Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

98 reviews

rosamaria's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

thehhugg's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

2.0

This book was hyped by a lot of people as one of the scariest books they'd ever read. I kept waiting for that to be true for me too, and it never was. There was zero character development, and therefore zero stakes. The only truly disturbing thing in the book had nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, and isn't exactly going to keep me up at night. Really disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

kaymichelle's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

dabblingintgeminestrone's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit and Medical content

hannalizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Unnecessarily gross. The story being told within the frame of a true crime case is what held the book together, in my opinion. A trainwreck you can’t help but watch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

cianarae's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

Too rushed and too focused on being shocking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

spcandybars's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

1.75

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I can tell that what really took me out of this was the epistolary format. There’s absolutely no relationship development - you can’t even tell they’re becoming enamored with each other before it jumps to the unreasonable.

 I understand that both of these people are clearly mentally ill but even before the severity of that was revealed to us, I couldn’t follow along with how fast they were moving. If the initial messages had a flirtier tone or something that actually hinted towards attraction or trying to know each other, I could have been more on board but they barely said anything. If I could sense more attraction in the early interactions, I feel like I would be less irritated by the progression of events and more invested in the breakdown of the characters. 

The second half is decent -

I really wasn’t expecting that she would die by her own hand and it’s interesting because the way it’s written makes you think “oh this girl is so dumb, she deserves to get killed if she just walks back into this after seeing how sick of a person this is”. It was interesting to discover that she was actually the more depraved one.

The concept is interesting, I just don’t think this format was executed in the way it needed to be for this story to be as engrossing as the author probably wanted it to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, Medical content, and Lesbophobia

esophagus18's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

for a while i thought this was a true story and was deeply disturbed by this knowledge. now i know it is a work of fiction and worry for the author’s wellbeing.
it was very well written and i quite enjoyed following along as this harmless interaction about an apple peeler transformed into an undoubtably detrimental relationship. the characters felt real which perhaps aided in my belief of the story being nonfiction. 
this novella was a delight in the most horrific way and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Vomit

theillustriousgatsby's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

no. just no.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

aaround132's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ngl i finished it in one sitting and i was HOOKED. it got me out of a huge slump. but would i recommend it to anyone? absolutely not, im ashamed to do so. the characters brains were so out of control that made me feel lime im mentally stable comparing to them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt