Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

8 reviews

sjbryson's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, 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

librarymouse's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

This book didn't make much sense. So much of it was left unexplained and there was a lot of deeply confused religious piety paired with the desire to kill God. Poor execution in the storytelling conflated queerness and disability with monstrosity. At least I'm hoping it's poor execution of content and not intentional. Giving the bad guy AIDS was ... a choice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Kidnapping

Minor: Excrement, Police brutality, and Islamophobia

rebekahmccubbins's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I went into this book excited - I picked it up after seeing multiple recommendations in lists of queer horror novels. And I really wanted to like it.  I'm genuinely confused as to how this book was published. 

The author clearly enjoys flowery prose, which is fine when done well. But this was painful to read. Every third sentence was a simile or over-description, making it hard to keep track of what's actually happening in the story. The plot felt half-baked, and the details were confusing. I found myself constantly asking, 'why?'. The characters' motivations didn't feel reasonable.

And the extremely graphic violence against Malik and Brett felt uncalled for. Frankly, that subplot never tied in to a degree that felt justified. So I was left feeling that the author just... WANTED to torture and decimate a gay couple (confusing, because by all accounts, he is gay). 

I can't in good faith recommend this story to anyone. If you do choose to read, good luck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Biphobia, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ecn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

So good but not much of a build up and the quickest resolution/wrap up, which left me wanting more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness and Death

Minor: Addiction and Medical content

riflelizards's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Excrement, and Car accident

Minor: Biphobia, Child death, Death, and Medical content

dean_reviews's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Oh gosh, what do I even say about Everything the Darkness Eats?

It was an amazing book, but also such a hard and emotional read.
I don't think that I was fully prepared for what I was getting myself into when I started this book. I am still glad that I did read it though.

***Content warnings for this book:

Death, Injury/Injury Detail, Homophobia (including slurs), Graphic Rape, Graphic Sexual Assault, Graphic Abuse, Gore, Murder, Blood, Ritual Sacrifice, Ableism, Home Invasion, Terminal Illness, AIDS, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of a loved one, Death of an infant, Biphobia/Bierasure***

This story is told to us in a narrative form that follows multiple people who are effected by the events happening in the small Connecticut town of Henley's Edge. Our cast of characters is varied and diverse. A group of people who would be impacted by the internal workings of a small town in profound ways that intersect but are also unique and troubling.

I feel like a lot of this story is me going "yup... that tracks" when something happens that does feel into my pre-conceived notions of how a small town would engage with and deal with the particular issues at hand.
I know this is unfair in a lot of ways and it did make me stop and wonder if LaRocca was writing from personal experience, general stereotypical knowledge, or held beliefs?

I did find myself needing breaks from the contents of the books. Don't get me wrong, I am no stranger to a dark and traumatizing book, but something about this one just hit so differently... I am wondering if it was feeding off of my own concerns over treatment I might receive as a trans person in those places.
Harnessing real fears and concerns of those within the communities of the characters to make the struggles and pain feel more real.
I also wonder.... if maybe this would have been less needed had I been reading with my eyes and not my ears.

On that note.. the audio was really good. I loved the flow and tone that Andre Santana brought to the story. The depth that was given to the hard moments and the emotion that was brought into the characters.

Overall, I am happy that I read this book and I am curious to pick up more of their books in the future. I would recommend this book so long as I also gave them the laundry list of trigger warnings.

Literally my only major critique is that there is not a connected list of trigger warnings provided by the author/publisher on the listings.

***I was provided a copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion and thoughts about what I read.***

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Child death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry