Number 26- We Are Always Tender With Our Dead- Eric LaRocca

 

Last year I read his short collection Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and dropped hints to all friends and family to buy me LaRocca books for Christmas, and they did.  this is one of them.

Eric gives good title on most of his books, and this is no exception. This is part one of a new trilogy set in the town of Burnt Sparrow.

Even by the standards of horror towns, Burnt Sparrow is a strange place. It's layered with strange rituals and traditions, not many of which are explained, they just add to the feeling of desperate unease that soaks through the pages of this book.

Rupert Cromwell has lived all 17 years of his life in Burnt Sparrow. When a tragedy strikes in the town leaving dozens of corpses in the streets, Rupert's father takes on the job of taking care of the bodies, and he drags Rupert along for the gruesome task as well.

Meanwhile, the perpetrators are captured and the town elders are persuaded into a cruel and unusual method of punishment.

The supernatural elements in the story are as unexplained as the traditions of the town. There are no easy explanations to be found here.  We need to take this on trust and it's a journey I'm all in for continuing.

There is some very shocking content in this book, but none of it ever feels unnecessary. This might be his best book that I've read so far and I can't wait for the next installment. 

With 30 pages to go I had no idea where he was going to go to find an ending, and I have to say there is no way I would possibly have guessed at it. It's an almost perfect ending to a volume 1 of a trilogy.  It closes off enough plotlines to feel like the end of the book, and leaves enough open that I need to know NOW what happens next.

This was a concentrated exercise in strangeness, unpleasantness and atmosphere. It's certainly a book that has lingered since I finished it last week and I think it's going to stick in my head for some time more.