Reviews with content warning for Dementia - They Were Here Before Us

I hated “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” and I hated this one decidedly less.

Now that I’ve had time to process: I was not a fan of the first story mostly because I’m not super into the

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anthropomorphism of insects

but it was written very well. The second story was alright but I’m not sure that a story that perpetuates the

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gay men as zoophiles

ideology is… super cool but maybe I’m missing some underlying moral or something. Loved the third story’s karmic retribution even if it was a tough read at first. Fourth story was okay. Fifth story did not do it for me, again I wasn’t sure how to feel about the perpetration of

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queer folk being sexual predators

and I think if not written by a fellow queer person it would’ve really rubbed me the wrong way. Loved the last story, very

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cosmic horror

that I wasn’t expecting but am certainly not mad at! I do like LaRocca’s writing style and it felt that they had more of a voice this time. I did read it on KU but wouldn’t have been mad about spending money on it like last time LOL…

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edgaranjapoe's review

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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jjulesf20's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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slxtty_academia's review against another edition

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1.5

All the subtlety of a kick to the teeth, just A Long String Of The Grossest Things the author could think of. Lacks any qualities to make the contents actually disturbing. The voice is very homogeneous across all the stories, which made little sense to me since humans, chimps, a meerkat and a beetle should be wildly different narrators. I somewhat liked the final story, but even that just made me roll my eyes at the ending.
And what's with the authors thing for plucking out eyeballs??
It's been a Rollercoaster for me and LaRocca, I hated Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last spoke, but LOVED You've Lost A Lot Of Blood, and now strongly disliked this collection. I'll give them one last shot with Everything The Darkness Eats next year and if I don't like that one it's just not meant to be.

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howlinglibraries's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

5.0

Perhaps "love" wasn't exactly the right word.
In fact, perhaps "love" was far too benign of a word given the intensity of my feelings for her.

Yet again, Eric LaRocca has delivered a piece of horror art that is equal parts disgusting and gorgeous, all wrapped up in a surreal, shocking package. This "novella in pieces" reads similarly to a collection of short stories with an overarching theme, each of them featuring how toxic love gone wrong can be.

We start off with a beetle in love with a corpse, and I knew immediately that They Were Here Before Us was going to offer the same unpredictable, wild ride that Eric's other works have—in the very best way, of course. I love Eric's writing and am forever singing their praises, so it's no surprise that I was totally enraptured with this new release and devoured it all in one quick go.

If you enjoy bizarre, beautiful, quietly (but, at times, extremely) violent horror unlike anything you've ever read before, you can't go wrong with Eric LaRocca's writing, and They Were Here Before Us is no exception. Much like many of my other favorite pieces of surreal horror media, this is the sort of story I plan to revisit time and time again, and I'm sure I'll find something new to love every single time.

✨ Representation: multiple queer characters

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