When opening up an Eric LaRocca story, I tend to want to emotionally buckle up for a wild ride and that is exactly what we get with his latest novel, Brute. LaRocca crafts a brutal, visceral, and dirty tale that continues to prove he is a master of his craft in the horror genre.
Ephraim Mayerling is a wedding planner unlike any other. It’s not just the all-black outfits or the strange, wide-brimmed hat he loves wearing. In the privacy of his cottage, Ephraim dreams of planning a different kind of event: an execution.
When Nicholas and Sebastian decide to hire Ephraim for their special day, it becomes harder for Ephraim to leave his “at home” thoughts where they belong. With a mysterious man hovering around town, seemingly everywhere Ephraim goes, everything threatens to come apart at the seams.
The simple fact of someone hiding a double life, one where your front facing life is something pristine and proper only to have a passion for death, is fascinating to me. Both in real life and in fictional stories. You never really know who someone is when no one is watching, which when you think of it is someone’s real life and their outside portrayal is a facade. Hiding one’s passions with a surface life that seems normal to most people but a secret obsession that others might find appalling.
LaRocca has this amazing ability to put down on paper the thoughts and feelings most would be afraid to write: the raw, dark, and unsettling, but does so with a true sense of filthy elegance. Brute continues this with a twisted and visceral story that doesn’t shy away from taboos. There is an emotional core that goes beyond the brutal aspects of the story, making it potentially a bit more accessible than other of the author’s novels.
As I mentioned, Brute its twisted, but really its twisted in many ways. The largest being when the crescendo finally hit its peak and dropped, the big twist was a delight, yet surprising at the same time. The ending of this story is fitting for the tale at hand, but also for the author. LaRocca is not for the faint of heart, with Eric, he proudly wears it on their sleeve.
This book is told between Ephraim’s past and present which made the story a bit more interesting, see how his past might come back to haunt him in the present. While it might be confusing to some, the back and forth, to me it only added to the depth of the story and the overall reading experience.
Brute is a raw psychological horror that will make you feel uncomfortable in the best possible way. Eric LaRocca delivers on an unsettling and visceral tale that left me feeling dirty in the best possible way. LaRocca might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but don’t think I won’t drink up their stories, each and every time.
Brute hits bookstores everywhere on March 23, 2027 from Saga Press. The audiobook is available via Libro.fm!
