REVIEW: We Are Always Tender with Our Dead by Eric LaRocca
The town of Burnt Sparrow, setting for a new trilogy from Eric LaRocca and starting with We are Always Tender with our Dead, is a cursed place that doesn’t let go. Much like the townsfolk stuck there, you’ll find yourself returning to Burnt Sparrow long after you’ve put down the book. This is a queer, literary horror with hints of the speculative hidden in the shadows, and there are shadows aplenty.
With the occasional diary entry, news article or blog post revealing additional aspects of the mystery surrounding Burnt Sparrow, We are Always Tender with our Dead is primarily told through the experiences of 17-years old Rupert Cromwell, a boy whose mother died years ago and whose father is a frightening oddity to him. More than anything We are Always Tender with our Dead is a story about thresholds, and as Rupert teeters on the threshold to adulthood he finds it difficult to relate to the men of Burnt Sparrow and struggles to understand how he is supposed to become a man, when he is so unlike those around him. Rupert is gay and finds the men of the town to largely be destructive and cruel, at best, indifferent to the pain of others.
This indifference is highlighted through the tragedy that has struck Burnt Sparrow, a Christmas day massacre on the main street of the town. The dead are left where they lie, a decision made by the town elders for reasons they keep to themselves. Rupert and his father are among those employed to guard the dead, which exposes deeper differences between them and begins to validate Rupert’s nihilistic tendencies.
“There’s nothing in this world that has meaning or shares any value. I’ve already been taught that human life holds no significance. It’s sad to think how a corpse is very often worth more than a living thing. At least there’s some value left in a dead body, however little, however insignificant. But what becomes of us when even the dead have little meaning?”
Besides thresholds hidden throughout, We are Always Tender with our Dead also makes a salient point about the widespread desensitisation to violence and tragedy in our society. Not least with its content and how it is presented, and in what order. If the massacre of 100 people, left to rot in the street, doesn’t move you, which of the many acts of violence that follow will? Which aspects of this story will you select to be outraged by?
The inclusion of – literal – nameless, faceless enemies within the town may seem a bit on-the-nose but, like everything in this book, LaRocca is making a point with the portrayal of the alleged perpetrators of the town’s massacre. Though it is all rather conveniently managed by the, I suspect, old-god entangled, purple-clad town elders. Another commentary on Western society?
This book comes with a fairly comprehensive content warning list in an opening author’s note, and, as LaRocca suggests, if any of those warnings concern you, don’t read the book. There is a lot of subtlety in We are Always Tender with our Dead that is disguised beneath the violence, you have to be willing to be challenged and willing to think beyond your immediate reactions to get to it. A lot of hints at the wider forces at work in Burnt Sparrow are included but that is a payoff that does not come with answers in this installment. This is a queer, literary horror, coming-of-age tale in a corrupt/ed small town with supernatural undercurrents running through it. It is also a commentary on the acceptability of violence in our society. Some parts will crinkle your nose, others your mind.
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