Tԋιʂ Sƙιɳ Wαʂ Oɳƈҽ Mιɳҽᵃⁿᵈ ᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᵈⁱˢᵗᵘʳᵇᵃⁿᶜᵉˢ
ცყ: ɛཞıƈ Ɩąཞơƈƈą

Ａｂｏｕｔ

THIS SKIN WAS ONCE MINE
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known about her father.

SEEDLING
A young man’s father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother’s body still in the house. Struggling to process what has happened he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist. Then he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction.

ALL THE PARTS OF YOU THAT WON’T EASILY BURN
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction...

PRICKLE
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences...

Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ

WOW! First off I’m just getting started in the horr0r realm, and this book of stories has me hooked! Thank you titan books netgally and Eric larocca for the eARC.

This Skin Was Once Mine. I wish this short could be created into a novel of its own! I loved every second. It’s so incredibly dark! The symbolism for the MC’s trauma was jaw dropping. It’s heart wrenching, gruesome, revengeful and thrilling! I love that it was all packed into this insane story.

As the stories continue the depths of the different MC’s trauma and the continuation of symbolism used to convey these traumas is absolute perfection! Every story had me thinking so far below surface level! It’s as if this is a Psychology book dressed up as horr0r. Of course there are some gruesome parts so please read the triggers!

These stories will have you on a roller coaster of intrigued, nervous, frightened, shocked! And all in the best way.

This Skin Was Once Mine is available today!!

I think it might be time to accept that I'm just not a LaRocca fan. I have previously read "Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke" and barring the collections titular story, I thought that the rest of the collection was underwhelming. I was curious to try again since I didn't dislike any of the LaRocca's stories in the previous collection. This new collection unfortunately didn't wow me and I was left the a similarly underwhelmed feeling upon finishing this book as I did with "Things Have Gotten Worse."

I found that the titular "This Skin was Once Mine" interesting but overall predictable. I did appreciate the callback at the end of the story to the opening line of "The worst thing a person can do to you after they’ve hurt you is let you live." to really drive home the reality of the situation and the outcome of the story but for me that was the most exciting part of it all. I liked the idea of "Seedling" but I think it ultimately fell flat. I was surprised by the sharp turn at the end of "All the Parts of You that wont Easily Burn" and thought "okay finally!" but then it ended abruptly and without any payoff to the journey the story just took us on. I was left with more questions than answers, which may have been the point, but my questions were less of the thought provoking kind and more along the lines of "wtf man where's the rest!" And "Prickle" had a twist to it but it felt weak, especially directly following "All the Parts of You."

While I don't think any of these stories are bad on their own, I do think part of my dissatisfaction is that while the stories have good bones, I think that the short story format has hobbled them just a bit. The decisions and motivations of the characters can be understood because LaRocca often tells us but it is hard to get invested in their journeys, especially in the midst of whatever weird situation they find themselves in, because there's not time to build those connections. It feels to me like these stories are an attempt to tackle big subjects but the stories themselves left me wanting and weren't strong enough to leave me thinking about those subjects when the story was over.

I understand why LaRocca's book are classes as Horror but I think perhaps my expectations of Horror and what LaRocca delivers are not aligned. I'm giving it three stars because while I didn't like the book, I don't think it has committed any crime against literature and someone else out there may enjoy it greatly. It was a fine read but for me LaRocca's works often leave me wanting.

My first Eric LaRocca collection! Horror has always been a genre I kept at arm's length, but I have been more adventurous with my reading as of late and thought it was time to give the genre a fair shot. I knew eventually I would need to test out the Eric LaRocca waters, but I must admit I spent a lot of time prior to reading this collection hyping myself up. I am glad I did since this collection is not for the faint of heart.

While each of the stories has their own unique spin, this collection felt like a succinct study in how far each of us will go amongst those we love most. I particularly enjoyed (and I use that adjective loosely here) Prickle followed by All the Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn. These two stories in particular left me with that wtf feeling I have learned to love from authors similar to Paul Tremblay. Speaking of Tremblay, he was the dedication recipient of this collection and it was like a sign that this collection and I were meant to meet. After all, how often is one of your favorite authors ushering you into meeting a potential new favorite author?

