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A review by caughtbetweenpages
Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- 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
2.0
Gothtober 2024 Prompt: ominous/threatening title
This was a complicated little book. On one hand, I found the literary-leaning prose to be a great anchor point for a horror story less about One Big Horror and more about exploring/tying together the tribulations of several flawed characters. On the other hand, I found it to get in the way of the tension that the more horror-grounding scenes when they came up. Nor did I appreciate the handling of the gang-rape on page, both from a content perspective and from a prose perspective. And calling a little blind girl a monster because of her disability left a terrible taste in my mouth.
And still, I’ve yet to meet someone queer, disabled, or otherwise marginalized who hasn’t been told or made to feel that their existence is somehow monstrous, even when we’ve repeatedly been shown to be the most vulnerable links in society. LaRocca’s narrative seems to be trying to interrogate that idea, of recognizing the vulnerability of marginalized people (and feeding the darkness with it), but it didn’t quite work for me, particularly with the deus ex machina feeing ending that claims to have “stopped the evil forever” when the homophobia and ableism and racism of the people (which presumably fed the dark until this big culmination?) is still very much alive.
Over all, I think I enjoyed the premise more than the execution. Possibly in part because the execution was so short that it couldn’t answer all the questions it asked, but definitely also because the writing style didn’t fit that which the story needed it to be.
This was a complicated little book. On one hand, I found the literary-leaning prose to be a great anchor point for a horror story less about One Big Horror and more about exploring/tying together the tribulations of several flawed characters. On the other hand, I found it to get in the way of the tension that the more horror-grounding scenes when they came up. Nor did I appreciate the handling of the gang-rape on page, both from a content perspective and from a prose perspective. And calling a little blind girl a monster because of her disability left a terrible taste in my mouth.
And still, I’ve yet to meet someone queer, disabled, or otherwise marginalized who hasn’t been told or made to feel that their existence is somehow monstrous, even when we’ve repeatedly been shown to be the most vulnerable links in society. LaRocca’s narrative seems to be trying to interrogate that idea, of recognizing the vulnerability of marginalized people (and feeding the darkness with it), but it didn’t quite work for me, particularly with the deus ex machina feeing ending that claims to have “stopped the evil forever” when the homophobia and ableism and racism of the people (which presumably fed the dark until this big culmination?) is still very much alive.
Over all, I think I enjoyed the premise more than the execution. Possibly in part because the execution was so short that it couldn’t answer all the questions it asked, but definitely also because the writing style didn’t fit that which the story needed it to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Rape