My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this collection early in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Eric LaRocca for a long time now, since before he really sprang to the forefront of horror. Every time I read one of their works I know I am in for my heart to be torn out and left laying on the floor in misery. This is true with this collection. He has a way of writing that leaves your heart broken and in a million pieces. Each story contained within this collection has every aspect of a LaRocca work, and each one hooks you from the start and leaves you wishing there was more to the story at the end. I have found that while reading these stories I can relate to some of his characters and its those characters that crush me when the final line is written. My two favorite of this collection are Bodies are Burning and The Trees Grew Because I Bled There. All in all once again LaRocca has knocked it out of the park with this collection, and once again I will be continuing to shout about his works far and wide to get more and more people to read what he has brought into this world.

Highly recommend

I discovered Eric LaRocca just last year, with the one-two punch of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes, and We Can Never Leave This Place. I had this to say about that second amazing book:

If, through some infernal alchemy, the DNA of Franz Kafka, William Burroughs, and Clive Barker, were combined, and the resultant child was raised in a haunted house, on a steady diet of Hershel Gordon Lewis and David Cronenberg movies, EC and manga comics, Grimms’ fairytales, and powerful hallucinogens; and if that child grew up to be a writer, they might, just might, create something like We Can Never Leave This Place.

After devouring LaRocca’s newest collection of eight short stories, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There, I’d like to add the DNA of two more authors—Poppy Z. Brite and Roald Dahl. Like Brite, LaRocca is both uncompromising and unflinching in his descriptions of the horrors humans are capable of inflicting on each other. In fact, the last time I read a book that gave me this level of—let’s call it exhilarating discomfort—was while reading Exquisite Corpse. And like Dahl, LaRocca’s characters are acid tongued and black hearted.

The stories themselves are, each and every one, disquieting and unnerving. Despite the varied settings, they are weirdly intimate in nature, rooted in despair and trauma. Happiness is in short supply here. Like I said, exhilarating discomfort. They are also clearly and unapologetically queer. There is gut-wrenching body horror, and LaRocca never allows you to look away.

The stories are uniformly strong, but I do want to call out a couple that truly got me. Bodies Are for Burning is near the beginning of the book, and it lets you know just what you’re in for. It will fuck you up. The Strange Thing We Became is a devastating, desperate portrait of disease and loss. And Where Flames Burned Emerald as Grass is a fever dream as horrible as it is inevitable.

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There releases March 7, 2023, and is available now for pre-order. For fans of uncompromising horror, this is a must.

This was LaRocca’s most harrowing collection yet. I actually had to put the book down between stories so I could process the contents. A lot of them are interlinked, even causing me to form theories between these and his other works too. The prose is beautiful, Building suspense to create the most horrifying stories. This collection didn’t only make my skin crawl, im worried the stories will haunt my nightmares. By far their best work, and the best short story collection I’ve ever read. Lots of these stories left me feeling more than just a little uncomfortable, but deeply disturbed, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

Please be mindful of trigger warnings, and I recommend starting with other works first as this would’ve come as a shock to me if I hadn’t been familiar with their work beforehand.

Also, the introduction and acknowledgements fit this book perfectly and made my heart hurt a little. I highlighted the first and last sentences of both. This is definitely a book to be read from cover to cover, especially if you’re new to LaRocca’s work. It helps to contextualise, although very slightly. The spooky atmosphere is very much still present throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So happy I was finally able to read something by this author. I really enjoyed these stories. They are very dark and they got under my skin. Some stories I will never forget. Already told friends and family members to go and buy this one.

After reading and enjoying 'Things Have Only Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke', I was really intrigued as to what new and unsettling tales would creep me out this time and I wasn't disappointed. This new collection of stories is creepy, unsettling and stays with you long after you've turned the last page. A must read for any horror fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I really wanted to like this collection. This was my first introduction to LaRocca, and while I had heard conflicting opinions in horror circles (you either love his work or really don't), I was pretty sure I'd fall into the camp of enjoying it. I usually like horror authors whose work is controversial and style bizarre. However, while LaRocca's collection voice in this collection was certainly strong, elements of it such as the use of metaphor and line pacing were obtrusive or distracting from the tension, character, and thematics that otherwise were so strong.

The reason why I want to talk about voice in this collection is because the introduction, written by Chuck Wendig, waxes poetic about how strong LaRocca's voice is. Wendig claims that LaRocca's voice is so strong because he has empathy for his characters, because his stories revolve around queerness and sacrifice and transformation and viscera. "The dark magic at the core of this collection," Wendig says as the introduction comes to an end, is from a "sentence found in the titular tale of the collection: Anything that's worth doing always hurts."

