This was overall a very strong short story collection from LaRocca. I love their sick and twisted mind and how that mind is able to make beauty out of the sick and twisted. Below are individual reviews and ratings for each story that I wrote out right after finishing each one. 

You Follow Wherever They Go 5/5
WOW what a gut punch. Starting this collection with a heartbreaking story of a father and his child and some weird kids outside their window. I went into this story expecting some sort of terrifying twist and was left with tears in my eyes. Gorgeous and heartbreaking. 

Bodies are for Burning 5/5
I genuinely love the way that Eric LaRocca explores psychology and the mind. This story was very difficult to read. Violent in the ways only Eric LaRocca can be successful at to where I’m reading some of the most gruesome lines ever written but told through such gorgeous wording that I can’t stop reading. LaRocca always leaves me wanting more and I just want to know everything about Hailey now. 

The Strange Thing We Become 5/5
I’ve decided this is my favorite version of LaRocca writing. As much as I love their prose-based stories, there is just something that really hits different in their online-forum based stories. Something about the broken up nature of the story and only getting pieces of a life without any filler is just something LaRocca does SO WELL. This story was absolutely heart-wrenching and brought me back to the same feelings I felt reading THGWSWLS. 

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There 5/5
I have no words. Most amazing and horrific metaphor for giving too much of yourself in a relationship with no return. Obsessed. 

You’re Not Supposed to Be Here 5/5
This gave me all of the Cabin at the End of the World vibes but with the perfect LaRocca twist. Suspense-filled and absolutely perfect. This one and the title story are neck and neck for favorites.

Where Flames Burned Emerald as Grass 4/5
This one didn’t hit AS much as the other ones for me. Still good but definitely for me this story feels like the most forgettable in the bunch for this collection. 

I’ll Be Gone By Then 4/5 
Kind of like the one before it this one didn’t hit as much as the other ones. I enjoyed it and thought the ending was very interesting but I was waiting for that Eric LaRocca creep factor and instead was just really sad.

Please Leave or I’m Going to Hurt You 3/5
Maybe I need to reread that one or maybe incest and I just don’t vibe but this one definitely wasn’t my favorite. It’s very possible I just don’t understand it or couldn’t see past the incestual thoughts to get the overall point of the story but it definitely wasn’t my favorite.

The stories absolutely built in intensity. To name a few of the best ones- The Trees grew because I bled there, I’ll be gone by then, you’re not supposed to be here. 

The best stories were ones where LaRocca grapples with the darkness of the human condition without explicitly naming it. I’ll be gone by then gave me chills due to the profound sadness it induced. 

In you’re not supposed to be here, there is more to unpack than quick and enticing story line- it may require a deeper read. 

These stories don’t rely on gore and guts but instead a deep examination of feelings that are considered taboo. 

Love LaRocca!