Reviews with content warning for Body horror - They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces

I borrowed this on Kindle Unlimited on a whim because I've been meaning to read something from LaRocca for a while. Either his work is not for me or this was simply not the place to start.

Subtitled "A Novella in Pieces," (though it reads much more like a collection of short stories connected by theme than a fragmented novella), "They Were Here Before Us" sets out to explore the darker sides of love and the intrinsic violence of nature through stories and vignettes told by a variety of animal species. The collection starts off strong with the first story, "All that Remains is Yours to Keep." I enjoyed the beetle's perspective and the descriptions of its infatuation with the decomposing corpse it lived off of. It was the story I felt was the most successful in exploring this disturbing side of love and obsession and nature, and it felt the most fully realized of the collection. I also thought this story had the most standout prose in the collection.

As the stories continued, unfortunately, all of the voices started to sound the same and blur together. The uniqueness I found and enjoyed in the first story wore off and became stale, as the stories that followed used similar language and descriptions. Considering the stories are meant to be narrated by a variety of species, including a beetle, a chimpanzee, a bird, and a meerkat, it would only seem appropriate that they would all include distinct voices. Instead, they felt interchangeable.

As someone who is not easily bothered by reading disturbing and grotesque content such as body horror, cannibalism, and bestiality (important note: IN FICTION), I wasn't repulsed by these stories the way other readers might be. However, I did feel that the way this content was presented in these stories was more for shock value rather than providing any meaningful food for thought by including them. In the second story, it seemed like the ahem..."interspecies love affair," as the warning at the beginning of the book calls it, between the chimpanzee and its owner was a side note simply to fuel Cy's (the man's lover) hatred and disgust for the animal rather than offering any nuanced conversation on the implication of a sexual relationship between an animal and a gay man.

I'm all for exploring these themes through fiction, but I think the responsibility that comes with taking them on requires more than casual mentions of bestiality and eyeball eating. I think this could have been remedied by developing the stories a bit further, allowing them more space to breathe. For example, "To Hurt the Weakest One" was also one of the stronger ones in the collection, but I feel like it suffers from its brevity. This story, as well as "A God Made of Straw," comes to a jarring conclusion, leaving us barely any time to sit with the horror that unraveled in front of us before moving onto the next tale. Perhaps that was the author's intent, but personally, I think these topics and themes deserve a bit more of a delicate hand, otherwise the execution can come off as cheap and superficial.

The last two stories felt tonally disconnected from the first four, now following human characters. These stories are also considerably longer than the rest of the collection. The collection is technically separated into different "parts," the first four stories belonging to one section of animal stories while the final two stories each make up a section of their own. But it feels like the unification of the collection gets a bit derailed here. While they still explore the entanglement of love and horror through fear, gore, and queerness, they were less compelling and seemed to take away from the exploration of the violence of love and nature that the first section set up. Additionally, the supernatural flesh balloon in the last story felt completely out of place.

Overall, this collection had a compelling theme and some standout moments, but ultimately fell flat in execution. I may still try something else from this author, as some their other works still intrigue me, or perhaps it's just the amazing covers.

Regardless, here are my individual ratings for each of the stories:

All that Remains is Yours to Keep: 4/5

Delicacies from a First Communion: 2/5

A God Made of Straw: 3/5

To Hurt the Weakest One: 3.5/5

Bird and Bug are Happy: 3/5

When It's Dark Out: 2/5

Content Warnings

kawooreads's review

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dark tense 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

3.5

Tiktok put this author on my radar, and I found the audiobook on Libby. What a strange assortment of short tales that are brutal, vengeful, and twisted. The first story is told through the perspective of a beetle who falls in love with the woman's corpse it is feeding on... This book isn't for the faint of heart.

Content Warnings

mirnda's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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blackcatkai's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CW: violence, blood, body horror, gore, death (animal & human, child & adult for both), torture (animal & human), self harm, miscarriage/pregnancy, mental illness, ableism, homophobia (including use of slurs & other derogatory statements), interspecies love/bestiality mentioned, necrophilia, insects, murder

this was an event of a novella. a collection of short stories with a similar theme, this is gross & amazing. you get mostly stories from the viewpoint of animals & insects, with a couple human povs at the end. any content warnings you find, take seriously. LaRocca is a pro at descriptive horror and this is a very visceral experience.

a lot of ew, gross moments. but also some sweetness in a few spots. definitely not recommended for anyone new to horror or more extreme genres. but I really enjoyed this one.

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nedenz's review against another edition

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dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Well that was the wildest of wild rides. I'll admit I don't quite understand the last few stories as they got more and more abstract, but I enjoyed the (fucked up) ride nonetheless. I like the writing style and vignettes into really weird situations. It was incredibly graphic at times but honestly, it beautifully illustrated the only thing I knew about it going in, the book description of the piece: "The only thing more brutal than nature is love."

Content Warnings

jackalopecore's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

leahrosereads's review against another edition

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dark

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Disturbing stories surrounding nature and death that work pretty well together. The gore factor was top notch but since I didn't love 3 of the 6 stories, I can't give this more than a 3.5.

The first story and the last two were my favorites. They had really bizarre moments that I thought were brilliant. I wish the boy, bird and scarecrow story was a little longer or it'd be up here too.

The meerkats and chimp/monkey stories were meh to me.

Content Warnings

disyarning's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

For your own sake, heed the content warnings at the start of the book.

If you can stomach it: Lyrical, evocative prose combined with intensely uncomfortable, frequently disturbing, sometimes gory, imagery and themes. LaRocca uses horror to explore how love can unravel us, from unexpected perspectives. Some of the shorter stories are equal parts humour and horror, while others (particularly the final two) are viscerally horrifying with zero levity. I can't say I liked every story, but I didn't regret reading the book.

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