Staff Pick
Eric LaRocca is a master of atmosphere and We Can Never Leave This Place is a study in how the true power of horror lies in the untold and nondescript. Gothic and morose, delicate and heartfelt, the fine line between grotesque and dazzling is where you’ll find LaRocca dancing like a Puritan girl liberated by witchcraft, naked and levitating. You’ll start this book willingly, hand-in-hand, but by the closing pages it’ll be dragging you kicking and screaming. Recommended By Stacy W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"When you're given a gift, something else gets taken away."
A precocious young girl with an unusual imagination is sent on an odyssey into the depths of depravity. After her father dies violently, young Mara is surprised to find her mother welcoming a new guest into their home, claiming that he will protect them from the world of devastation and destruction outside their door.
A grotesque and thrilling dark fantasy, We Can Never Leave This Place is a harrowing portrait of inherited grief and familial trauma.
"We Can Never Leave This Place is the apocalyptic 21st century Grimm's fairy tale you need in your life. Eric LaRocca plucks images directly from the muck and mire of our id and fashions them into something grotesquely beautiful." Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Pallbearers Club
"We Can Never Leave This Place is a bleak and tender, monstrous and visceral fable of family and loss, and the courage it takes to confront them both." Kathe Koja, author of The Cipher
Review
"There's something wrong with Eric LaRocca, and I mean that in the very best way possible. His stories stick a screw right into your heart-meat. Looking forward to whatever gut-clenching horror he has coming." — Chuck Wendig, New York Times best-selling author of The Book of Accidents
Review
"The hype surrounding LaRocca is real. He is quickly emerging as one of the best authors at articulating the emotions of horror" — Library Journal (Starred Review)