'After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved...for a price.
'Hallucinatory, fiendish, and destructively beautiful, Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.'
When I first discovered Eric LaRocca's work I was fascinated by the mixture of emotions it made me feel. I was repulsed, disgusted by some of the things he created, yet found myself being drawn into his narratives and invested in the bizarre, often monstrous things that happen to his characters. I'm not sure if he's a writer I'd advise to people on a whim, as I think I'd need to recommend him very carefully, but his work is definitely something that I think will have a more shocking effect on people than they first expect. That being said, I think that perhaps Wretch might be one of the easier entry points into LaRocca's catalogue, a way to test the waters for new readers as it eschews the usual visceral, almost gory horror in exchange for more of a slow burn.
Wretch tells the story of Simeon, who recently lost his husband, Johnathan, after a short battle with cancer. Simeon hasn't been managing his grief well, and as the book begins he's gently let go from his job because of the effect his loss has had on his work there. He doesn't have anyone to turn to, perhaps other than his ex-wife Evelyn, who still loves him and hopes to rekindle their relationship despite Simeon leaving her years before. Retreating to online spaces, Simeon eventually hears about a local support group called the Wretches, who attempt to deal with their grief using photography.
The group take photos of everyday objects and places in the hopes of capturing some abstract impression of the people they've lost. Somewhat doubtful of the process, Simeon at least gives it a try to somewhat mixed success. It's from a member of the Wretches, however, that he hears of a man named Porcelain Khaw, a name that Simeon has heard rumours of on dark corners of the internet. Khaw is able to help people with their grief, able to give them a moment with the person that they've lost. Unsure where else he can turn, and desperate to see Jonathan again, Simeon reaches out to the mysterious figure.
Wretch is first and foremost a story about grief, how it can consume you, and how not having healthy coping mechanisms can lead to destructive ends. However, this is a LaRocca book, so it's not as simple as all of that. The hallmarks of a LaRocca story are here, with parts of the book given over to internet chat logs, stories found on forums, diary entries, and even a play at one point. For the most part in LaRocca's previous work I've found these segments have added quite a bit to the story, or have been the entire story itself, and have often conveyed quite a lot of important information or tone. However, in Wretch these parts seemed somewhat out of place to me, jarring me out of the narrative, and leaving me wondering as to their significance.
These are also the sections that have what I consider the trademark LaRocca horror, the moments that deal with twisted thoughts, awful compulsions, and disjointed realities. For example, there's a point in the story where Simeon reads through an old diary entry where he fantasises about killing his infant son. He imagines how he could throw the baby into the alligator enclosure in the zoo to watch him be torn to pieces. After reading his old words Simeon wonders if he wrote it because he enjoys misery and suffering in his life, and perhaps it's just me, but this feels like a very bizarre and extreme way of showing that. I didn't read those parts and think Simeon liked misery, I thought he was some kind of psychopath, and I was glad he was hardly in his sons life. It made me hate Simeon, and I can't help but wonder what effect LaRocca was going for with this, and with other even more unusual cutaways from the main story, and why he chose to present those moments the way he did.
Sadly, despite spending the entire book with Simeon, I felt like I didn't really know anything about him come the end of the book, and that other than 'sad boy' who at one point wanted to murder a baby, I have no real impression of him. The other characters in the book fare about the same, as few of them as there are, and people are presented as either kind of pathetic, or weirdly enigmatic for no obvious reason. I wish I could have connected with the characters more, and it might only be a problem for me and other people really do click with them, but because I just couldn't manage to do it it left a lot of the book unable to affect me that much.
Having mostly really enjoyed LaRocca's work (I'm sure it's normal to enjoy something you find gross right?) I was left kind of sad that Wretch just didn't work for me. There's something in the final moments of the book that was great, that recontextualised a lot of the story and made me go 'oh shit!' out loud, but it was kind of a bit too little too late to make me really love the book. Hopefully others will get on better with it than I do, and if you're testing out LaRocca's work and aren't big into disturbing horror I think Wretch is a great book to do that with.
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