I do agree with Wendig on his analysis of LaRocca's work. If not for the strong thematics, his care in portraying his characters, and the visceral imagery LaRocca just knows how to present, I would have probably DNF'd this collection. The sticking point here is the prose.

I don't like LaRocca's prose. I'm sorry, but it really turned me off. Usually I love purple prose and indulgent descriptions, especially in short stories, especially when that prose is more blood red than purple. But I think my thoughts can best be summed up by a note I made while reading the short story "You're Not Supposed to Be Here": My god would it kill you to write a paragraph without a metaphor? Once I noticed how many metaphors LaRocca uses--and never short and sweet ones--I couldn't not notice and be annoyed. I counted over 110 metaphors; the book is 147 pages total, with 115 of those pages being the actual short stories. That's around a metaphor a page; in some sections, there would be multiple metaphors per page.

And, look, again, I love a good metaphor. I wouldn't even say any of the metaphors were necessarily bad. They were all evocative, all clear, but a lot of them were just a little too much.

For example, in "The Strange Thing We Become," the scene with the Morse code machine (page 50 in my review copy) has seven metaphors and similes. Seven! At some point it's fluff. It's distracting. I don't need to know that "the machine chirped like a furious sparrow," just say that it chirped. The word chirped is doing enough lifting there! All those metaphors are exhausting. They're annoying. They're intrusive, and not in a good creepy horror way, in a "please just get to the point dear God" type way.

If the prose was improved, this collection would easily be a four star read. As it is, the metaphors crop up everywhere in the prose like the mycelium of an invasive species of fungus rendering the prose more difficult to read than something black and white and red all over and more unevenly paced than a horse with five legs.

I have another book of his. I dearly hope that either those metaphors have been pruned over the years or his style has changed, because if not I'll be very sad because I very much would like to enjoy his work.

This collection of stories is both heartbreaking and terrifying. The stories are not the type of in-your-face horror you would expect. This author really plays on the fears we all have, the fear of dying and grief, The writing style is almost poetic but still easy to read and very creepy. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

Thank you, Titan Books, for allowing me to read The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories early!

La Rocca deserves everything in this world. The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories is another phenomenal collection of stories that I voraciously devoured.

3.75 stars

This is the second novel i’ve read of the author and i’ve got to say it’s very similar but also very much different.. both novel (things have gotten worse since we last spoke) give off the same odd, unsettling and sickening vibe.. the stories in this one had many plot twists and wtf moments which I really enjoyed! every single time i was like “oh the author is literally insane for coming up with these ideas” if ykyk..

This was filled with disturbing, horrifying, gross, absolutely dreadful stories and I loved every single one. Eric Larocca has officially taken the spot as my favourite author. After THGWSWLS I was very worried that Larocca had peaked and I wouldn't get a story quite as satisfying, but they held up to their own unsurpassed standards and treated my eyes (which I very much deserve) with some messed up stories. All the stars and I cannot wait to see where their career takes them in the future.

Larocca writes horror in a very distinctive manner. His writing is lyrical and incredibly sinister. His tales creep up on you and make you feel uneasy. He transforms even the most routine situations into nightmares.

Some of the stories in this collection are what I would call family horror, and they are the genre at its finest, approach with caution if you have trauma on that side.

With LaRocca's signature highly stylized writing the horror takes on a deeply evocative nature rather than a graphic one, although the stories are often also graphic.
Here horror is both from the outside and from deep inside in a blend that could have only been achieved by LaRocca. Hell is not always others, sometimes hell is what swirls behind our eyes and it takes guts the write that side of horror in such an unflinching way. Because of the themes a certain discomfort is guaranteed while reading. LaRocca also captures the horror of cancer and perhaps of sickness in general on a deep level, a theme that seems to be recurrent for them.

not particularly scary or enjoyable to read. author relies on surprising us with shocking or violent information to provide atmosphere which largely doesn't work (and a lazy reliance on the threat of danger to children - in multiple stories!); none of the plots or twists are all that inventive, and the prose isn't really captivating enough to make up for it. at times the writing/characterization feels very... "we are the daughters of the witches..." etc. iykyk. sorry! i wanted to like it!

It’s more of a 4.5! I jumped into this book not knowing what to expect since this was my first LaRocca book but I’ve only heard good things so I was ready. Wow. Did not disappoint. The stories were so visceral and unsettling. I couldn’t help but put myself in these characters’ positions and wonder how in the world I would react. I think so far this is what LaRocca does masterfully, it doesn’t matter the situation or character, he immediately puts you in their place and makes you feel what they’re feeling. So many times throughout this book I genuinely felt like my heart was being ripped out because of the impossible decisions the characters had to make. I will say, however, the only thing missing for me was that a couple of the stories were missing a little bit of context to really connect the reader to it. It didn’t take away from the emotional impact, but context would make it feel less like I was floating in limbo.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

This book is wow. The stories will leave you sitting and staring into space or shivering. The imagery provokes deep feelings, mixed with a little terror. I can so see this becoming a film of short vignettes.

An interesting story full of twists, turns, fun characters and overall a book I would consider reading time and time again.

Thank you so much to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

This is a reprint of a book from a few years back called The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales. It seems like a lot of LaRocca's books are getting reprints lately. I know some of his stories are harder to find, so this is definitely making them more accessible. Be aware going into this collection that most of the stories will at least mention the topic of cancer.

This is quite a cohesive collection of stories. There aren't a lot of characters in most of them, so it's a really personal and intimate exploration on the bonds of those closest to us. We have a huge range of emotions that are expressed from love, grief, hate, and everything inbetween. Nothing is straightforward, and humans are very complicated.

The following are the titles included in this collection, and my individual rating.

You Follow Wherever They Go - A father with cancer urges his child to introduce himself to the other children. 5 Stars

Bodies are for Burning - A woman struggles with intrusive thoughts about setting people on fire. 4 Stars

The Strange Thing We Become - A woman's wife is diagnosed with cancer, but that's about all I understand. It's told in the format of forum posts. 2.5 Stars

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There - A woman physically gives up pieces of herself to her lover, but he is not appreciative of what she’s sacrificed. 4 Stars

You’re Not Supposed to Be Here - Similar to the description of the book The Chain. 4 Stars

Where Flames Burned Emerald as Grass - A father on vacation with his daughter encounters a strange man who claims to be clairvoyant. 4 Stars

I’ll Be Gone By Then - A woman who has run away from her past in Italy must take in her elderly mother that she hasn't seen in years. 3 Stars

Please Leave or I’m Going to Hurt You - A son develops inappropriate feelings towards his elderly father. 2 Stars

Averaged together my rating comes out to 3.56 stars. As you can see there were hits and misses for me here, which is always the case in a short story collection. Some endings, like the last story, were just a bit too abrupt, and I feel like the meaning was a little lost on me. Overall though I think this is a very successful collection that horror lovers will continue to pick up for years to come.

- Each thing we love takes a little piece of us whether we give it willingly or not.

Beautifully written and haunting in its descriptions, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is the newest collection from much lauded author Eric LaRocca. I'll admit this was my first time reading anything of his but I totally understand why he has such a cult following. His subject matter is dark, twisted and many times quite uncomfortable to read but his prose are so stunning it's impossible to look away. I tried to choose a favourite among the collection of short stories but I honestly can't because they all have their merits and all made me a little uncomfortable at times.

The collection is being released in early March, and whether you're a seasoned LaRocca fan or a newbie like myself, you need to read this. Kudos to Eric LaRocca for pushing the boundaries that he does, and to do it so damn poetically is such an achievement. Thanks to Netgalley and Titan books for an advanced copy of this book.

Deliciously disturbing. Every story lingered on as my brain tried to make sense of what I had read. Each story a gem that will leave you feeling puzzles, uncomfortable and slightly disturbed. There were at least two stories that I feel would have done well as episodes of Criminal Minds.

It was a very interesting read that I would recommend to lovers of the uncomfortable type of horror.

I want to start by thanking Netgalley for an ARC of this title to review. My reviews are always honest and all opinions are my own. #NetGalley #TheTreesGrewBecauseIBledThere #EricLaRocca #BookReview #ARCReview

I will start by saying that I enjoy horror and dark fiction but this collection will not be for everyone. There are very dark themes here that deal with trauma, tragedy and forms of mental health as well as mental and physical abuse. It is not for the faint hearted.

That said I enjoyed the collection because it superbly demonstrates the fragility of humans and their humanity. It deals with fears and worries that many of us may have and looks at the ultimate extremes to see just what could cause a person to break. One of the reasons I love the genre of horror so much is the ability to do just this. To question what it means to be human, what makes someone or something a monster and what makes something an hero? Is it black and white and clear cut? The answer often in horror as real life is no.

On top of this exploration by LaRocca the prose is perfectly set in tone and style to the genre and the stories being told throughout. It’s dark, often gritty but it works. I was unable to put this one down when I started and while not every story was an instant five star they all stuck with me long after reading which for me is the sign of a good story.

A definite must read if you love horror, but this isn’t at all afraid of being dark and going to places some authors may fear to tread and for me that made this collection even better.