Another dark and disturbing outing for LaRocca. Creeping beneath the skin this collection will tingle long after you’ve finished.

I was all in on the first--and I think, longest--story in this compilation (the eponymous This Skin Was Once Mine). You expect that something is wrong from the jump, but the author deftly leaves you uneasy through a slow burn to the reveal. The remainder of the collection felt a little uneven, but kept the intensity dialed up. The nature of the body horror in the second story (Seedling) was just too intense for me, which is honestly saying something.

This was definitely some of my favorite work from Eric LaRocca.!

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances is a collection of four short stories that explores themes of childhood trauma, grief, and twisted companionship. For lack of a better phrase, this will quite literally get under your skin.

With short story collections, I always find myself preferring some over the others. This is one of those unique times where I enjoyed every single one a lot. It’s hard to say which is my favorite. Seedling’s ending made my stomach fully drop. All of the Parts of You That Won’t Burn made me gag out loud. I have a lot of respect for horror authors that can get a reaction out of me beyond just gratuitous gore, and LaRocca did not play around.

If you’re a fan of strange horror, I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the e-ARC!

Y'all, buckle up because this ride is equal parts "gasp!" and "omg, I'm going to puke!" (affectionately). This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca is chock full of body horror and surrealist metaphors that tap into real, human fear. I loved this short story collection, but realize it is definitely not for everybody.

These four stories explore dark themes including generational trauma, addiction, sexual abuse, and familial relationships, often using surprising metaphors to get the point across. The tension and pressure that built throughout each one propelled me to keep reading.

This was my first LaRocca story, and I'll be coming back for more.


Big thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC.

Reading this left my eyebrows practically kissing my hairline, and my jaw firmly planted on the ground.

Among all the stories, the first one captured my interest the most. It's intriguing to contemplate how I discovered a sense of justice amidst such depravity.

"This skin was once mine, and other disturbances" by Eric LaRocca is a wonderfully creepy collection of tales, most revolving around elements of body horror. This was my second LaRocca read, and, although, I don't think it topped "It's been a while since we talked," it was an incredible collection, and I enjoyed all the stories.

LaRocca's writing is effective, through its surface level simplicity, to make you gasp at all the unexpected turns and horrible (but in a good way) ways the story progresses. His careful avoidance of using elaborate prose acts as an exemplification of how gory what happens in the story is. I didn’t have a monent to appreciate a beautifully placed word, and it would feel out of place for me to do that while reading the stories and being shocked at everything that happened.

There were 4 stories in this collection, and all of them were exceptional as horror tales. The two that stood out for me were "All the Parts of You That Won't Burn Easily" and "This Skin Was Once Mine.""

In "All the Parts of You That Won't Burn Easily," I really enjoyed the depiction of pain as a cure. Some parts of it are true as I can think of situations in which the cure is more painful than the illness, and you do it because you hope that once it's all over, it will all feel better. It also really made me think of a variety of practices that I heard older relatives say about how you can only remove one kind of pain but going through a painful treatment and hope, at the end, the original pain you feel will be gone. After reading this, I believe what they meant is that your tolerance for pain increases, and the previous issue appears smaller. Enoch's delving into massochism as a form of pleasurable pain was a self administered medicine from his incomplete life, which led him to more danger, in the face of an arsonist kidnapper (I think).

"This Skin Was Once Mine" (probably my favourite story) is about Jillian, a woman who returns home after her father's death and reunites with her mother. I was really intrigued by the family breakdown and was so surprised by the secrets that were revealed. For me, this was the most fast-paced story in the collection.

If you enjoy horror, nearly surreal, creepy stories, don't miss out on LaRocca's writing!

This is my first book by Eric Larocca and it is a collection of 4 short horror stories.

This is not my type of horror. I feel like there was not a lot of plot but it was also weird. I don’t think the stories were bad and there is definitely an audience for them. The writing was also a bit boring for me and it didn’t click for me. I do really liked the cover and title of this one!

I know certain people will really love this one. I didn’t hate it but didn’t love it either.

Thanks so much to netgalley and Titan books for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

I am once again the minority when it comes to Eric Larocca. I’ve been seeing this one get glowing reviews so I wanted to check it out. Unfortunately….this wasn’t for me. This author isn’t for me. I think Eric is EXTREMELY talented and so creative and really has the ability to create beautiful art with his words and I never once thought any different. However, this is once again a case of “I was bored out of my mind because I didn’t want to do homework trying to figure out the hidden meaning of these stories.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A load of short stories. A lot of them creeped me out and left me feeling ick. This will definitely find its crowd!

Yo, this collection was brilliant and wild. I have of course heard of Eric LaRocca all over the place, but had yet to read any of their works until this one when netgalley approved me for an ARC, and this will absolutely not be my last. The stories in this collection were absolutely mind bending, original, and incredibly grotesquely visceral. I can honestly say I have not read anything quite like it. My favorite story was the title story, but they were all really good. As I started each new story, I was low key nervous and asking myself “ok where the hell is this one going to take me? Am I ready?” The eeriness and sense of dread was visceral in each story, despite the fact that they were all wildly different. Incredible and detailed body horror is definitely one of the main themes in this book, so if you are a fan of that, LaRocca is a must read. I am already trying to decide which collection to pick up next.

This title comes out April 2, 2024. If you are a fan of body horror and uniquely grotesque stories, go ahead and read one of LaRocca’s other collections while you wait for this one.

4.5. This is an exceptional collection of stories. I've been a fan of Eric LaRocca for awhile now and This Skin Was Once Mine did not disappoint. The only major points I would dock from this book as a whole would be the first story introducing perhaps one too many characters and not completely tying everyone back in in the ending. I will say however that I appreciated the nod to another character in one of LaRocca's other works (You've Lost A Lot Of Blood). Ultimately, these stories got under my skin, no pun intended. I think my favorite of the four was All The Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn, in which we see a man go through a most bizarre and disturbing revelation and the subsequent decisions that he makes as a result. Prickle was also amazing; short, tense, and packing an extreme and ludicrous punch. This is definitely one to pick up if you're looking for thought-provoking short horror.

I had high hopes for this collection and it did not disappoint. The title story was the best one, in my humble opinion - but I enjoyed them all.

Thank you for the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a great little collection of short stories! I knew I would be in for a treat with Eric LaRocca since I LOVED Things Have Gotten Worse since we last spoke. His writing is so unrelentingly creepy, disorienting and disturbing. I rated each of the stories below:


The Skin Was Once Mine- 4,5-5, def the strongest of the collection and the most well developed. My Jaw dropped multiple times- SHOOKETH!

Seedling-2 , it had a lot of similarities with the first story in terms of setting, details and strained parental relationships for _____ reasons. It just wasn't a very strong or memorable story,

All The Parts of You that Won't Burn- 4.5 This really got under my skin- pun intended, I was so entertained and engaged the entire time, really brutal.

Prickle- 3.5 this one was so great and diabolical ! I will never look at charming old men the same way ever again,

As always, LaRocca never fails to shock in the most thought provoking ways possible. These tales range from ones centered on how pain might sometimes heal rather than harm; how grief and loss and mourning might drive us to terrible places within our minds and beckon us to do terrible things; how grief can become shared intimacy, like showing ourselves naked, like turning our minds inside out and bearing its inner workings to others; how we allow addiction and obsession and compulsion get in the way of our relationships; how we might choose fleeting desires over long term established connection; how pain becomes an escape for the less fortunate. LaRocca explores all these themes and ideas through sympathetic yet wildly disturbing characters and unreliable narrators and alluring dark twists and turns.

I was excited to get to read another spine tingle, skin crawling collection from Eric LaRocca and This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances didn't disappoint in the slightest.
From the very beginning of the first story to the absolutely devastating end of the fourth, I couldn't put this book down. It's dark and twisty and delving in deep to things in very unexpected ways.
Please find my spoiler free youtube review attached: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueAcqAT6V74&t=1s

The question to this book is "How much do you like Eric LaCrocca"? because if you are like me and you do, this book is absolutely phenomenal. These stories stayed with me for days.

The book features four short stories that focus on broken relationships and "coming home".

An heiress to a fortune visits home after 20 years. A man finds a new obsession that draws him into a secret world. A family experiences grief after a great loss. Two old friends connect for one last time.

On their surface, each story seems innocent, until the dark begins to swallow them.

This collection features pretty standard Eric Larocca themes, so if you really didn't enjoy their other work, you may want to skip this one.

I like short story collections like this where the individual stories are fleshed out, but quick to get into and quick to finish at the same time. Overall, this was well-written and creepy and weird in an interesting way. The writing style was very descriptive and unique while still fast-paced overall. The first story (which was about half of the length of this book) was my favourite and had a really strong ending. That one was more of a 4.5 for me. The third story (which was the second longest) was also pretty interesting and unlike anything I've read before. The second and fourth stories were shorter and were alright as part of a collection but weren't as developed so my rating for the book is higher than my rating for those individual sections.

Thank you for the ARC copy.

This book was creepy and good. I liked short stories. Just enough details and depth to the stories.

A brand-new collection of four intense, claustrophobic and terrifying horror tales from the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.
Four devastating tales from a master of modern horror…
This Skin Was Once Mine
When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago by her venomous mother. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret in her family's past--a secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known to be true about her beloved father and, more importantly, herself. It's only natural to hurt the things we love the most...
Seedling
A young man's father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother's body still in the house. Struggling to process what has happened he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist—the inside of the wound as black as onyx and as seemingly limitless as the cosmos. He is even more unsettled when he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction. The young man becomes obsessed with his father's new wounds, exploring the boundless insides and tethering himself to the black threads that curl from inside his poor father...
Prickle
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences...
All the Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction...

Four short stories that will make you squirm! Some are of course better than others, but I feel they had a pretty consistent quality to all of them. very fun and quick read:)

I have never been disappointed in Larocca’s work and this might even be his best collection! it stays true to their brand of macabre, almost surreal horror. all 4 stories presented here are Larocca at the top of their craft, my personal favorite was the final story, Prickle.