This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a 3x Bram Stoker Award (R) finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. He was named by Esquire as one of the "Writers Shaping Horror's Next Golden Age" and praised by Locus as "one of the strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction." LaRocca's notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, At Dark, I Become Loathsome and Burnt Sparrow: We Are Always Tender with Our Dead. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner.

Praise for Eric LaRocca:"These stories are body horror at its best-but they also enter the realms of dark relationships, intrusions that change our lives forever, obviously not for the best, the fear of illness, of taking care, of love, of obsession, of attachment. They are nightmarish and they are deeply human. I loved them and also my jaw dropped at how daring they are, how far they go. Eric La Rocca is not only good: there's courage in his literature."Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night"The Trees Grew Because I Bled There holds you in thrall until the final transgressive act. Here is a collection of stories at once sophisticated and deeply unsettling, each bolder and more spellbinding-and more revelatory-than the last. Eric LaRocca is one of the horror genre's most vital voices." Andy Davidson, author of The Hollow Kind "A powerful collection of eight startling stories. Highly recommended."Ellen Datlow, editor of the annual series The Best Horror of the Year"LaRocca has conjured for us a mad, beautiful tale of dark magic, trauma and love, and how these things intertwine - this is an author in command of powerful narrative sorceries, and is deserving of your immediate attention." Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of Accidents"Horror fiction doesn't get more emotionally raw than this. A smart, sharp read with echoes of King's Needful Things and Barker's The Damnation Game, Everything the Darkness Eats not only has one hell of a good title, it's one hell of a good book."Bentley Little"Some horror walks you down a dark corridor, where there's whispers and laughter, sobs and screams. Other horror starts down at the end of that corridor, where there's a door that opens on to you don't know what. Read this, and then decide where Eric LaRocca has left you. Not that it matters. There's no way out." Stephen Graham Jones, author of Don't Fear the Reaper"Eric LaRocca's unflinching Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke will crawl inside you, move stuff around, and make you see the world differently, like all great stories do." Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club