Everything the Darkness Eats

May 31, 2023
Ghost Everling is still mourning the losses of his wife and unborn child, but reports of people going missing in his small town manage to penetrate his fog of grief. Nadeem Malik, the detective charged with investigating the disappearances, is bent on revenge after his husband Brett is tortured at the behest of homophobic neighbors. Gemma, single mother of a blind daughter, makes a connection with Ghost in a hospital waiting room before she, too, goes missing. Enigmatic, well-dressed Heart Crowley has magical abilities and a peculiar mission for which he needs Ghost's help. LaRocca ratchets up the tension until each of the subplots eventually intersect in the basement of Crowley's family estate in an explosive final act. Though the book is plenty scary, LaRocca grants his characters moments of grace and tenderness as well. The combination of the mystery with the uncanny elements and the arguably more horrifying human monsters will appeal to fans of The Croning, by Laird Barron (2012), Hammers on Bone, by Cassandra Khaw (2016), or Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World (2018).

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Starred review from April 1, 2023

Adding a cosmic twist to the small-town horror trope, LaRocca introduces readers to Henley's Edge, where evil, both human and supernatural, has taken hold. Local cop Malik is investigating the disappearance of senior women while simultaneously facing violent, homophobic attacks in his own home. Heart Crowley is a rich funeral-plot salesman, and then there is unlikely hero Ghost, a young man grieving a huge loss. He's literally stalked by guilt. With scenes of palpable fear, deep-seated trauma, and visceral villainy, this remarkable novel will move readers through every possible emotion, with language that by turns brutal and beautiful and with expertly built, messily realistic characters. The story is undeniably full of shock and disgust but also seeks to elevate love and allow humanity to shine through. VERDICT LaRocca (They Were Here Before Us) has seen viral success with their shorter works, but their first full-length novel demonstrates their growth as a writer. A perfect example of how writers from historically marginalized communities, like Hailey Piper, R.J. Joseph, and V. Castro, are actively mining the horror of their personal experiences to create terrifying, original, and emotionally resonant works that speak loudly to readers.

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April 24, 2023
Larocca (We Can Never Leave This Place) hinges the plot of his disappointing latest on the farfetched premise that God is a glowing orb of energy sequestered in the basement of a Connecticut mansion, waiting for Heart Crowley, the mansion’s devious owner, to return it to Heaven. At least that’s what Crowley tells grieving widower Ghost Everling. Crowley has been abducting locals from the town of Henley’s Edge to act as sacrifices in this obscure scheme to no avail, but believes that in skeptical Ghost he’s found the perfect supplicant. Larocca’s tale unfolds with the promise of a classic small-town horror story, but it frequently bogs down in purple prose: one character walks out of the room on another, “abandoning him the way napalm-scented civilians would single-file march from their burning homelands, forming a glorious diaspora”; another despairs to find “her mind, once a lavish rose bed, now reduced to an emptying gutter that swine wouldn’t even consider drinking from.” Combined with a (literal) deus ex machina ending, this book is strictly for the author’s most dedicated fans. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary.