At Dark, I Become Loathsome

"Only Eric LaRocca can dig you a warm grave, luring you into its layered depths with a symphony of self-loathing, and make you never want to crawl out of the dark."

-- "Brian McAuley, author of Curse of the Reaper and Candy Cain Kills"

"Brutal, breathtaking, and beautifully written, At Dark, I Become Loathsome is Eric LaRocca at his best. It broke my heart and put it back together again, leaving jagged little scars. LaRocca is a master at peeling back the layers and showing us true darkness and depravity, the loathsome monster hiding inside us all. I applaud him for his bravery, and you, dear reader, for yours."

-- "Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People and My Darling Girl "

"When people think of transgressive literature, they all too often think of it as an assault on the reader: external, aggressive, alienating. What makes LaRocca's work so effective is not only how transgressive it is but how humane it is. These are not transgressions you can stand outside of. Instead, because of his skill reeling us into close proximity with the characters, the transgressions feel intimate, almost as if we were in the process of committing them ourselves. Which makes them all the more relatable, and all the more alarming."

-- "Brian Evenson, author of Last Days and Song for the Unraveling of the World"

"Imagine when literature had the power to be profane. Imagine reading Naked Lunch when it was first unleashed. Imagine no further. Eric LaRocca is this century's William S. Burroughs. He is a Rimbaud abomination. His writing is akin to every Season in Hell. At Dark, I Become Loathsome is a literary ritual, an unholy evocation of those unsparing authors who martyred themselves in the name of transgressive literature. To read this book is to partake in the agony and ecstasy of our poetic saints ... and to burn right alongside them at the stake."

-- "Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters"

"A visceral, unflinching, and yet startlingly humane plunge into desire, depravity, and the essential loneliness of existence--this is a book that you won't, and indeed, can't soon forget."

-- "Kay Chronister, author of Desert Creatures and The Bog Wife"

"With scalpel-sharp prose and an imagination bleak as a starless night sky, Eric LaRocca is the reigning king of uncompromising, decadent horror."

-- "Tim Waggoner, author of Lord of the Feast"

"LaRocca's most unsparing book yet. At Dark, I Become Loathsome is a rich mosaic of alienation and loss that's as tender as it is compelling and ultimately appalling. Eric LaRocca is just so very seductive when it comes to digging graves we'll eagerly throw ourselves into."

-- "Nat Cassidy, author of Nestlings and Mary: An Awakening of Terror"

"At Dark, I Become Loathsome continues to prove that LaRocca is a master navigator of the beautiful and the grotesque, plumbing the darkest, maddest depths of the human heart and retrieving from within all the grief and all the guilt the heart can hold. If there is a greatest strength here--in a book full of them--it is that LaRocca writes with an unswerving attention to the empathy of his characters, caring about them, even when they are, as the title suggests, loathsome."

-- "Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of Accidents and Black River Orchard"

"Terror, humor, humanity, lust, loss: at dark, everything, everything comes out. And Eric LaRocca is afraid of nothing."

-- "Kathe Koja, author of The Cipher and Skin"

"Where some might be too afraid to peer into the brutality of their characters, the wreckage of their psychological wounds, Eric LaRocca is fearless and masterfully mines the darkest recesses of the human soul in search of empathy. At Dark, I Become Loathsome is a story about loneliness and belonging, ritual and friendship that proves to be LaRocca's most personal and intimate story yet."

-- "Michael J. Seidlinger, author of Anybody Home? and The Body Harvest"

"LaRocca presents his most accessible book yet--a stunning, immersive, and relatable tale about the unbearable anguish of grief."

-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

"With At Dark, I Become Loathsome, Eric LaRocca fully takes his place in the hallowed halls alongside predecessors like Clive Barker and David J. Schow. An utterly relentless, terrifying, and masterful work by one of the genre's best new authors."

-- "Brian Keene, author of The Rising"

"A haunting and visceral exploration of identity, guilt, and the body, all wrapped in the author's signature blend of horror and emotional rawness...For readers who appreciate horror that pushes the envelope and forces them to confront uncomfortable truths, At Dark, I Become Loathsome is an essential work."

-- "Horror World"

"LaRocca is a talent among horror authors with an uncompromising and no-holds-barred approach to telling horrifying stories...This is a love letter to those deep horror fans...The combination of complex characters, innovative storytelling, and viscerally upsetting narrative, this book is sure to appease those horror fans looking for something new to start 2025."

-- "Capes & Tights"

"Some novels give you nightmares, while others give you scars. With At Dark, I Become Loathsome, LaRocca delivers both without mercy. Full of human darkness, screaming with broken humanity ... you may not be ready for this book. But it's waiting for you. Nobody gets under my skin like Eric LaRocca. At Dark, I Become Loathsome is a book you cannot unread."

-- "Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Last Resort and Road of Bones"

"LaRocca is a singular author, and this is a strong, ambitious, intentionally disturbing book filled with lyrical prose, stories within stories, and the title phrase repeated like a mantra."

-- "Booklist"

"At Dark, I Become Loathsome is a genuinely disturbing matryoshka doll of a novel that honors the tie-binding grief and our darkest impulses. This is LaRocca's best book yet."

-- "Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of Horror Movie"