We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, Eric LaRocca
We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, Eric LaRocca
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

We Are Always Tender with Our Dead

Author: Eric LaRocca

Series: Burnt Sparrow Trilogy

Narrator: Tristan Wright

Unabridged: 7 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/16/2025


Synopsis

Michael McDowell’s Blackwater meets Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show in the disturbing first installment of a new trilogy of intense, visceral, beautifully written queer horror set in a small New England town.

A chilling supernatural tale of transgressive literary horror from the Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation. Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.

Engrossing, atmospheric, and unsettling, this is a devastating story of a small New England community rocked by an unforgivable act of violence. Writing with visceral intensity and profound eloquence, LaRocca journeys deep into the dark heart of Burnt Sparrow, leaving you chilled to the bone and wanting more.

About Eric LaRocca

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is the author of several works of horror and dark fiction including the viral sensation Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Matt on September 01, 2025

Please make Book 2 come out SOON! I can’t wait to find out more about the unique and strange characters! So many outrageous and mysterious elements! I’m on pins and needles and need answers! 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!......more

Goodreads review by Carl on August 24, 2025

Twice Splatterpunk Award winner and thrice Bram Stoker Award finalist, prolific queer horror writer Eric LaRocca regrets to inform us that he failed miserably in handling the subject matter with delicateness and sensitivity. From the foreword, We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow, #1) s......more

Goodreads review by AgoraphoBook on May 10, 2025

We Are Always Tender With Our Dead Eric Larocca 4.5 / 5 I've loved MOST of Eric Larocca's writing, but I had always preferred their short stories. Their first full length novel Everything The Darkness Eats wasn't for me at all, and their novella You've Lost A Lot of Blood was enjoyable, but thoroughly......more

Goodreads review by Angyl on August 07, 2025

oof. this hurts. As a huge LaRocca fan, I was stoked to get this arc of book one in a new trilogy! I love LaRocca's writing and the nasty, grotesque things they produce out of their mind, but this was just ..disappointing. I'll try my best to explain the plot, but honestly, I probably won't do a goo......more

Goodreads review by Ryn on July 15, 2025

2.5 rounded up to 3 I think we all know by now that I have a real big love/hate relationship with Eric La Rocca. Every one of their books is like tearing a petal off a flower. I like this one, I don’t like this one, I like this one, you get the point. My interest was piqued when I heard that this book......more