The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories

Praise for The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories: "Magnificent stories that explore the darkest depths of the human soul. Lyrical, heartbreaking, devastating-this is literary horror at its finest." - Tim Waggoner, author of Your Turn to Suffer "Sometimes you meet someone and within a few minutes you know you're going to be the best of friends. That's how I felt about this book within a few sentences. For such a slim volume it packs a huge punch, touching on Ray Bradbury and Roald Dahl, but completely its own. I felt a pain in my chest during some of the stories. a visceral anxiety to some of the writing. Eric LaRocca is truly original, truly subversive, and truly talented." - Priya Sharma, author of Ormeshadow "Something is rotten at the heart of LaRocca's literary world. An unease, a disquiet, a world-spanning cancer. Grief and horror unfold in tandem in one of the most original and startling collections I've read in a long while. The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is a dark elegy and not one to be taken lightly. Don't miss it." - John Hornor Jacobs, author of A Lush and Seething Hell Praise for Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke: "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 A Head Full of Ghosts and The Pallbearers Club. "A startling affair... I'll be cleaning up particles of darkness in my office for weeks." - Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box and Malorie "Bleak, clever, edgy, and vicious. Eric LaRocca draws his readers in for something they will never expect and never forget." - Sadie Hartman "LaRocca's combination of structure, adept pacing and masterful language is more complex than meets the eye... A must-read for fans of body horror, epistolary novels, and depravity" - Library Journal, Best Horror of 2021 "A hauntingly elegant, masterfully written, and ultimately devastating indictment of cruel manipulation and even crueler submission. This is one deeply fucked-up heartbreaker. You have been warned." - John Skipp, author of The Light at the End "Part Dennis Cooper's 'The Sluts', part David Cronenberg's 'The Brood'... Eric LaRocca's 'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke' is a masterpiece of epistolary body horror." - Max Booth III author of We Need to Do Something "'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke' is a tight, merciless epistolary, each piece of correspondence coiling the reader around its finger and never letting go. LaRocca skillfully weaves a grotesque, unforgettable page-turner of manipulation and depravity. - Hailey Piper, author of Queen of Teeth "With darkly poetic prose and chilling stories that peel back layers of skin to reveal a beating, bloody heart, Eric LaRocca is the clear literary heir of Clive Barker." - Tyler Jones, author of Criterium and The Dark Side of the Room "Eric LaRocca is a fierce talent that knows no limit, masterful and utterly unmissable!" - Ross Jeffery, author of Juniper and Tome

From the author of the viral sensation Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, a much-praised collection of deeply unsettling, painfully dark tales for fans of Clive Barker, Sara Gran, Kathe Koje and Stephen Graham Jones Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution... Originally published under the title The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales, this is a beautifully crafted, devastating short fiction collection from the Bram-Stoker finalist and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes.