Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

7 reviews

emlen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

whatwasmissing's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? No

was not expecting this to run the full gamut of content warnings but there you go.

i quite liked the slow build of the mystery in the first half, particularly the missing townsfolk and the charming devil.
the last 30% or so was so incredibly graphic that it was hard to get through. the resolution after that did feel  pretty rushed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Excrement

There is an extended and extremely graphic homophobia-motivated gang rape scene that lasts through multiple chapters. This is revealed to be partly motivated by

one of the perpetrators' childhood trauma from child sexual abuse by an unknown man

sunsetsyd's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

It felt like two separate stories and because of the length of the book neither felt completely fleshed out to the point that they could have been. I did like the religious aspect (but I'm a fan of religious horror so that wasn't a suprise). But yeah, it's a good book to break a reading slump or if you want to take a couple hours to relax (please heed the triggers tho!), but I do feel like the plot was lacking. :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Rape

Moderate: Racism

thebookgoblinhoard's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

I am a huge fan of LaRocca, but this book was not it. There was a lot that made this feel like it was multiple short stories at one point, but were half hazardly strewn together into a novella. It either needed to be a longer book or have less going on. The two character povs then the added “antagonist” plot do not mesh together at all. Add in the graphic SA that had little to nothing to do with the over arching plot and this book just left the thoughts of “what did I just read and why”. The ending just made it to where nothing happened and was “happy”. It just feels like there was no real point to this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Rape

neva383's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Pedophilia

erebus53's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I picked up this one at random because the title seemed interesting.
The story is weird, mysterious, supernatural, and bleak. It felt like there were actually 2 stories stitched together.

People are going missing, and one of the police officers investigating is a Muslim man who is getting flack from his husband for pulling long hours. They are a sweet couple, but continually on guard due to micro-agressions from their neighbours.. which escalate to macro-agressions and ultimately extreme violence, as someone in the neighborhood is trying to pressure the men into leaving.

The other protagonist is a depressed young man who is grieving the loss of his wife and unborn child in a motor accident that permanently damaged his own leg. He has this niggling voice that continually disparages him. It belongs to an actual demon (is it real?) with whom he has an oddly codependent toxic relationship. (Nowhere near as friendly as Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle). One day he meets a fancy old man with a swanky mansion who offers wishes.. this gives me real "Needful Things" vibes. The guy is about as suspect as you can get even before he introduces himself as Heart Crowley.

Mumble mumble, magic, cult, demon / God, zealots, creepy, blood and rituals etc. (step 4: profit!... or prophet?)
Meanwhile sadistic homophobic violence, rape, multilation, and all that bad stuff

but that's ok because we have God locked in our cellar and he can make it all miraculously better.
Kinda liked the whole Clockwork Orange feel of stumbling into the mansion in the middle of the night though. ("HOME")

I liked that most of the characters are gay or pan. Interesting to hear the widow character voicing experience of biphobia. I realize it's supposed to be gritty and horrific but the whole rape angle just felt awful rather than creepy. I kind of feel like the whole story might have had more going for it if it was either a supernatural horror with a paranoid anxiety sufferer OR the horrible side of be what can happen to a sweet gay couple just trying to live their best life, but trying to tangle the two together is just not quite doing either justice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

aparker89's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A fast-paced supernatural mystery that will leave you begging for mercy. Not only will you feel sorrow, you can feel the slash of the knife. While you witness some truly horrific events in this story, most are not so far fetched as to be unbelievable. You feel for every person you meet and the evil lurking is both ethereal and too real! With any luck, you might finish unscathed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, Islamophobia, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting