Eric LaRocca is well established as an author who isn't afraid to write something that's different, gory, and uncomfortable at times. And this one is no exception. While not my favorite of their work, it was a story that grabbed my attention and kept me listening.

(duplicate review due to approval for audio and eARC)
Larocca is great at shocking and gory and this book is definitely that. However, it had no real redeeming qualities and that eye-rolling ending.

I loveeeeee the cover of this one!

This book was very different, I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. Not in a bad way! Just, different. I was a little confused for most of the book but at the end it all came together, but abruptly ended. -again not a bad thing.

Even with this not being my fav of his, it was good nonetheless & I think that it was such a good read.

Disturbing in an unexpected way. Horrific in the amount of violent hate-crimes being carried out in one community. Magic was their only saving grace. But to get that magic, other disturbing things must first occur. I was confused through a majority of this book and ultimately, repulsed by the continual onslaught of hate. I would have happily taken more of the magic with a touch of the horror.

The narrator of the audiobook provided an easily listened to voice that included individual vocal tone for each character. That helped to keep me listening.

Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and author Eric LaRocca for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I've only read a few of Eric LaRocca's short story collections and I absolutely loved them, so when I saw their novel go up for request, I was super excited to read it. As someone who almost exclusively reads via audiobooks, I can figure out very early if I'll like the narrator or not. I've listened to a few books narrated by André Santana before and I really enjoy his narrations! His voice felt right for these characters. But with all that being said, I didn't love this book as much as I've loved Eric's collections. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the overall plot, but ti wasn't as fast paced and action packed as I was expection. Even though all of the characters were behaving in ways that I would never, I really enjoyed seeing how they deal with the things they go through. I love Eric LaRocca's writing and that's really what saved this for me. I will always read anything Eric writes and I'm so excited to see what they write in the future.

I am a huge fan of Eric LaRocca, so listening to this book was amazing. The narrator was a fantastic voice and played so well with the various emotions of the characters.
The ending was rough, as most LaRocca books are, but by the time I got to the final part I was having such a visceral reaction to not only the description of events and the horror behind them, but also reacting to the religious trauma being displayed. This has stuck in my mind and I can hear the narrator's voice whispering even after I finished it. Can't wait for the next one.

I wanted to really enjoy this - the synopsis, that title, it gripped me instantly however the read itself was unfortunately lack luster to say the least. I had a really difficult time connecting with the writing style. The characters felt more or less one dimensional, lacking a certain depth to them.

Really sad this wasn't what I had hoped!

The book follows a man named 'Ghost' who is grieving his wife's death, who no longer desire to live alone in darkness.

There is a man who stalks women in his Rolls Royce and kidnaps them.Missing cases keeps increasing and the police have investigation running.The targets are all old people, frail and who cannot resist in anyway.

Malik is investigating the case and he really want to save those women.He is in a living relationship with a man.After they moved into town, the neighbouring people has not been taking their relationship well that they get threats.

I didn't enjoy the book well, it had its creepy and weird stuffs but the narration was not pulling me into the book.I liked the part with Malik and his partner and the things they faced being a gay.I really enjoyed their part and wanted more of the stuff on how society reacts to their relationship. The other perspectives were very boring and lacked depth.The ending wrapped up very well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener’s copy of Everything the Darkness Eats in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second Eric LaRocca, and where the other was a fast favourite I find myself conflicted over this one. Following two different stories, with two queer men, one recent widower and one recent addition to a small New England town. Where the widower is deeply isolated in his grief, the new police officer finds himself isolated because of his sexuality. It swiftly devolves into eldritch horror with themes of parenthood and responsibility. There were strong elements in this book, and those strong portions left me conflicted because the overall product was just not worth it for me.

Not every story needs to have a strong thematic presence, and not every horror needs to be scary, but for this book to miss both marks really left me wanting more, and not in a good way. There were also some pretty ableist undertones throughout the book, and I don’t know if it was purposeful or not but it didn’t feel like it was handled well regardless. That is a good summation of my thoughts in general for this book, I just don’t think it was handled as well as it could have been. Also, the writing in the first two chapters was extremely clunky, though it was later smoothed out.

Anyways, this is a skippable book in my opinion. Unless you are super interested in reading about a homophobic town and depressed men, then good luck!

I love the narrator. I love the idea. I love half the dialogue and description. But something just doesn't pull it through. I got 80% the way through and just...don't care to finish it.

Thank you so much for NetGalley giving me a copy of they book. This is my first audio book and won’t be my last!

This was my first LaRocca novel and it just wasn’t for me. I think this short novel had a lot of potential but it lost me in too many ways. I was so intrigued by the epilogue, what the ghost parasite was and the mystery behind the disappearances. The many religious mentions and metaphors did not do it for me. Also big content warnings for assault and homophobia which was a big problem for me. The ending was not satisfying either. The narration was great and kept me going with the story.

My comments are the same as others. I couldn't follow it, it was very much all over the place. It wasn't that good, I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a horror but I was bored and not gripped at all sorry.

Absolutely not. I don’t understand where LaRocca was trying to go with this book and I definitely can’t say I enjoyed it. I believe it takes a lot of skill to write a clever and interesting horror book (weird in a good way), and this book just doesn’t achieve that.

My first issue with this novel is its inability to pick a direction. I fully acknowledge that a text can span across concepts and approach them well, but here, LaRocca touches (most notably) on religion, otherness, homophobia, and crime, and personally, I don’t think any of these were explored or expanded on in a meaningful way. It seemed like a lot of scenes were written purely for shock value, which can sometimes be okay, but in this case, didn’t add to the plot at all and seemed to have no meaning. There also seemed to be no purpose behind the shifting perspectives, and I often got lost in the shaky storyline. In fact, one of the main character’s storylines doesn’t fit at all into the narrative. I also found the characters’ actions and the general writing quite repetitive, which really made me want to put this down.

There were a lot of inconsistencies within the plot and most of the actions and events just weren’t believable, even in a fantastical sense. I found the entire ending to be a poor exercise in magical realism, with a random and seemingly tacked-on focus on God and religion, which only put me off the story more. The religious aspects of this novel were contradictory and strange, and even now I’m not sure what LaRocca was getting at.

Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend this book, but if you do choose to read it please make sure to check TW beforehand as this is in its essence a horror and includes some truly disgusting concepts and scenes. I gave this book 1/5 stars.

Everything this author writes I absolutely adore. Their dark sick and twisted mind is exactly what I love and his first full length novel was no different. One of my favorite authors knocked it out of the park again.

I really struggled with this one. Overall the writing style wasn't for me. There was an abundance of metaphors and similes in every paragraph, which I am usually not too picky about, but they were so frequent that they were distracting and the flow and paragraphs felt congested and bogged down. If I wasn't listening to an audiobook, I feel like I may have started skimming paragraphs to get through the congested writing.

I also found that there were very violent scenes that didn't serve any narrative purpose in the long run, and were seemingly were included for some kind of shock factor. I understand that some people enjoy a little shock factor darkness, but it wasn't for me. Overall, I had pretty high hopes for this novella, but it fell short for me.

Overall, this week was okay for his complaints, but I was mainly bored through a good chunk of it.



Entertaining to a certain extent, but I don’t think for me.

I wanted to love this as I’ve recently really enjoyed horror, but it was just scattered and lacked depth. With its cast of creepy characters, it had great promise, but just completely missed the mark. I was left unsatisfied and uncomfortable.

A story with a few different angles. One follows a mysterious rich man who lures people onto his property. The other, a man who grants wishes.

It's two stories that don't always mesh together but they both are quite strong on their own.
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