At Dark, I Become Loathsome

LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) presents his most accessible book yet—a stunning, immersive, and relatable tale about the unbearable anguish of grief. Ashley performs “fake death” rituals. People who desperately want to rekindle their will to live hire him to bury them alive for 30 minutes. Bringing others to the brink of death and back again helps Ashley ease the pain of living in a state of perpetual grief due to the death of his beloved wife from cancer and the unsolved kidnapping of his young son. As his son’s birthday approaches, Ashley is contacted by a new client, Jinx, who intrigues and titillates him with a grotesque tale. Ashley can’t stop thinking about Jinx and his work, making him question everything, but this interaction may lead him even further into the shadows, becoming even more loathsome.