We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (Signed Book) (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:	9781835415764
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	09/09/2025
Series:	Burnt Sparrow , #1
Edition description:	Signed Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a 2x Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. Named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of 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, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories, and This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances. At Dark, I Become Loathsome has already been optioned for film by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. He currently resides in Boston, MA with his partner. For more information, please visit ericlarocca.com.

Editorial Reviews

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 A Head Full of Ghosts and Horror Movie


Praise for Eric LaRocca:


"Confident, brutal, and breathtaking... must-read horror"
The New York Times


"Body horror at its best... Eric LaRocca is not only good: there’s courage in his literature”
Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night


"A genuinely disturbing matryoshka doll of a novel that honors the tie bounding grief and our darkest impulses. This is LaRocca's best book yet."
Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World


"Brutal, breathtaking, and beautifully written... It broke my heart and put it back together again, leaving jagged little scars. LaRocca is a master at peeling back the layers and showing us true darkness and depravity, the loathsome monster hiding inside us all. I applaud him for his bravery, and you, dear reader, for yours."
Jennifer McMahon, New York Times Bestselling author of The Winter People and My Darling Girl


“Some horror walks you down a dark corridor, where there’s whispers and laughter, sobs and screams. Other horror starts down at the end of that corridor, where there’s a door that opens on to you don’t know what. Read this, and then decide where Eric LaRocca has left you. Not that it matters. There’s no way out.”
Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw


"Bleak, clever, edgy, and vicious. Eric LaRocca draws his readers in for something they will never expect and never forget."
Sadie Hartmann, 'Mother Horror'


“LaRocca has conjured for us a mad, beautiful tale of dark magic, trauma and love, and how these things intertwine — this is an author in command of powerful narrative sorceries, and is deserving of your immediate attention.”
Chuck Wendig, author of Black River Orchard

From the Publisher