Eric LaRocca

The story follows a young lesbian, Agnes, as she descends into a kind of madness. She's enabled, or perhaps her madness can be blamed on Zoe, a person Agnes connects with online after listing a family heirloom for sale on a forum.

It's a quick story but the format makes it feel like it's going on forever, as if there's no end to the spiraling downwards and you're eagerly affixed to the possible outcomes of this diabolical parasocial relationship.

But is any of it real? The only evidence we show more have is the format itself: email exchanges and IM conversations presented as though they were part of evidence of an ongoing trial. Otherwise, it's wholly plausible that we're just in Agnes’ head. It's all completely fantastical. Illusion.

This may be one of the more disturbing fictional works I've read. There's something insanely sickening about being mesmerized by a story of this nature. Something about the psychology of human … endurance? To what lengths will we go for whatever reason that drives us, consumes us at a given moment?

While I give this a high rating, I don't know that I can recommend it as a casual read. If you're already into the level of psychological (and body) horror of, say, the film American Psycho or even Silence of the Lambs, then you may appreciate this novella. show less

LaRocca pushes the envelope with these stories, and if you read them and don't squirm in your seat (at least a little) then I think you should possibly be put on a government watch list. Some of these short stories are just hauntingly disturbing, but all of them are unsettling. I was pulled into each one abruptly each time as I waited for whatever horror filled nightmare I was going to read about this time.

I completely loved it of course. 10/10. Eric LaRocca is an instant read and an instant show more buy for me forever.

Trigger Warnings: imagined violence against children, incest, body horror to the max and probably so much more that I repressed. show less

Eric LaRocca writes the weirdest things and I love it. This is my second work by him and it’s just as unsettling as the first. His writing is disturbing and graphic but I can’t put it down. I enjoy the LGBTQ+ themes present in his stories and enjoy the unique lens he writes from. At no point during these stories did I have any idea where they were going, and I could not have guessed how they would end. They make you uncomfortable but in a way that really makes you evaluate how you think. show more He’s quickly become one of my favorite authors. show less

I could not put this book down. The writing was engaging and the little tidbits and stories peppered without really helped the overall work. The main character is complex and tortured and just so wonderfully broken. He has conflicted emotions about his own sexuality, specifically around relationships with other men. Such as believing men are only there for sex, and that they can’t bring companionship or love. He gets excited by men but feels disgusted by it and this discrepancy plays out a show more lot.

He’s overcome with grief that he lets control his life. Everything is based around the loss of his wife and son and the guilt he feels around these losses. The specters of these two seem to represent his conscience as he makes different decisions.

He sees his killing as a way to help people who are suffering, but he himself is too afraid to end his own suffering. He thinks he’s unworthy of ending his suffering due to how “loathsome” he is. This inner conflict of him believing he’s doing the right thing but not feeling worthy of the same is really interesting. At the end of the book he realizes his killing was wrong and we have that transformation of him as a person. He got the closure he needed and I’d be interesting to see where he goes next. Overall I loved this book and can’t say enough good things about it. show less