Teddy has a secret….She’s so consumed with guilt that it compels her body to literally unravel unless she feeds off the emotions of others. Teddy’s parasitic condition is usually tempered easily and is invisible to most, unless she feeds from them. However, her insatiable hunger has already begun to threaten her safety. Trapped in her tiny Connecticut hometown thanks to a careless mistake which … mistake which cost her a prestigious scholarship, Teddy grieves her father’s death and cares for her neurotic mother, Mercy, who is convinced scorpion venom is the only remedy for her own peculiar skin ailment linked to her daughter’s sadness.
Once an aspiring songwriter, Teddy now merely alternates between shifts at the local market and visits to the house of her eccentric neighbor, Mr. Ridley, for fresh scorpions to bring to her mother. It’s during one of her routine visits to Mr. Ridley’s subterranean grotto of exotic animals that Teddy meets an unusual young girl named Kiiara. Immediately enamored with one another, Teddy soon discovers that Kiiara is hiding a gruesome secret, too – a secret that will threaten to undo everything Teddy has ever known and loved, and violently touch all those who cross their path with disaster.
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I came to this book having first encountered Eric’s fantastic “Things have gotten worse…”, and also his latest short in the “Weretales, a shapeshifter anthology”. Given that those two stories were great, I snatched “Starving ghosts…” up, and it took a while before I could fit it in, but I was really looking forward to it.
After reading it, I had to take time out before writing my review, because this book created a dilemma for me. Eric’s debut novella, the book that launched his fantastically unique voice onto the horror scene – didn’t quite work for me. Eric’s voice, his prose, his storytelling style – all of the core elements to the book, worked – absolutely. You can see the wonderful voice already, it is totally readable. But the story didn’t work for me.
To explain that a little more succinctly: The plot of this book and its paranormal/supernatural elements, did not live up to their own logic. The world-building that Eric has invested in, does not follow its own rules. Abilities and “gifts” the characters have been given, are used arbitrarily and are then not used in crucial moments in the story.
Teddy, a character overwhelmed with guilt from an event that happened previously in her life, has a metaphorical shedding of her guilt happen as a real physical event. Her skin (what she thinks of as threads) peels off her like rope, leaving bone and tissue, and blood freely open to the world. This phenomenon is not visible to most people (hinting it is a psychological psychosis/ Internal hallucination), unless the onlooker has also been a victim of Teddy having “fed” on their emotions – another paranormal “ability” of Teddy. For whatever reason, she can see the emotions of people as a physical cloud that is dispensed from people’s heads, from which her threads “eat” (One assumes that the victims of this are also “unaware” of this feeding – they do not see her do it). Once a person has had Teddy eat their emotions, however, they can then see the physical manifestation of her skin threads unraveling.
Now, this may all be a metaphorical example of guilt and its long-reaching effects on other people’s lives, and how a person destroyed by guilt is hypersensitive to other people’s unspoken thoughts and opinions. It might also be an allegory of psychological abuse, mob mentality, and guilt shaming. I don’t know, I’m not going to try to psychoanalyze something as an uneducated (in that field) commentator. I liked the visual imagery here, but couldn’t come to accept the basis behind it. If guilt can manifest as a physical trait (skin sloughing off your body) then the reasoning is that other emotions must also manifest, in other people. Unless Teddy is the chosen one, which we find out, she is not.
Teddy meets another girl, Kiiara (who has no visible emotions, so Teddy could not feed off her, even if she wanted to), whilst obtaining a rare animal, to help treat Teddy’s mother. Her mother, overcome with her own guilt for inciting the incident Teddy feels so much guilt over, has decided that the only way to cure that guilt is through scorpion venom (ok?). As luck would have it, their next-door neighbor is a rare animal and insect handler. Whilst at the neighbor’s “shop”, the two girls meet and connect, and Teddy goes to Kiarra’s house and emotions rise and the two sleep together, and Kiiara “gifts” Teddy her own ability (she can gift her own ability to others) – which is that she can manipulate physical mass. She can look at someone and change the way their skin and muscles and everything fit together, like play-do.
The aforementioned ability took me right back to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the one episode with Ra the sun god, reforming a follower into a lump of clay. The difference is that Ra reached down and grabbed her. Kiiara (and now Teddy) can re-mold people at will. All well and good – but then Kiiara decides that she wants to rob the animal handler and grab some expensive animals/insects. And they do this by breaking into the house, where they are discovered, and both of the MCs abstain from using their powers at all. Instead of incapacitating him by, say, removing his arms and legs and making him a potato man, or a brick, or in fact, anything, Kiiara (who has had her ability for much longer) attacks the man, beating him senseless, which is a lot riskier, I think than just using her power. At which point, Teddy attacks Kiiara with her threads, and both of them do not use Kiiara’s ability, Kiiara instead succumbing to Teddy’s threads, which are visible to Kiiara even though Teddy has not fed off her, as clarified earlier.
There are, for me, issues. Read as a straight-up “physical manifestation”, and not reading anything into it (that the threads are guilt, the mass manipulation “wishes”), the rules are ignored when it suits the story. Elements such as the handler being the neighbor, seem to be too convenient. The whole story thread of needing scorpion blood is bizarre, and seems to be there purely as a way to bring the two girls together, and give them something to covert (the animals). Teddy has an affinity to all animals – the scorpions do not bite her – another ability that is never explained.
For me, there’s too much here that didn’t gel. Eric’s writing saves the day. Absolutely. His voice, his flare, his eminently readable prose, you can’t ignore it. It turns this into something you want to work. The ideas behind this story are fantastic, the imagination limitless, the visuals outstanding. But the logic… There are too many things to look back on and wonder – why?
