#everything the darkness eats

[varian-ross-horror-author]

Everything The Darkness Eats, A Blind Perspective

I keep thinking about Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca.

Specifically, how the GoodReads reviews screamed about how Problematic one of the side characters--a blind child--was.

I'm stumped as to how a character haveing cataracts makes them Bad Representation. I can *kind of* understand a kneejerk response to a character always covering their eyes, but y'all.

There's a big difference between "character covers their eyes because their eyes are scary looking" and "character covers their eyes because light is painful."

I'm blind myself, and have extreme levels of light sensitivity. What little vision I have is like looking at the world through a thick pane of frosted glass. Wearing some level of tinted lenses is the only way I can tolerate light these days. My family knows how my vision is day to day by how dark my glasses are.

The instant I met Piper in Everything the Darkness Eats, I braced myself. Blind characters in horror usually don't fare well, wether at the hands of the monster or the author.

While we never get anything from Piper's point of view, she instantly reminded me of myself at that age. I was both surprised and delighted for her that she had a white cane--I didn't get my first cane until I was a senior in high school.

We *do* get a perspective from Piper's mother. At which point I paused the audiobook to cry at just how accurate it was to growing up as blind with family who desperately want you to be "normal."

I found myself looking from the reviews to my book and back, wondering if we were reading the same thing. While the reviews were shrieking about Problematic characters and tropes, I was listening to one of the best horror novels I'd heard in ages.

Not only a novel with fantastic characters and premise, but with an actual happy ending. In a splatterpunk novel.

The reviews had me braced for awfulness, instead I was in tears at finding a story that resonated so deeply with my own vision loss.

Taking a single aspect of a disabled character--like a blind character covering their eyes--and using that one thing to judge an entire book as Problematic says more about the reviewer than the book itself.

[geryone]

Was going to make a silly little post about it being the pub day for Everything the Darkness Eats but it comes out next week so here’s my silly little picture & my push to get some of y’all to consider picking it up!! It’s Eldritch horror with some deeply traumatizing scenes of homophobic hate crimes. It shocked & upset me when I read it and that’s the way I love my horror :)

[nordinor]

Book Review: Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

While a grieving widower named Ghost is drawing into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by an elderly gentleman named Heart Crawley, a homosexual couple is the object of homophobic hate crimes. The small town in which they all live devolves into darkness and hatred. Will the ritual right the wrongs done? Or will I choose to not finish a novel because the one of the hate crimes against a homosexual…

[slur-sayer]

It's kinda shit ngl

[thechaoticreader]

📚🌱May Reading Wrap Up🌱📚

Stats:

Total Read: 3 Avg Rating: ⭐️4.5 Most Read Genre: Romance Most Read Format: Physical Book DNF Count: 2

Books:

Title: Skater Boy Author: Anthony Nerada Format: Physical Book (library) Genre: Y/A Gay Romance Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Started: 04/30/24 Finished: 05/06/24 Quote: "Sometimes, there's vulnerability in telling the truth." pg 186

Title: Red, White & Royal Blue Author: Casey McQuiston Format: ebook (Kobo) Genre: Gay Romance Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Started: 03/02/24 Finished: 05/10/24 Quote: "That's the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose."

Title: Everything The Darkness Eats Author: Eric LaRocca Format: Physical Book Genre: Queer Horror -> literary fiction vibes Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Started: 05/10/24 Finished: 05/29/24 Quote: "For Ghost, his body was nothing more than a compost heap - a crude patchwork of abused anatomy that even the most impulsive surrealist wouldn't dare commemorate on canvas. Ghost knew well he was a monster, a horrible mutation handmade by grief." pg 19

Currently Reading: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Predicted rating: ⭐️5

DNF:

1. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee

Length read: 148 pages

Reason for DNF: Just didn’t care about any of the characters, the narrator/MC had no redeeming qualities, it made me not want to read/wish I was reading something else. Will I give it another chance later: doubt it.

2. Race To The Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Length read: 17 pages Reason for DNF: It was a little too middle grade for me! Obviously as a 20-something I am not the demographic, from what I can tell its well-written and I would've EATEN IT UP when I was in middle school, but just not at this point in my life. Will I give it another chance later: Maybe!

Disclaimer: For me a DNF is not necessarily a "this book sucks I tried for so long but hate it" kinda thing. I'm trying to do much better with not forcing myself to read books that I'm not vibing with, so even if I only read like 20 pages, if its not something I'm actively yearning to continue atm, then I'll DNF!

[mylifeinfiction]

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

"It's an invocation."

Sadly, this one was a letdown. I've really liked how dark LaRocca's novellas and short stories I've read have been, but this just didn't have the same fearlessness in its storytelling. Sure, it does get really dark at times, but it never goes as far as it should. It really feels like two separate novellas edited together. And each one only ever occasionally works on its own, so having them stitched to one another only further messes with the already awkward pacing and poor character development. The main plot has this really intriguing idea which LaRocca is sadly just never able to maintain control over in order to stick the landing. I love both cosmic and religious horror, and there was enough of a seed here to nail the union of the two, but the story's poorly developed characters and unfocused pacing really made this miss the mark. And while the subplot very well might have worked wonders as a short story, as it is, the characters are just too stupid to fill out a longer page count. What a bummer.

3/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[acathea]

i'm sorry but dark urge seeing the hopscotch grid in the blighted village and saying "did i play games like this in my youth? was i sweet once?" has completely destroyed me

[rigginsstreet]

Steve taking Billy to a fancy steakhouse on their first date and billys looking over the menu making all these faces and when the waiter comes over he just orders a salad and Steve’s like “a salad? Seriously? This place has the juiciest steaks in the state what gives!”

And billys like “im a vegetarian, steve…”

To which Steve asks “what the hell is that”

And billy has to explain he doesn’t eat meat and that is a reaaal foreign concept to a midwestern 80s all american boy let me tell you

[worm-on-the-moss]

The natural heir!! You know what I mean???

[chubbidust]

I wonder how Ralsei would react to the Human of the Prophecy, the only person for MILES who can seal the Dark Fountains, being a tiny baby who doesn't know how to speak and can barely walk

bro would be flabbergasted

[chowpatty-ka-icebear]

"food gives you energy"

me after eating:

[betterthanbatman1]

Screaming crying sobbing shrieking punching kicking yelling bawling weeping LOSING MY FUCKING MIND

[nelkcats]

Dani and Dan as "Angel and Devil" in Danny's shoulder, the thing is, everything is basically the same, except Dani and Dan get bored and search Clockwork, who also get bored and teach them to shrink

Now, they basically live with Danny, literally, sometimes Dani hide into his hair, or Dan jumps his arms, he tried to tell about them to Sam and Tucker but they though he was joking and the two little demons just went invisible.

Danny is unsure who is the Demon and who is the Angel in their "game", cause Dan sometimes tell him "is too much work, just don't do it" and Dani goes "kill him, kill him, kill him", he honestly just wants a refund.

[sugarcandydoll]

had a bad dream so i skipped school today ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹ ໒꒰ྀིっ˕ -｡꒱ྀི১

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

the patient but intense waiting continues

[littlektty]

The urge to just stop eating until you can hardly function. To be so weak that you can’t even move, so skinny that it’s unhumanly.