We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca is a heartbreaking and vicious novella about a teenage girl that keeps getting dealt blow after devastating blow. This is unlike any other story I have ever read.
Full disclosure: I was given the opportunity to beta read this story before it found a home with a publisher. Later on, I was given a free ARC of this book from the author per the request for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. I will also be preordering myself a copy as soon as it launches.
Let’s dive in!
My Thoughts on We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca
This is a story that you really just have to experience for yourself. I will keep my notes below very high level.
There are things in this tale that hint at what’s to come, but you’ll have no idea what is actually happening here until the author drives the point home. With one instance of this, I literally gasped out loud, finally connecting the dots…
This tale will lead you on quite the path! At times it seems totally bizarre, almost like a fever dream, but once you hit the last scene, it all falls into place.
When I finished reading, I jumped up and had to take a lap around our house. I couldn’t believe how brilliant a lot of the foreshadowing was.
And my gosh, this poor girl. She lived through so much terror… I don’t know how she managed to hold herself together as well as she did.
My Favorite Passages from We Can Never Leave This Place
From baby teeth to virginity, to live is to regularly suffer loss.
The memory screeches at me like a newborn, a reminder that usually teases my mind when the television has been cranked up loud or when I notice a small spider circling a bowl of sugar in the kitchen. Little things that take me back to a certain time and place – the life from which I had once run away.
…my mother explained, scrubbing my fathers body violently as if she were attempting to remove the bullet holes in his chests – something she would never be able to do.
It felt so peculiar to be left alone with him, as if I were in the presence of some strange, sleeping deity. The trouble was no matter how much I yelled or cried, I knew he would never wake.
I couldn’t help but notice how there were new lines growing about my mouth and wrinkles set in the corners of my eyes, as if I had somehow been touched by something that had robbed me of my youth. I knew exactly what it was – death.
My Final Thoughts on We Can Never Leave This Place
I cannot recommend this one highly enough! I had an absolute blast reading it, but it was also heartbreaking and so unnerving.
If you enjoy reads that you can get totally lost in, but that will make you super uncomfortable and nervous as you eagerly await what will happen next, then this is a book for you!
Thanks for reading!
And thanks again to Eric LaRocca for giving me the honor to beta read this story!
Related Reading:
I loved “Things Have Gotten Worse,” if that’s even a possible emotion to have when reading a book like that! Can’t wait to read this one.
You’re definitely going to like this one if you like Things Have Gotten Worse!! 😀
I cannot find this book anywhere, where can I get it.
It’s out on June 24th 2022! 🙂 I don’t believe the preorder link is live yet, but it will likely pop up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble soon!