106 pages
Expected publication: June 24th 2022 by JournalStone
5/5 Stars
Full of symbolism and fairy tale elements, We Can Never Leave This Place lures the reader into a war-torn apartment filled with sewage and creepy creatures. The story picks up after young Mara answers the door of her family’s crumpled apartment, and finds a man in a gas mask returning the body of her father. After she realizes that now she has to share her life with no one else but her mother, her life quickly turns into a nightmare of violence and decay.
Eric LaRocca truly surprised me with this novella, even though all of his previous work has been great as well. But there was something about this particular work that truly spoke to me. You really have to read between the lines in this one, and you will realize that nothing is as it seems.
There are a multitude of emotions to be found within this short work, and it is fascinating how Eric managed to bring us so much story in just 106 pages. We got grief, hatred, familial trauma; and it all takes place in the same shitty little apartment. It takes one heck of an author to write an entire story in the same setting, and still keep it interesting.
A big thanks to the author for letting me read an arc.