This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances

Splatterpunk star LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) returns with four tales of brutal terror. After her father dies, a daughter who was long ago sent away returns home to her ailing mother and discovers a horrifying family. When his mother dies, a man returns to his childhood home, discovering that both he and his elderly father have the same black wounds on their bodies. In “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn,” a man enters a strange shop looking for a knife his husband wanted but instead discovers a new and thrilling kind of self-mutilation. “Prickle” follows two men playing a game involving cruel tricks that soon becomes a matter of life and death. LaRocca blends literary sensibilities with gruesome gore as he addresses real-life horrors like child abuse, assault, and self-harm. The cast of narrators, one for each story, immerses listeners in the carefully crafted prose, captivating them with LaRocca’s surprisingly beautiful bloody aesthetic.