Oh this gave me exactly what I've been searching for: it's disturbing, it's heartbreaking and extremely immersive.

It's convinced me to pick up his other work asap

4.5 ⭐️
This has got to be my favorite work I’ve read from Eric Larocca so far. This collection of eerie short stories shows that with time, Larocca’s range keeps broadening while perfecting the style of body horror centric writing that they have become popular for. Themes of grief, loss and desperation are consistent creating a very human and relatable aspect to some of the most disturbing and unhinged plot lines. Very interested to see what they put out next!
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the e-ARC!

I won’t review a title that has been sent to me in a weird format. I only accept review copies in e-pub or PDF format.
I won’t review a title that has been sent to me in a weird format. I only accept review copies in e-pub or PDF format.
I won’t review a title that has been sent to me in a weird format. I only accept review copies in e-pub or PDF format.

Thank you to Titan Books, NetGalley and the author for a copy of this in exchange for a review.

My rating: 1⭐️ for so many reasons that aren’t my usual 1star reasons… but it just wasn’t good.

So I am not going to do a recap - this is a collection of short stories (8 I think) and they are promoted as being dark, beautifully crafted and devastating… in the beginning the writing was quite beautiful…the prose was crafted very well… It is possible it was that way for the entire book but the book was doing other things that completely derailed me.

For starters - I found some of these stories unintentionally funny… I think it was the way things were described that it made them seem like some kind of satirical comedy but my understanding is that these were supposed to be dead ass serious… so I guess this makes them miss the mark for me… I am absolutely not telling you which bits I found funny either 🤣 it was not supposed to make you laugh and I guess that either says the writing was not what it was cracked up to be or I am a monster… lets leave it at that!

The stories themselves were quite dark and depressing especially in the first half of the book but … then there were some that were incredibly boring and some that were outright disgusting and stupid (like the last story). If that one was the first one I would have DNF’d this book… I was so over it by that stage I literally just stuck around because I had like 6% to go and thought what the hell.

I am not going to drone on and on… clearly I am in the minority and others found this and will find this beautiful and the way it was intended, unfortunately I did not. The best part of it was the absolutely gorgeous cover, well done on that.

AS CAWPILE:
Characters: 10 | Atmosphere: 10 | Writing: 10 | Plot: 8 | Intrigue: 8 | Logic: 7 | Enjoyment: 9
Total: 8.86

Eric LaRocca has done it again and encompassed all the things that make you uncomfortable and curious in one fell swoop. These short stories have varying degrees of horror to them, but each one had my attention closely. Short story collections are always tricky to review, as I find myself always wanting more from them. However, as Eric has flourished in the short story style, this collection had both the perfect amounts of backstory or lack-thereof balanced with the perfect amount of plot intrigue. It's safe to say that I'll be buying this one to add to my Eric collection, as they have quickly become my favorite horror author.

I loved this collection so much. Can I pick a favourite out of the 8 short stories? If I'm forced I will pick "Bodies Are For Burning" but they're all top notch. Short enough not to loose the BAM! But long enough to add the gory or grotesque or just what I would call inappropriate weirdness that I think I'm now calling this kind of subject matter. So we have 8 titles:
1. You follow wherever they go. A sad tale of grief with a father and daughter.
2. Bodies are for burning. A pyromaniac in therapy but has to perform her aunty duties.
3. The strange thing we become. A partner of a cancer patient posts on a forum the weeks and months following diagnosis of her wife.
4. The trees grew because I bled there. An adulterous couple give themselves to each other completely .
5. You're not supposed to be here. A very close second favourite. A couple intrude on a family picnic to play a game of frisbee.
6. Where the grass burned emerald as glass. A clairvoyant has a dilemma for a father whose daughter has just stepped on a spike.
7. I'll be gone by then. This is a story of not knowing what you've got until it's gone.
And 8. Pleaseleave me or I'm going to hurt you. This to me was the most inappropriate subject matter. If this one doesn't make you go Ewww! then why?
Loved it, loved them all!

