We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow, 1)

by Eric LaRocca

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803368672
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	09/09/2025
Series:	Burnt Sparrow , #1
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a 3x Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. He was named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of the strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction.” LaRocca’s notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, and At Dark, I Become Loathsome. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for We Are Always Tender with Our Dead


"LaRocca stretches stylistically with this novel, showing impressive artistic growth and a true feel for characters who seem wildly disparate but are in fact closer than they seem. This book will appeal to horror fans looking for lyrical writing and confrontational self-examination; it feasts on insecurities and fear while reminding readers of their shared humanity."
Library Journal, Starred Review


“This is small town hell on steroids: Burnt Sparrow is somewhere around the corner that you never want to even pass by. The beautiful writing of Eric Larocca makes this tale of grief, violence and perversion (a lot of it) a very strangely beautiful journey into darkness. It reminds me of Poppy Z. Brite at her most brutal, vile and best. Unflinching and relentless body and social horror, with a nod to Derry and unspeakable desire.”
Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night and A Sunny Place for Shady People


“Not since Twin Peaks has there been a town quite like Burnt Sparrow, where nightmares, secrets, cruelty, and longing are the currency. Your visit will be harrowing and it will cut you to the quick, but you’ll want to return as soon as possible.”
Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts


“The Poet Laureate of Pestilence, Eric LaRocca, impales his readers on the white picket fences of David Lynch country with We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, shifting his transgressive eye toward the toxic-bucolic small town of Burnt Sparrow, where he summons a particular poetry in tragedy, transcendence in grief, and elegance in the most brutal of violence.”
Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes and What Kind of Mother


“Eric LaRocca is one of the best horror voices to emerge in the last few years. We Are Always Tender with Our Dead is his finest work to date, filled with relentless darkness, but beauty too. The story and characters will stay with you in your dreams long after you’ve finished it.”
Richard Kadrey, author of The Pale House Devil and the Sandman Slim series


“Blending the grotesque and the sublime, We Are Always Tender with Our Dead moves with the callous logic of a nightmare. LaRocca initiates us into his newest trilogy with a haunting meditation on affliction, grief, and the darkness that lurks beneath the bonds that tie—or trap—the residents of Burnt Sparrow to one another.”
Elle Nash, author of Deliver Me and Gag Reflex


“With We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, Eric LaRocca adds to his already remarkable body of work. Wielding his graceful prose with the deftness of a surgeon holding a scalpel, LaRocca cuts to the beating, bloody heart of a small New England town shocked by an act of unexpected brutality, then examines the network of consequences that results. In the process, he finds savagery, sorrow, beauty, and much, much more. The first in a trilogy, this novel signals an exciting new phase in Eric LaRocca’s fiction. I can’t wait for what comes next.”
John Langan, author of Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions and The Fisherman


“LaRocca is a maestro of the horrific, surreal, and uncanny, and his work never fails to illuminate the dark epicenter of the human condition while offering the suggestion of hope—maybe. Every tale is one that will leave you shaking and breathless, yet like a car wreck, you’re helpless to look away.”
Ronald Malfi, author of Senseless and Come With Me

"Expertly balancing extreme disgust and awe-inspiring wonder, LaRocca pushes readers to their limit with his use of graphic and illicit sex and violence, making them squirm with intense discomfort, forcing them to confront the truth about the horrors all humans inflict, especially on those they love the most. The results? Mesmerizing. The thought of waiting for book two? Unbearable."
Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher