Reviews with content warning for Violence - Everything the Darkness Eats

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

89 reviews

samohtj's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

1.25

I wanted very badly for this book to be good. I am aware of the vast difference of opinion regarding Eric Larocca's work, and I wanted to believe it was all overblown that it couldn't be that bad. (Also, because I got a few of his short story collections on discount, but not enough of a discount for them to suck, knowwhatimean).

Folks, this book was not good. From the first chapters, I was frustrated and disappointed with all kinds of decisions the author was making. The best way I can describe it is Cringe in an unhelpful way. So many times, I paused my audiobook to rant to no-one, or to simply exclaim "Stupid!" to my empty car. Characters constantly took out-of-pocket or ridiculous steps, accomplishing nothing but inching them towards the contrived conclusion on which the author had already decided.

It wasn't just the plot or the characters – the prose pissed me off at many points as well. Metaphors that sound nice but make no sense, bizarre internal tangents that make NO sense, and an incomprehensible confluence of themes that don't seem to have any coherent connection. Is this book about grief? Hubris? Self-hatred? Homophobia? Mommy issues? Impossible to say.

So many things are included that lead nowhere. One entire narrative string is abruptly dry-erased away in the last act, making me feel like I wasted my time, especially since that was the arc with all the graphic homophobia and SA. Add the fact the villain seemed to dress like satanic Willy Wonka while arousing absolutely zero suspicion in this small suburban town IN THE 90s, and the YouTube-anime-dub performance of the narrator, I did not enjoy one thing about this book. Poo.

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msmelaniemsmith's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

1.0

There were no redeeming qualities about the characters, I disliked all of them.

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aadams001's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

2.5

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goodnekovibes's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced

3.5

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matty_joe319's review against another edition

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dark sad 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? No

1.5

I was really excited about this book upon seeing the cover, reading the description, even reading the prologue. I had heard great things about LaRocca’s short stories, so thought the book would be good. Unfortunately, it was a lot of edge with not much substance. I loved the idea of a queer religious-critique small town horror story, but this did not have much depth of commentary or much of a clear point of view. Characters often act without motive or - at best - without intelligence, and LaRocca seems to think that suffering is the same as plot. There is a lot of suffering and there is not much plot - or at least not much that is particularly engaging. LaRocca’s prose itself is full of metaphors that feel too literal and formal narration that ends up feeling more pretentious than creepy. The opening prologue and chapters had so much tension and promise and it was a shame to see the rest of the book felt unbaked in comparison. LaRocca has a great imagination - I just hope he can find a better editor or more restraint in future works.

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librocrone's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

It was mostly well-written, though I had some problems with word choice and placement that I thought an editor should've caught and adjusted for. It also did one of my least favorite things in modern literature, where they describe something in a way that makes it perfectly clear what's going on but in a metaphorical or creative way, and then follow that up with a blunt sentence that leaves nothing to the imagination to clarify for people with low reading comprehension skills. So. That was a bummer and really made an impact on my star rating.

There were a lot of aspects of the book that I just personally didn't care for or enjoy.I didn't particularly care for the story arc and the resolutions. I didn't particularly enjoy the characters, particularly Ghost. I wish the villain had been given a bit more motivation - the first scene sets up an interesting potential but I didn't feel like the following execution of the character matched up to that potential. Also I'm so sick of the name Crowley in things.

It was okay. I want to give Things Have Gotten Worse a go to see if it's just this book I wasn't that into, or if LaRocca just isn't an author for me.

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