Eventually I want to build up to reading LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, but I know myself well enough to know I am not quite there yet. So, in the meantime, I might very well pick this collection up again!

Thank you to NetGalley, Eric LaRocca, and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

LaRocca delivers yet another beautifully disturbing short story collection. Focusing on love and grief in the most unsettling descriptives but if you take a minute to look at the deeper meanings behind each story you will be amazed at the things that could conspire based on these two very strong emotions. Sometimes people do crazy things for love and grief is an absolute struggle, it just depends how far you will let them take over. After all everyone handles ish a bit differently and you never know what hides underneath until they shed back a little skin.

Each story has a uniquely horrifying spin on its main topic but they all leave you with your jaw on the ground. I just cannot get over LaRocca's writing and the imagery they portray on these pages, it's nothing short of amazing.

It's so hard to choose a favorite because I absolutely loved all four stories and they are so short in length I feel any descriptions into the individual stories will take away all shock value so I'll just leave you with the vibes I walked away with.

•The Skin Was Once Mine
Vibes: OH, no No NO she didn't
•Seedling
Vibes: Stabby
•All The Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn
Vibes: Ouch
•Prickle
Vibes: No thank you Grandpa

I'd like to send a huge thank you out to Eric LaRocca, Titan Books and Netgalley for granting me early access to this collection. I loved every freaking minute of it 🖤

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances was a wild ride that i enjoyed every second of. there’s something so captivating about using unspeakable horrors to convey more base level human emotion and experiences. my fav short story was the third one.. it went in a direction that had my jaw 10 feet underground. i will read anything Eric Larocca writes, they’re talent for writing the disturbing and uncomfortable is everything i look for in horror.

my personal ratings for each short story:

this skin was once mine - 4 stars
seedling - 3.5 stars
all the parts of you that won’t easily burn - 4.5 stars
prickle - 4 stars

I really enjoyed Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and You've Lost a Lot of Blood so I had very high expectations. I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by this collection. There were thought-provoking themes and ideas here but it just didn't capture my attention or even gross me out the way his previous work has. I hope LaRocca dials up the horror for his next work!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I first heard about Eric LaRocca via "Things Have Gotten Worse..." when it was trending on TikTok. It ended up being a quick read and a great introduction to the recurring themes in their work (which are quite brutal, by the way). This is the second book I've read of Eric's and happy to report that it is another yet another WTF entry into the literary horror genre. The f*cked up relationships, the obsession with pain, broken people (and broken families), it's all here. The titular story was definitely my favorite, although the ending of the final might almost make me rethink that.

In a world where I have lots to read, I really appreciate the short and sweet approach to the writing here. Ready for the next one!!

Also want to shout out Titan Books for sending me a hardcover copy which was wrapped in a snakeskin bow! Gorgeous.

*ARC from publisher and author, via NetGalley.*

Wow! Transgressive and destructively satisfying!

Reading this felt like an invitation into a seductively curious compulsion to push moral boundaries. I was in an unstoppable trance with what I've discovered as 'transgressive horror'. Absolutely in love.

I had no idea these stories could be so addictively unsettling, and that words could hold so much power to crawl under my skin. I also didn't realise that horror meshes beautifully with erotica, and found myself feeling some strange excitement that I am looking forward to reading more of ('Horrotica,' I think I've seen thrown around bookstagram). In the most subtlest forms of messed up wordplay, I definitely caught on to the sensual resemblance.

This series of four stories all connect to the cover, which is just delicious and makes me love the cover even more.

My favourite of the four has to be "All the Parts of You that Won't Easily Burn," where a peculiar encounter with an antique shopkeeper unravels into a perturbed descent of frenzied salaciousness. Exquisite.

Thank you to Netgalley, Eric LaRocca and Titan Books - I was extremely excited when this was approved. I'm definitely a fan!

LaRocca continues to be fantastic at balancing intimacy, and some really fucking existentially horrible asks and/or tasks. There will be things that make you crawl out of your skin in the best possible way, and some stories that just stick with you in the back of your head. I like that LaRocca is pacing himself to some degree, but I do hope we get a longer collection from him at some point.

Excellent, as always. This is definitely a favourite author of mine. These short stories are so unexpected and unforgettable. Horrifying and uncomfortable - fantastic.

🐍This Skin Was Once Mine & other disturbances by Eric LaRocca🐍

Pages: 240
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book Goal 2024: 34/100


✨Does your family have a dark secret?✨

Thank you @titanbooks, @netgally and especially @hystericteeth for this advanced reader copy! This Skin Was Once Mine & other disturbances will release THIS TUESDAY April 2nd, 2024!!

This book is not for the faint of heart. If you like horror and body gruesome books that make your skin crawl then this book is for you. The cover is BEAUTIFUL and the stories inside are so grotesquely appealing. (If that’s even possible?)

Each story made my skin prickle, get the willies and wonder what was going to happen next.

Please make sure you read all of the trigger warnings on the second slide of this review before you decide if this book is for you!

Synopsis below:

Four devastating tales from a master of modern horror...

THIS SKIN WAS ONCE MINE
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known about her father.

SEEDLING
A young man's father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother's body still in the house.
Struggling to process what has happened, he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist. Then he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction.

ALL THE PARTS OF YOU THAT WON'T EASILY BURN
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction..

PRICKLE
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences.

#readingreviews #reviews #books #read #booknerd #bookstagram #bookgoal #100books #netgalley #ThisSkinWasOnceMineandOtherDisturbances

Disgusting, tense, horrific. Truly some revolting stories. I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. Heavy, heavy, heavy TWs. This is absolutely not for the faint of heart, or even someone looking for a "normal" horror read.

The stories in this collection landed much better for me than "things have gotten better since we last spoke". Don't get me wrong, this collection is still very mean spirited, but it doesn't have some of the weaker elements (poorly written lesbians) that brought that story down for me.

I literally don't know who I can recommend this to? Just unrelentingly dark.

i enjoyed — although maybe enjoyed is the wrong word — this author's first book, because while it didn't have much going on besides shock value and gore it at least did those two things in kind of an interesting way.

reading this was completely unpleasant from start to finish, and not because of the gross-out content. the writing is actively bad, full of clichés and adjectives, and somehow even though all of these stories (?) are very short, they drag on, not ending at the moment they'd be effective or shocking. characterizations are inconsistent, and in fact characters seem almost beside the point — none of these figures feel comprehensible, let alone human or real.

i was anticipating this as a book that would make me truly scared, but i regret picking it up for entirely different reasons.

loveeeed this collection. There are 4 stories, each one very dark and twisted. This book
plays with characters who unleash the most disturbing parts of themselves and I found that concept so interesting. Every story starts pretty normal, then it gets weird, and then it goes off the rails. As disturbing as it is, there's also a tiny bit of dark humour sprinkled in. This is what makes Eric Larocca such an incredible writer. There is no one else that can make me feel uncomfortable, scared, shocked and also make me laugh, all in 30 pages. All stories were amazing, but the two longest ones were my favourite. READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE YOU READ IT.

Eric LaRocca continues to be one of my favourite horror authors, the concepts of all their stories are unique and thought-provoking. This collection contained 4 short stories that were all very distinct and terrifying in their own ways. My favourites were the first two stories, "This Skin Was Once Mine" and "Seedling". The commentary they had on childhood trauma and grief was incredibly palpable. Although "All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn" was not my favourite story, this was the once that made me physically squirm at the mention of the specific body horror, I could feel what the main character was feeling physically and it was extremely off-putting.

Overall, this was a well-thought-out collection and I can't wait to read more Eric LaRocca, they have become my top auto-read horror author!

* I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. *

Eric LaRocca’s “The Skin That Was Once Mine, and Other Disturbances” gets beneath the reader’s very flesh. It’s a collection of four intense horror tales from one of the most macabre minds currently working in the industry. LaRocca produces original, gruesome, and heartrending tales certain to disturb.

But LaRocca isn’t only out to shock. His stories are also there to provoke. Not outrage, but thought. Emotion. Feeling. LaRocca wants to push the boundaries down, which he succeeds in with the opening story “The Skin That Was Once Mine,” about family secrets and terrible relationships, with cruel mercies and music. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is to allow someone to live.

“All the Parts Of You That Won’t Easily Burn” is another that slides under the skin. When a man buys a knife, he slowly discovers a building obsession within himself. One for sliding glass under his skin. And there’s a secret society dedicated to it, with them wanting him aboard. Thought provoking. Nightmarish. Uncomfortable. But also beautifully written.

LaRocca loves to explore the dark sides of human nature and examine how bodies can be twisted on a canvass of flesh to mirror a burgeoning darkness in the soul. He’s a maestro of the grotesque and by the end of this collection, your skin may be crawling too much to be yours anymore.

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances (to be referred to as TSWOM from here on out in this review) is a set of four short stories centered around toxic and/or abusive relationships of different types, the ways in which such humans can harm one another, and the ways people develop coping mechanisms and/or certain obsessions in order to deal with the trauma and pain they’ve gone through.

LaRocca gives a clear warning that there are a couple of significant triggers in a letter at the beginning of the book, but if you’re the sensitive sort I suggest maybe trying to find a more comprehensive list of triggers and content online before you read.

This is a great short story collection, with imaginative and truly creepy tales. LaRocca manages to write truly beautiful horror prose, making things vile and wretched somehow sound almost poetic in their horrid tragedy.

I give kudos to the titular short story, “This Skin Was Once Mine”, for being one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. It’s not about the story’s topic or content, either. It’s all about the protagonist’s obsession and coping mechanisms. And the snakes. Yeah, there’s a warning for you: danger noodles all up in this story.

I’d also like to point right to “Seedling” for being one of the most touching, emotional, and beautiful horror stories I’ve ever read while still managing to be gross and freaky.

The last story in the collection, “Prickle”, is just plain creepy-weird and all I could keep thinking about is the word “cruelty”.

The low point in the book for me was the story “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn”, which was a great story, but I didn’t totally understand the dynamic or the motivations in it.

I truly do recommend reading it if you’re a horror fan. It’s great and the stories are so lovely.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Anthology/Body Horror/Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/Short Stories/Paranormal Horror/Psychological Thriller

This collection of 4 new short stories is full of heart and anguish. Each story is hard hitting and explores loss in horrifying ways.

This Skin Was Once Mine: A woman returns to her childhood home after her beloved father dies. She must confront her strained relationship with her mother and discover a dark secret about her father. 5 Stars

Seedling: When a man's mother dies he goes to back home to find his father holding on to her body. They come down with a strange affliction. 4.5 Stars

All the Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn: A man buys a knife for his husband, but the shopkeeper doesn't want money in return. An unhealthy obsession is ignited in him. 4.5 Stars

Prickle: Two old men play a cruel game that they started in the past. 4 stars

I would highly recommend this collection to fans of horror and can deal with the content including child abuse, harm to children, grief, and self harm. This is a beautiful and brutal collection.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for my Arc of this book! Out in your local bookstore April 2nd.

Very few authors can pack a gut punch into their short stories quite like Eric LaRocca can, and this continues with this newest release of short stories. Eric LaRocca has grown into an expert at leaving a unique mark on you with his work, his very specific imprint branded onto you, and this very much continues here.

Within the four stories you will find gratuitous amounts of evil, violence and body horror. I flew through this collection but I would find it difficult to say I 'enjoyed' the stories - enjoyment just doesn't come into it. LaRocca's work is an endurance test, to see both how much the reader can take but also the characters in the stories.

Of the four stories I think it was 'This Skin Was Once Mine' that stuck out the most to me. The story explores to what depths family bonds can outreach any sense of morality and rationality, and the inevitability surrounding who your parents are and what you are going to become. It is delightfully sickening with a blood drenched bow-tie for a conclusion.

Overall I would say that if you have read anything by Eric LaRocca before, then this is more of the same. Compared to his previous short story collections I do think this is the weakest among them, but overall with it being such a short and speedy read I would say it is worth your time.

With this read, I came to the conclusion that I, for one, am not a fan of extreme horror. That said, and biases aside, this was a well written, visceral collection of short stories. This author has a way of grabbing the reader's attention immediately and keeping them in his grip until the very last page. Each story was unique in its own way, showing how depraved individuals can become given the opportunity. For fans of extreme horror, this will leave you reeling, but still craving more. Four Stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Titan Books, for this ARC.