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esh_among_the_ether 's review for:
We Can Never Leave This Place
by Eric LaRocca
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“From baby teeth to virginity, to live is to regularly suffer loss.”
If you have read LaRocca’s work before then, you will not be surprised by the immersive beauty of the prose in this novella. We Can Never Leave This Place is unlike his previous work; it is a watercolor of genres that reads like a Kafka-esque folktale. It is dark, gritty, and soaked with grief (or is that just the sewage?). It captured me, spun me in its web, and did not let go until the end. It had me questioning what was REALLY going on. There is no sense of time and place. This ambiguity suspends the story in the liminality of the past and present. If you are a fan of stories with dubious narrators and force the reader to suspend belief, this little novella of loss and familial trauma might be for you.
If you have read LaRocca’s work before then, you will not be surprised by the immersive beauty of the prose in this novella. We Can Never Leave This Place is unlike his previous work; it is a watercolor of genres that reads like a Kafka-esque folktale. It is dark, gritty, and soaked with grief (or is that just the sewage?). It captured me, spun me in its web, and did not let go until the end. It had me questioning what was REALLY going on. There is no sense of time and place. This ambiguity suspends the story in the liminality of the past and present. If you are a fan of stories with dubious narrators and force the reader to suspend belief, this little novella of loss and familial trauma might be for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse
Minor: Incest