Scan barcode
A review by linnaboobooks
They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces by Eric LaRocca
3.0
Content warning for decomposition, animal cruelty, bestiality, wildlife cannibalism, dismemberment, self-harm, homophobia, there's probably more that I'm forgetting about but these are the important ones for now.
Once again, Eric LaRocca has managed to make me feel a bit stupid for not quite fully understanding all the themes behind this. There is one correction I want to make that I see a lot, there is two stories with human point of views, not all six are from the perspective of animals or insects.
There's something so disquieting and disturbing found within these pages, in a different way than that of their other books I've read. All of their books involve some variation of love as a theme though what it ties into relies on what the context of the story is. And here it involves what someone will do for love - even if it means harming themselves or killing them.
One of the stories that sticks with me the most is the one called "To Hurt the Weakest One". It's about a mother meerkat that has both loathing and love for her runt. The loathing comes from how she knows that he will not survive, that he doesn't thrive like his siblings, and she would've much preferred to let him die if not for her husband's attempts to take care of him and his pressuring her to care for him.
Once again, Eric LaRocca has managed to make me feel a bit stupid for not quite fully understanding all the themes behind this. There is one correction I want to make that I see a lot, there is two stories with human point of views, not all six are from the perspective of animals or insects.
There's something so disquieting and disturbing found within these pages, in a different way than that of their other books I've read. All of their books involve some variation of love as a theme though what it ties into relies on what the context of the story is. And here it involves what someone will do for love - even if it means harming themselves or killing them.
One of the stories that sticks with me the most is the one called "To Hurt the Weakest One". It's about a mother meerkat that has both loathing and love for her runt. The loathing comes from how she knows that he will not survive, that he doesn't thrive like his siblings, and she would've much preferred to let him die if not for her husband's attempts to take care of him and his pressuring her to care for him.