Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces by Eric LaRocca

2 reviews

uchihas's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I hated “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” and I hated this one decidedly less. 

Now that I’ve had time to process: I was not a fan of the first story mostly because I’m not super into the

Spoiler

anthropomorphism of insects

but it was written very well. The second story was alright but I’m not sure that a story that perpetuates the

Spoiler

gay men as zoophiles

ideology is… super cool but maybe I’m missing some underlying moral or something. Loved the third story’s karmic retribution even if it was a tough read at first. Fourth story was okay. Fifth story did not do it for me, again I wasn’t sure how to feel about the perpetration of

Spoiler

queer folk being sexual predators

and I think if not written by a fellow queer person it would’ve really rubbed me the wrong way. Loved the last story, very

Spoiler

cosmic horror

that I wasn’t expecting but am certainly not mad at! I do like LaRocca’s writing style and it felt that they had more of a voice this time. I did read it on KU but wouldn’t have been mad about spending money on it like last time LOL… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Self harm, Blood, Gore, and Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Dementia, Car accident, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

Mentions of bestiality/zoophilia.

slxtty_academia's review against another edition

1.5

All the subtlety of a kick to the teeth, just A Long String Of The Grossest Things the author could think of. Lacks any qualities to make the contents actually disturbing. The voice is very homogeneous across all the stories, which made little sense to me since humans, chimps, a meerkat and a beetle should be wildly different narrators. I somewhat liked the final story, but even that just made me roll my eyes at the ending.
And what's with the authors thing for plucking out eyeballs??
It's been a Rollercoaster for me and LaRocca, I hated Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last spoke, but LOVED You've Lost A Lot Of Blood, and now strongly disliked this collection. I'll give them one last shot with Everything The Darkness Eats next year and if I don't like that one it's just not meant to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Pregnancy, Ableism, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Dementia, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Self harm