A solid mystical horror story with themes surrounding the ethics of creation and responsibility for suffering. Not what I expected from LaRocca, I feel like his recent work has become less experimental than what he is known for and this was an example of that, but even as it echoes the typical expectations of the genre, some unexpected things happen within and it especially picks up around the halfway mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and CLASH books as well as the author for this ARC. It was an absolute blast!
#NetGalley #CLASHbooks #EricLaRocca #EverythingtheDarknessEats

Oh Mr. LaRocca, you are amazing! The author’s writing is relatable and easy to read. It’s also super fun and delightfully disturbing. LaRocca’s previous works are tough to top. This is a story about a small town in Connecticut that has a problem with people disappearing. The reason for the disappearances is a sinister secret.
This was a fun and quick read, although not perfect. The reader should be aware that there are scenes of extreme sexual and physical violence. There is also a religious note throughout. This isn’t a book for the faint of heart as is the case with all of Eric LaRocca’s books. There are a lot of things to like here. I thought the imagery was beautiful and the characters were sympathetic. The moments of extreme horror were enjoyable. Unfortunately, the author’s previous books were more enjoyable to me.
This book deals with a small town with multiple disappearances. There is very little about these disappearances in the narrative except in the beginning. There’s no mention of police involvement. There are multiple narratives happening at once. One deals with our protagonist, a man named Ghost. Ghost has just lost his wife in a car accident. He shows some supernatural abilities but we’re never shown why. The second is about our antagonist, a dapper and stylish old man named Heart Crowley with serious delusions of grandeur. He also has supernatural abilities. He uses mind control to abduct his victims. We aren’t given much information about most of the characters pasts’ which makes it hard to swallow the events of the story. It’s not often that I say this but I wish this book were longer. I would love to know more about these characters and their backgrounds. The third narrative deals with a married couple who are enduring expressions of hate from their religious neighbors who don’t want a same sex couple among them. When they call the police they’re treated to a lecture about PDA rather than help with the escalating hate crimes. This feels like it’s here to make a point rather than to enhance the plot. I understand the point. It hurt to see what these two men endured because of hate. This was the most disturbing plot point because of how real it is. These things really happen and people need to know and be disturbed by it. The convergence of these narratives does occur but, again, I needed more information. The technical trouble with this book was distracting. Similes are everywhere! Everywhere! This story needed editing.
All in all, there are some great things in this book. The story was fun. The writing is top notch. Eric LaRocca is a talented author and I will continue to read what he writes. This one just needed as little extra editing and some more information.

I was so disappointed (and kind of disgusted) with Eric LaRocca’s EVERYTHING THE DARKNESS EATS. And I really was excited for this ever since reading the author’s previous novella THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE (which I enjoyed).

The synopsis says it’s about “An insidious darkness threatens to devastate a rural New England village when occult forces are conjured and when bigotry is left unrestrained.” Sounds interesting, right? And the opening prologue was so good, too. Really set it up.

The rest of the book? 👎🏽

The writing was terrible, the characters even worse. I didn’t care about any of them and the main character Ghost’s (that’s his name, pretty cool name) whining and repetitive threats to God became annoying really fast. And I didn’t get why one of the characters had to be Muslim? At first I was glad to see the representation but he was an idiot. In fact, all the characters were idiots who made bad decisions - one after another. I was rolling my eyes and skimming a lot toward the end.

I feel kind of bad about posting my negative review, but at the same time, I feel it was too on the nose when it came to the topic of bigotry. Some parts seemed gratuitous for gratuitous’s sake. Nothing creative about it and there was so much potential. And the ending was unsatisfactory.

I read some reviews after finishing it and am glad I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. As someone pointed out, it almost seemed like this was a first draft of a story and that’s exactly how it read to me as well. Oh well, not everything’s going to work out for us I guess. 🤷🏻‍♀️

LaRocca knocks it out of the park again. As with most of their books, Everything the Darkness Eats is not for the faint of heart. I physically flinched at one point, and there aren't many authors who can do that to me. A violent, macabre study in grief, survival, and what it means to realize the universe's indifference to our existence, this is not a book I'll soon forge

I adore Eric LaRocca and I've learned that while I read EVERYTHING he puts out, not everything he writes is for me. This wasn't one of my favorites. Perhaps too linear? I love his writing style and how he's not afraid to venture into the weird, uncomfortable depths of human existence. However, the gay couple storyline broke me. As always he finds a way to take something horrifying and punch it up to the nth degree which is why I will ALWAYS read his work.

I had read already Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and enjoyed it a lot, so when Eric LaRocca's debut novel appeared on Netgalley I jumped to the opportunity.

Horror was not my favourite genre, but it is really growing on me, thanks to well written books like this one. In here we follow Ghost and Malik, 2 very different characters, totally unrelated, but that will create a cohesive and harrowing story together. One of the beauties of the book, for me, was the way the author made us care for the characters. We felt for them, which, of course, made matters worse for us, as we suffered alongside them.

It was good, enjoyable and a page turner. Recommend it to all horror fans, and to everyone who likes a good story about interesting and different people.

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One keeps the ability to change throughout our lives, and that explains my recent passion for horror books. Even though I still don’t like horror movies, the books have carved a place in my heart, and I’ve been reading a lot more lately. Eric LaRocca is not a new author to me, I previously read his short story collection “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke”, and it was weird and enticing. Now that his debut novel has reached Netgalley, I just had to take the opportunity.

In this book we follow two very different main characters. Ghost is a grieving man, who got lost in life when his pregnant wife died, and Malik is a police detective that has recently moved to this conservative Connecticut town with his husband and is currently investigating a series of strange disappearances. Their paths don’t cross, except for the fact that they both live in the same town. We add to this a charming and mysterious elderly man, Heart Crowley, that also lives here. Considering the book is only 202 pages long, things go really wrong, really fast. They reach an extreme body horror point, which made me question the sanity of continuing to read.

I liked this book, the story is well developed, we feel for the characters and care with what happens to them, which makes all the difference in a scenario like this. It was a pleasure to read (albeit a painful pleasure), that caused just the right amount of anxiety, as we would expect. I recommend it to all that are not easily scared, that like stories that push our boundaries and make us question the limits of human nature.

I think this is a good debut novel for LaRocca; however, I do prefer his short stories!

I had really high hopes going into this, but I ultimately felt let down by this one.

Things I liked:
- Amazing poetic prose
- Entertaining story
- I really liked Ghost and his character arc
- I thought the magical realism aspects were an interesting addition
- Quick read

Things I didn't like:
- There were some plot issues that didn't fully add up for me
- The pacing was off and at times the story felt dull
- Felt a bit YA in my opinion

“Her world was darkness, and that’s often where the monsters felt most at home.”

Eric LaRocca is quite famous for writing messy, sad, grief horror. Everything the Darkness Eats is no different. We follow a few different points of view, all handling grief their own ways. Some worse than others.

Ghost Everling was in a car accident with his wife, Hailey, and she did not survive. It’s been three years, and he’s trying to navigate his new life with a ghoul on his shoulder telling him the accident was his fault.

Heart Crowley is an eccentric elderly man who manages his grief by trying to control every situation around him.

Malik and husband Brett are grieving the marriage they could have had, had they not dealt with the homophobia from the neighborhood.

For most of the story, you have no idea how the three different stories connect, but in the end, boy do they connect. As always, LaRocca weaves a tale that takes you by surprise while hurting your feelings the entire way.

This story is not a fast story, unlike their other works. There’s a lot underneath the words, a lot of subtext. I actually would like to reread this story in the future to see if I can pick things out that I hadn’t seen originally.

There were a couple slow parts, which makes this not quite a five star read, but enjoyable nonetheless.

CW for death, gore, rape, sexual violence, homophobia, sexual assault, blood, mental illness, grief, torture, and car accident

It pains me to do this however, I just did not enjoy this book. It took me forever to even get though it. I felt that the characters were bland and I didn’t find anything that made me really connect with them.

I have loved everything LaRocca has written but this book was slow and a bit boring.

If Eric LaRocca writes it, I read it.

I ripped through this. I was curious to see how the seemingly discordant threads would come together in the end and man, it's weird as hell, but I was thoroughly gripped by each character (even when they sometimes did incredibly stupid things that I found myself wanting to reach through the page, shake them by the shoulders, and scream at them).

The element of cosmic horror gave me "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker vibes with the meeting of body horror, the divine and arcane. It's far from perfect, but I personally enjoyed the ride. Full disclosure that I do like (maybe that's an odd word choice?) trauma in my horror - it's a safe way to process horrible things.

As with many of LaRocca's stories, I think this will be a divisive one. Best suited for those who like their horror very queer, bizarre, traumatic, and beautiful.

"Everything the Darkness Eats" just further proves that Eric LaRocca is one of the most promising new horror writers. It's a dark story of magic, horror and then human condition. The characters are messy and realistic, while the whole thing still feels like some kind of dark fantasy world. Honestly, a little less disturbing than I was expecting from LaRocca.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and CLASH Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca is a well-crafted and engrossing novel that skillfully explores the themes of darkness, light, and connection. Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, there were certain aspects that left me wanting more.

The only aspect I felt was lacking was the book's length. With its tight writing and well-paced narrative, I couldn't help but wish for an additional 100 pages to allow for further exploration of the intriguing elements within the story.

Ghost and his Wraith were standout characters in this dark tale. LaRocca's masterful character development breathed life into these individuals, making them compelling and relatable. Their journey was filled with suspense and emotional depth, leaving a lasting impact.

The religious undertones in Everything the Darkness Eats added an enjoyable and sinister layer to the narrative. LaRocca expertly weaved these elements into the story, enhancing its intrigue and complexity. The balance between darkness and moments of light and connection was skillfully executed, enriching the overall reading experience.

While the book does contain violent scenes, the author tastefully handles them, not delving too deeply into explicit details. This approach ensures that the story remains readable without becoming excessively graphic.

I strongly advise potential readers to check the trigger warnings before diving into this dark and gripping novel. Overall, Everything the Darkness Eats is a thought-provoking and well-executed book that will leave you wanting more while keeping you on the edge of your seat.

I finished this and immediately thought “what was the point of this?”. Idk, this wasn’t for me. The story feels inconsistent and what starts off really promising in the first few pages, never takes off or goes anywhere.

This story is told from multiple POV’s that are meant to intersect to bring things full circle but with no real purpose? The primary POV, towns missing people, gets almost no real explanation on WHY and nothing happens until the last few pages with this one. The second POV, a gay couple in a small town with one of them being a cop working on the first pov, feels misplaced? The cop storyline never goes anywhere, there’s ZERO detective work and the author writes their POV in a way that just feels like we’re forced to read through various scenes of homophobic, gay bashing/ slurs, assault/rape for no absolutely reason or purpose as it’s squeezed into the majority of the last few chapters.

Personally, I’m disappointed with this one and feel like I couldn’t actually tell you what I read if I was trying to recommend it to someone because this story made no sense and didn’t ever go anywhere.

Horrific darkness can exist in many forms. Human, monster. Greed, anger, hate, grief. And it's always hungry. In the small town of Henley's Edge, people are disappearing, and two men, set on different paths, find themselves battling the darkness and struggling not to be consumed.

Rating and reviewing this book was not easy. And it's difficult to sort through my feelings about it without giving too much away. Having heard such good things about this author's short stories, I had high hopes and was super excited to receive a copy.

I loved the two main characters, except when they were doing incredibly stupid things. I loved the beautiful and heartbreaking way the story was written, except when I was being bombarded by similes on every page. There were parts I wish we had delved deeper into, and there were parts I wish had been left out. I loved how LaRocca explored the themes of grief and religion. The supernatural parts were my favorite. I still look forward to reading the author's other work.

⚠️ Graphic sexual assault

Thank you Clash Books for a copy of this book to read and review.

Sometimes owning something doesn't mean it's yours.

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca
Release Date 06/13/2023

Quick Summary
There has been a number of unexplained disappearances in a small town in Connecticut, the culprit is someone no one would take a second glance at.

Final Thoughts
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was excited for this one as I enjoyed their other books. , I have to admit that I didn't love it as much as I had hoped. Throughout the read, I found myself wondering about the direction of the story and how it would ultimately conclude. While the ending itself wasn't bad, the journey to get there didn't always captivate me. It felt rushed at times, leaving me wanting more depth and development, but other times, it seemed to drag on. Overall, I had mixed feelings about the pacing and the overall enjoyment of the book.

LaRocca never disappoints - always great horror.

Small town, occult, bigotry, dark and graphic. Loved the characters, the wraith, the metaphoric undertones.


TW heavy - check as needed.

Dark, deceptive bloody and brutal. There are some repetitive parts, mostly in terms of language - possibly because if you tend to write short stories or novellas, writing a longer piece of work can get drawn out a lot. But this was really good, strong characters!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this title. I was 25% in and I wasn’t interest in the characters or the story whatsoever. Picking it up started to feel like a chore and I can’t do that to my mental health. I will not be posting any type of negative review on any social media accounts except for adding it to my “DNF” list on my Goodreads account that I will not promote. I wholeheartedly believe this author will be a major horror author one day, so I will absolutely be picking up more from them, but this one was a “miss” for me at this time.

I did not mesh with this at all. The writing fell flat and metaphors were overdone and did not land the way they were intended to.

Eric LaRocca's debut full length novel is an absolute stunner. While a huge fan of their novellas, it was so exciting getting to explore their work in a full sized novel.
We follow a handful of characters in the small town of Henley's Edge and learn how all of their stories connect. We follow: Ghost a gentleman with a spirit haunting him, Malik, a local police officer who has moved to this small town, with his husband, that is wrought with people going missing. We also meet Heart Crowley who helps connect all of these stories.
You could feel the small town New England vibes, but Eric LaRocca does such a good job at building out not just the town but the greater cosmic horror in this novel. This book is emotional, it features LaRocca's purple writing, and is such a quick read. It was everything I could have expected or wanted from their debut novel. I absolutely loved it. It's a dark story that has heart and tugs at all the right notes for me as a reader of horror. It explores so many different emotional topics but also features LaRocca's key disturbing horror.
This is a must pick up for fans of LaRocca's work, but also if you like beautiful writing and cosmic horror.
Thank you to the publisher, CLASH Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.