stories being fabulous, and two not really working for me. I could see the skill in the writing, but those stories were boring -- not least because the characterisation in them was wooden and distracted from the story. 

The quote on the front called this body horror; as a general rule I don't think that these are body horror. Cancer, dementia, old age should not be called 'body horror' - they are the lived experience of large portions of the population. There is deliberate mutilation (of self, of others) that I would count as body horror, but they aren't the majority of the stories.

Bodies are for burning  is the best story of this collection. Person with intrusive thoughts who is struggling, but whose concerns are belittled. Absolutely creeping dread.

The other three stories I really liked are You Follow wherever they go which does have the weird hints of supernatural that I like; The Strange Thing We Become where the story comes through in forum posts, which emphasises the unreliability of the narrator; and Please leave or I'm going to hurt you which reflects on family relationships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Body horror, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, Mental illness, and Dementia

Minor: Incest

I haven't captured all of the possible content warnings; and there is nuance in that many of them apply to a single story.

dexlud's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is a beautiful short story collection by Eric LaRocca. Although it wasn’t my favourite of his works, I really enjoyed it. My favourite stories were ‘You’re Not Supposed To Be Here’ & ‘ The Flames Burned As Emerald As Grass’. I didn’t particularly enjoy the final story, as it was very odd, but other than that I really enjoyed this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Abandonment, Animal death, Torture, Blood, Cancer, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Animal cruelty, Child death, Body horror, Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Homophobia, Incest, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

leanne_miron's review

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Suicide, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Incest

Minor: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, and Infidelity

thecavewoman's review

challenging dark 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

4.25

This is my first book from LaRocca and I must say that the absolute highlight of this was his lyrical writing and stunning metaphors. I did thoroughly enjoy the stories themselves, there was only one that I didn't really care for, but it was easily his writing that made this book 4 stars for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Murder

Minor: Pregnancy, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship