Thank you, NetGalley and Titan Books for allowing me to read this book early. The opinion in this review is my own.

This is the first full-length novel I’ve read by LaRocca. I’ve only read his short stories, so I had a vague idea of what to expect. In true LaRocca fashion, this book was gory, traumatic, and disturbing. The characters have lots of depth and you easily become invested. His writing is a mix of splatter-punk with amazing prose. It’s the start of a series, and a lot was left unanswered. It’s hard to know if that’s by design in preparation for the next book but it felt almost incomplete. He is a master of short-form writing, but I’m unsure about his longer forms. If you find splatter-punk entertaining, then I would recommend this book to you.

I’m not quite sure how to describe this book. It’s my first by the author, but his reputation precdes him. I knew tk expect violence, and violence was definitely there. However, I didn’t expect to finish a book not really knowing what I had just read. There were true moments of brilliance, an astute insight into the consequences of human suffering which, at times, left me stunned. However, there were aspects that I didn’t truly see the purpose of - perhaps they will be addressed in the next book? I will definitely read on, if nothing else to find answers so my questions.

The writing was excellent, the commentary on suffering horrifying and true, and it has guaranteed I will read on.

i will be the first to admit that i will devour anything that larocca writes, and i didn't really know what to expect going into this one. what followed was an absolute whirlwind of monstrosity, grotesquerie, and in/human depravity that i cannot even describe. larocca's ability to depict the most brutal, abject terrors with such gorgeous prose is astounding. i cannot wait to see more of the town of burnt sparrow!

As much as I love LaRocca's stuff, this one just didn't do it for me.

The plot is great, the characters are three dimensional, etc...

It just seems like a novella's-worth of action happened in a novel-length work. The prose is slow and brooding (which isn't "bad" per se), but it was a little slow and methodical for my tastes.

The way this was marketed was giving me folk horror vibes, which I enjoy, but half way through the book I realised that this story is splatterpunk, with women and corpses (of women) being violated for no reason which isn't my vibe. I didn't read further as there was nothing else happening to convince me to.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

I have given up rating Eric’s books. I never know how I feel afterward. Eric LaRocca is an auto-read author for me and I’m always ready to be sickened once again. Eric has such a talent for writing stories that are fascinating in their brutality. The list of trigger warnings in the beginning of this book was impressive and I’m glad I read it so I wouldn’t be surprised. This book was gross. While the beginning was slow, it got so weird so fast. What kind of nightmare town is this?! I completely understand Rupert wanting to leave. Everyone was a wacko.

We get multiple news stories mixed in with the POVs of Rupert, a teenage boy who’s trying to get by and leave town after the death of his mother and Gladys, the wife of a influential and cruel man in town. Their lives will mix together after a family of faceless human like creatures invade town on Christmas and gun down townsfolk during a parade. What happens after will change Rupert and Gladys forever.

There’s a lot of interesting messages here. How grief and trauma can turn you into a monster. How hurting those who have wronged you can make you just as bad as they are. This is a trilogy of novels and while this story was weird and disgusting, it also kept my attention. I’d be willing to finish out the series.