Books by Eric LaRocca

Bound in Blood: Stories of Cursed Books, Damned Libraries and Unearthly Authors

by Johnny Mains, Adam Cesare, Eric LaRocca, Charlie Higson, Nadia Bulkin

A chilling anthology of nineteen stories of cursed and haunted books; featuring malevolent second-hand books, cursed novelizations, unsettling journals and the end of the world.

From award-winning authors including Eric LaRocca, Charlie Higson, Kim Newman and A. G. Slatter. Perfect for fans of When Things Get Dark.

You find it hidden in the dark corner of the bookstore; tucked away in a box in the attic, desperate to be read; lurking on your bookshelf, never seen before. Crack the spine, feel the ancient pages. Read it aloud, if you dare.

This anthology brings together horror’s best and brightest to delve into the pages of cursed books, Eldritch tomes and haunted bookstores.

Featuring stories from:

Adam Cesare
Eric LaRocca
Isy Suttie
Charlie Higson
A. G. Slatter
Priya Sharma
Lucie McKnight Hardy
Alison Moore
Kim Newman
And many more!

At Dark, I Become Loathsome

by Eric LaRocca

From Eric LaRocca--Bram Stoker Award-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since Last We Spoke--comes At Dark, I Become Loathsome, a grim yet gentle, horrifying yet hopeful, intense tale of death, trauma, and love.
"If you're reading this, you've likely thought that the world would be a better place without you."
A single line of text, glowing in the darkness of the internet. Written by Ashley Lutin, who has often thought the same--and worse--in the years since his wife died and his young son disappeared. But the peace of the grave is not for him--it's for those he can help. Ashley has constructed a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die is at war with their yearning to live a better life.
Struggling to overcome his own endless grief, one night Ashley finds connection with Jinx--a potential candidate for Ashley's next ritual--who spins a tale both revolting and fascinating. Thus begins a relationship that traps the two men in an ever-tightening spiral of painful revelations, where long-hidden secrets are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.
Only through pain can we find healing. Only through death can we find new life.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

by Eric LaRocca

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death.

A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s -- a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

You've Lost a Lot of Blood

by Eric LaRocca

Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood.

You've lost a lot of blood . . .

Wretch or, The Unbecoming of Porcelain Khaw

by Eric LaRocca

From rising horror star and award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes a nightmarish, haunting, tech-Gothic thrill ride about sorrow, memory, and the unabashed complexity of love as a transgressive act.

After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved...for a price.

Hallucinatory, fiendish, and destructively beautiful, Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.

Bound in Blood

by Johnny Mains, Adam Cesare, Eric LaRocca, Charlie Higson, Nadia Bulkin, Ramsey Campbell, Guy Adams, Kim Newman, A.K. Benedict, Priya Sharma, A.G. Slatter, Zin Rocklyn, Isy Suttie, Angeline Morrison, Lucie McKnight Hardy

A chilling anthology of nineteen stories of cursed and haunted books; featuring malevolent second-hand books, cursed novelizations, unsettling journals and the end of the world.

From award-winning authors including Eric LaRocca, Charlie Higson, Kim Newman and A. G. Slatter. Perfect for fans of When Things Get Dark.

You find it hidden in the dark corner of the bookstore; tucked away in a box in the attic, desperate to be read; lurking on your bookshelf, never seen before. Crack the spine, feel the ancient pages. Read it aloud, if you dare.

This anthology brings together horror’s best and brightest to delve into the pages of cursed books, Eldritch tomes and haunted bookstores.

Featuring stories from:

Adam Cesare
Eric LaRocca
Isy Suttie
Charlie Higson
A. G. Slatter
Priya Sharma
Lucie McKnight Hardy
Alison Moore
Kim Newman
And many more!

Everything the Darkness Eats Second Edition

by Eric LaRocca

Shortlisted for the 2023 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

A haunting and horror-filled tale of loneliness, trauma and spiritual yearning from the award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

After a recent string of disappearances in a small Connecticut town, a grieving widower with a grim secret is drawn into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by a powerful and mysterious older gentleman. Meanwhile, a member of local law enforcement tasked with uncovering the culprit responsible for the bizarre disappearances soon begins to learn of a current of unbridled hatred simmering beneath the guise of the town's idyllic community―a hatred that will eventually burst and forever change the lives of those who once found peace in the quiet town of Henley's Edge.

An insidious darkness threatens to devastate a rural New England village when occult forces are conjured and when bigotry is left unrestrained. In this revised second edition, readers can appreciate a terrifying, new alternate ending.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes

by Eric LaRocca

"Amongst the Top 50 Horror Books of All Time" - Cosmopolitan

Three dark and disturbing horror stories from an astonishing new voice, including the viral-sensation tale of obsession, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. For fans of Kathe Koja, Clive Barker and Stephen Graham Jones. Winner of the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novella.

A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.

A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son’s death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm…

And a man confronts his neighbour when he discovers a strange object in his back yard, only to be drawn into an ever-more dangerous game.

Three devastating, beautifully written horror stories from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances

by Eric LaRocca

A brand-new collection of four intense, claustrophobic and terrifying horror tales from the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

THIS SKIN WAS ONCE MINE
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known about her father.

SEEDLING
A young man’s father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother’s body still in the house. Struggling to process what has happened he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist. Then he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction.

ALL THE PARTS OF YOU THAT WON’T EASILY BURN
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction...

PRICKLE
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences...

We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow, 1)

by Eric LaRocca

Michael McDowell’s Blackwater meets Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show in the disturbing first installment of a new trilogy of intense, visceral, beautifully written queer horror set in a small New England town.

A chilling supernatural tale of transgressive literary horror from the Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation. Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.

Engrossing, atmospheric, and unsettling, this is a devastating story of a small New England community rocked by an unforgivable act of violence. Writing with visceral intensity and profound eloquence, LaRocca journeys deep into the dark heart of Burnt Sparrow, leaving you chilled to the bone and wanting more.