4 stars

Publication date: 3/7/23
**ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
#TheTreesGrewBecauseIBledThere #NetGalley

Basics
Author: he/they, USA
Genre: short stories, horror, LGBT
Themes: death, sick thoughts, illness (cancer/chemotherapy, dementia), hurting and protecting children
Mood: dark, haunting, anxious

Pros
+ LGBT rep: f/f, m/m
+ The Trees Grew Because I Bled There (4.5): give and take of an extremely fucked up relationship
+ Bodies Are For Burning (4.5) : pyromaniac daydreams at the worst possible time
+ You Follow Wherever They Go (4): a child is urged to go play with children outside in a downpour
+ You're Not Supposed to be Here (4): a couple having a picnic with their baby gets pulled into a game
+ Please Leave Or I'm Going to Hurt You (4): a son shares his feelings when viewing a cemetery plot with his father
+ Where Flames Burned Emerald As Grass (4): vacationing father is offered an impossible deal concerning his daughter
+ The Strange Thing We Become (3.5): woman journals about her wife dying of cancer
+ I'll Be Gone By Then (3.5): a mother returns to a daughter who doesn't want her

Cons
- Really wish I'd known that the first three stories were going to involve cancer and potential child harm in some way. I love dark stuff but not really in those two areas.
- The collection feels like 2-3 segments, with some stories linking and some not. It makes it feel oddly disjointed.

Comp Recs
+ Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - Eric LaRocca (specifically for The Strange Thing We Become)
+ The Dangers of Smoking In Bed - Mariana Enriquez
+ The Chain - Adrian McKinty (specifically for You're Not Supposed to be Here)

TW: chemotherapy (mention), pyro fantasies, baldness from chemotherapy, intrusive thoughts, harming and/or killing a baby (fantasy), suicide, child endangerment, mutilation, autocannibalism, murder, poison, abortion (past), kidnapped baby, incestuous thoughts

What Eric LaRocca does very well in my opinion is create characters who are unlikeable but then makes the reader feel for them. His writing makes me feel a weird combination of disgust and pity towards his characters - which I felt quite strongly in this collection for example in the story about the pyromaniac, the parents in the park, the father and daughter on holiday, the woman and her mother. All of these stories stood out to me for that reason.

However, several other stories in this collection seemed to rely purely on shock factor, eliciting disgust, or unoroginal plot twists. The story about disfigurement felt too similar to Things Have Gotten Worse but much less developed - body horror is something that LaRocca does well, but after reading more of his work it just starts being a bit too similar. I wasn’t a fan of the incest one as it felt like it was 99% shock factor, and the opening story of the collection & the story about the morse code machine both relied on twists that were predictable.

Overall, a mixed bag.

Eric LaRocca is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The stories in this collection are dark and strange and full of love and pain. My favorite was You're Not Supposed to Be Here. A lot of stuff about families and parents and the pain we can cause each other.

This is a pretty good place to start if you've never read Eric's work

LaRocca is unspeakably perfect in this collection. These stories are "I have to put this down and walk way for an hour or two" kind of perfect. He is one of the few authors I have encountered that truly knows how to make you squirm and fill you with a real, physical sense of dread. LaRocca is, with no doubt in my mind, one of the most effective horror authors being published today. This book is a testament to all the praise he has and I am beyond excited to see where his journey takes him next.

The book is a collection of 8 short stories.

Even the first story is puzzling in an interesting way. A dialogue between father and son.

Bodies is for Burning is super exciting.
One experiences the dark thoughts of a woman with a penchant for pyromania.
This becomes especially critical when she is supposed to take care of her sister's baby and the desire for fire overwhelms her.

The woman in the next story also thinks she is a monster.

Gender is an important theme in the book. Some of the characters are queer.
For example in You re not supposed to be here. A gay couple is drawn into a devilish plot when their baby is kidnapped.

The cover story is particularly disturbing. 2 people share a fatal obsession.

The horror genre works well when the writer manages to build a dense atmosphere, and Eric LaRocca is a master at that. His stories are pure atmosphere.

You Follow Wherever They Go - 2 stars
Bodies Are For Burning - 5 stars
The Strange Thing We Become - 4 stars
The Trees Grew Because I Bled There - 5 stars
You're Not Supposed To Be Here - 5 stars
Where Flames Burned Emerald As Grass - 2 stars
I'll Be Gone By Then - 3 stars
Please Leave Or I'm Going To Hurt You - 3 stars

Overall Rating: 4 stars

I love this author's writing style and the weird grotesque things that their brain thinks of! Such an interesting collection!

Fans of LaRocca will enjoy this short story collection. It continues to exemplify his stylistic narrative voice while being peppered with gore and discomfort. I would have liked the collection to go a bit darker to capture his talent for writing those topics. There is a bit of inconsistency when it comes to the quality of each piece within the collection, some striking me as forgettable while others are thought provoking, but overall I enjoyed the reading experience.

If David Kronenberg is the master of cinematic body horror, then Eric LaRocca is without a doubt his literary peer.

In "The Trees Grew Because I Bled There," LaRocca explores love and loss with visceral vulnerability. These stories are not for the faint of heart: to say that they are graphic and unsettling is surely an understatement.

But there’s also something very human about them. Darkly disturbing, yet somehow intimate.

You have my attention, LaRocca.

Overall 4.25 rating for these wonderfully written short stories. Like a total dummy I read these before bed, and while they are “horror” in the sense of keeping you up at night, they DEFINITELY make you squirm. Either way, I’ll be up for awhile!

It’s hard to pick a favorite - they all had such amazing layers and details in each one. I think my favorite overall was with Terry, Vince, Lyric, and Melody. Just absolutely chilling and I loved how Eric pulled everything together at the end.

I also LOVED the little links and Easter eggs to the prior stories - each story had at least one little thread that connected it to the previous entry, and I just love when authors find a way to weave that in to their work.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to review this one! Another awesome release!

Dark and disturbing, I was weirdly enjoying them all right up until the last one that just.. no. Dark and creepy short stories, some taboo and some just unthinkable. Capturing the readers attention to a story in such a few pages and yet inducing such an intense reaction.

4.5/5 stars
This is my first time reading anything from Eric LaRocca (I do have Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke on my TBR) and I am most definitely not disappointed. This book of short stories reaches into the bleakest parts of your mind and soul and dredges up those undesirable, dark feelings, thoughts and secrets that you try to keep buried. It was uncomfortable and emotional in a strangely appealing way. The characters are flawed and broken but perfectly so. My attention was held from the first word to the very last, it's not often I like something about every story in a collection, and each story is able to enrapture me so easily. I flew through this collection and can't wait to read the rest of Eric's works. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

***Trigger warnings include, but may not be limited to; parent loss, spouse loss (cancer), thoughts of violence against children/infants, mutilation, violence, abusive relationship, kidnapping, miscarriage, infidelity, thoughts of matricide, incest.***

Happy Pub Day! Eric LaRocca has done it again with this fantastic short story collection. After flying through his Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke a couple of years ago, I was so excited to get my hands on an arc copy of The Trees Grew Because I Bled There.

These short stories are not for the faint of heart and often made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy. I loved the twists in them and some of the body horror really revolted me, but in the best way. I do wish some were a bit longer but they really stuck with me and left me thinking about them hours laters.

My favorites were definitely Bodies Are For Burning, You're Not Supposed to Be Here, and I'll Be Gone By Then but I will admit that I truly enjoyed them all.

Dreamy, dark, and delightful. A recommended purchase for collections where horror and short stories are popular.

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is an outstanding horror short story collection. These stories will have you cringing and send shivers up your spine. My favourites are You Follow and Please Leave or I'm Going to Hurt You. Highly recommended! Be sure to check out The Trees Grew Because I Bled There today.