This is a three read for me. I liked it, but I have no idea what I just read.
There’s always a decision you wish you hadn’t made. One there’s no coming back from. Your life’s course altered forever, but what if that wasn’t all? What if your body physiology changed too? That’s the situation Teddy finds herself in.
Eric LaRocca paints a portrait of guilt that asks the questions- what is Teddy willing to do to survive? What is she willing to do to live? Is she willing to recognize the difference? There’s a profound sadness throughout the story, which I realize sounds like a downer, but this elegantly written tale was a joy to read. Chances are if you’ve ever regretted anything in your life, you’ll find a way to relate to Teddy in some way. I still live in the town I grew up in and was able to see a little of myself in her.
The way Teddy’s condition is described is body horror of the highest order, yet the way it’s handled also bestows a certain beauty to it. It’s not something I expected, but was a welcome surprise as everything unfolded. There are some truly horrifying things that take place, but they’re described so poetically that while I was picturing these terrible things happening in my head, I was also left with a sense of wonder.
This isn’t really a complaint because I loved the speed this story moved along, but it felt like there was little more here originally, like there were some scenes that got left on the cutting room floor. More about some of the other characters besides Teddy perhaps…then again, that may have have changed the pace too much and bogged things down too.
With this debut running a brisk 89 pages, I don’t want to say too much more about it other than you should this. I’d also suggest not reading the back of the book (it says a lot) or too much about it elsewhere before diving in. I went in almost blind, and as the questions I had were answered, they felt like discoveries as opposed to things I was waiting to happen.
This was a fantastic read I highly recommend and I can’t wait for Eric’s next collection when it comes out next year.
* I was sent a physical copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
***Received a free copy in exchange for honest review***
I enjoyed this fast-paced novella. The author was great with setting details. The book was character-driven focusing on Teddy and Kiiara. The drama was interesting. Since there was no horror (for me as a reader) until the very end of the story, I couldn’t tell if this story was literary, horror, or fantasy. Whenever Teddy could read a person, part of her skin would coil. Was this just in her head? Was she the only one this happened to? Was this a fantasy world? A normal world? I couldn’t tell, but those questions not being answered didn’t stop me from liking the story.
My favorite lines: 1) “I often feel lost, even to myself.” 2) “Everything I’ve lived, I’ve lived through other people. I’ve convinced myself that their stories, their troubles, their passions were mine.” 3) “The thing I’ve so desperately tried to convince myself otherwise is true–people know.”
The ending was pretty intense. The very last scene I felt for Teddy. It was a lasting impression of what she did after making her mom go to the neighbor’s house. I thought about it long after finishing the novella, which I gave props to the author for writing a compelling drama.
I RECOMMEND this book to read.
Starving Ghosts In Every Thread is a stunning debut horror novella by Eric LaRocca. Filled with a deep sense of guilt and various secrets, sprinkled with violence and heartbreak, this tale will keep you on the edge of your seat!
When I saw the cover of this one, I was immediately intrigued. I mean, how amazing is that cover?! I love the trees and how they fade out toward the top of the cover while the two trees in the foreground and black of the ground really draw the eye to the center where the girl is standing. Then of course the bright red title text that has bits of darkness splattered or blurred onto it gives it even more of an eerie vibe!
Eric and I connected on Twitter and when Eric reached out to ask if I would like a review copy, I was thrilled! I dove into the book just as soon as I had finished up the book I had been reading when this one arrived in the mail.
My goodness. In just the first couple of pages, I was totally hooked! I was so curious to learn more about the main character, Teddy, but I also found myself feeling very protective of her right from the first chapter.
As the story continued, I couldn’t help but feel more and more protective of Teddy. It was clear that she was suffering through the guilt of something as well as the loss of her father, and that the affects of these two strong emotions were holding her back. But not only were these things weighing her down, they were also causing her to have physical reactions.
And what was that physical reaction? Well, Teddy’s Teddy’s skin would randomly begin to unravel from her body, a fact that I was equally horrified and enthralled by.
I loved that this physical element wasn’t fully explained to the reader as it left a wonderfully mysterious element up to us to dwell on long after the book ends.
The situations that Teddy found herself in the middle of in a span of just 89 pages was wicked intense! One particular scene that was set in a basement had me reading as fast as I could to see what would happen next.
This one is going to stick with me for a very long time! It’s definitely one I will be returning to time and time again.
An all around wonderful novella. I cannot wait to see what Eric writes next!
If you’re a fan of light body horror and tales with wonderful characters, then I highly recommend picking this one up when you have time to read it cover to cover. It was spooky and bizarre, and it had intense action scenes, all of which are right up my alley! It also also totally broke me.
This novella will haunt me.
What a jewel! Starving Ghosts in Every Thread by Eric La Rocca was a real treat for me, especially since I am a fan of China Miéville, Sara Waters, and Alice Hoffman. Each of those authors came to mind in passing as I read this novella, yet this tale is totally unique in every detail. La Rocca’s characters were drawn so intensely yet so quickly and cleverly that the pace never slowed. The same could be said for the poetry of every line, somehow La Rocca delivered tension and suspense without ever losing the poetic voice that lured me into the story in the beginning. I always appreciate an author who has and shares expertise in an uncommon area, here La Rocca fascinated me with his knowledge of scorpions, lizards, and rare insects. I read this in an eBook, and I loved it so much I ordered the paperback.