Welcome to Litsy!

(2023) I picked up this collection of stories shortly after finishing “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke“ with a weird mixture of “WTF did I just read“ and “I'd like some more please.“ And this delivers: body horror, with an aesthetic more of dread than splatter, about love and cruelty and the things we know we shouldn't do and we do them anyway

As one who has lived a life of disturbing thoughts and anxieties, the ones this writer fixates on feel somehow inauthentic. There is writing to understand the depths of human experience and there‘s writing to provoke. This landed on provocative but in too heavy handed a way as to be relatable I‘m afraid.

This book of short stories is qualified as horror but I wouldn‘t call them that per se. The stories are dark, for sure, and all are about the depths of human behavior, and very unsettling and intense. Maybe that‘s horror. I think you might like this one @vivastory and @Reggie

One story is set in #CostaRica so I can add it for #ReadingTheAmericas2023 🇨🇷

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca is a horrifically beautiful collection of short stories centering around grief and internal struggle.

Each story in The Trees Grew Because I Bled There will get under your skin and float through your bloodstream.

Eric will never cease to amaze me with the way he blends beauty in even the darkest moments.

https://www.ericarobynreads.com/the-trees-grew-because-i-bled-there-by-eric-laro...

Eight short stories that all have horror I‘ve encountered in a movie before (I love horror movies). Some of the stories put you in a place and ask what you would do. You may feel disgust, fear, or sadness at and with the characters. Most of these are very graphic, and they‘re all deeply disturbing. Recommended.

I really enjoyed these stories, though I read them over quite a few days. Each story invoked feelings of quiet despair, horror, sadness, grief…I found them very poignant, if at times horrific.

Sometimes you just need a good body horror story to freak you out and keep you up at night and Eric LaRocca is a master of that genre.

Each story was like a gory bad dream that I couldn't wake up from. The writing felt so real in parts that I had to step away because of the intensity and yet I still couldn't wait to see what happened next.

Great horror collection! 💀

Disturbing. Definitely disturbing. That is what I think of this collection. It is actually my favorite that I have read from LaRocca. The story with the woman babysitting her niece was definitely one of my favorites and very tense. The story where the couple with a baby meet the strangers in the park was probably my least favorite but still good. This collection was full of great stories.

Publication date March 7 2023