Reviews tagging 'Death'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

182 reviews

captainrenjamin's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

It’s a compelling read that I flew through but SO dark 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

robinsera's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

shutupsylvia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Violence

venuscollective's review against another edition

dark 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

1.75

Reading in public and constantly having to stop my face from showing how freaked out I am.

The writing in this book is so painfully unnatural. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, speaks in this way. The writing style probably had a purpose and maybe I'm not an advanced enough reader but it just took me out of the story and made me cringe.

Agnes is so intensely stupid I actually can't feel bad for her. She's like a walking bag of air, not an ounce of sense in her. She does and believes the most insane things simply because Zoe, who she has never met before mind you, says so.

I mean- how do I tell you I want a baby and you respond by going, "oh! Pick up a parasite. It's practically the same thing. I know cause I had a tapeworm one time." WHY WOULD I BELIEVE YOU?? WHY WOULD I DO IT??

All in all. I did not like this. It was repulsive-which I understand was the purpose and is why I'm giving it 2 stars cause that was done perfectly- the characters are horribly written and the language just irritated me. Maybe this book could be for you but it CERTAINLY  wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Blood

mylargirl's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

This is a great little disgusting horror novella about the false sense of intimacy that can arise so quickly in an online relationship and the lengths that damaged, lonely people will go to connect and feel loved at any cost. It's funny, sad, and extremely dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse and Homophobia

ephemeral_remi's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Abandonment

emmdashed's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

I should have looked at the Content Warnings for this one lol 😬

It's probably not the Grossest Book Ever but it's up there and it features Very Graphic Animal and Child Cruelty/Death. And there are some other really gnarly moments of just nasty stuff. And some cringey sexting. 

Ultimately I am still not sure how I completely feel about this book. It was both extremely easy to read and extremely difficult to read. You want to know what happens and it's so short you can just inhale it but at the same time the images it paints are disturbing and I found myself just really bummed and grossed out. I think it crosses the line at points into being 2 Edgy 4 U so like.... that's certainly a choice. I found myself wondering what is the point what are we saying why this story. But also I read the whole thing so ??? 

I think it could either have been longer so we could get more into the characters and why they behaved the way they did. Or it could have been shorter and excised some of the unnecessary anecdotes (like honestly the Little Christ and the Priest and the Cat moments added literally nothing apart from being ~edgy and disturbing ooooo~). The length that it was was just awkward. 

Some more spoiler heavy thoughts below: 

I honestly could somewhat buy Agnes' immediate devotion to Zoe. It was 0-100 real fast, but it seemed like she was the victim of a lot of emotional abuse in the past, even more than she described. Unfortunately that kind of trauma sometimes leads victims to unintentionally attach themselves to more abusers. (This is not trying to victim blame, abuse is a fucked up cycle that can ruin lives). It almost felt like a Cult Initiation story with this vulnerable woman being caught by this leader and the mentality/lifestyle Zoe offered her?? Not sure where I'm going with it but ??? 

 I was more bothered by the speed at which the Tapeworm grew like... it takes weeks not days. Especially for them to get that big. But maybe I'm just pedantic. 

Also.... I feel bad for Agnes' roommate while all this nonsense is going on like. Your roommate is keeping rotting meat and eating it like that would stink up the house at the very least. Besides all the other weird behavior lol.

TLDR: idk this was a weird one and I can't say if it's good or bad. Bummed me out but I've been thinking about it for days. Blades of Glory says it best. 
"Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative. It's gets the people going." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and War

Moderate: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Not sure about the severity ratings but I tried to put as many of these as I can. I cannot stress enough that this book gets r o u g h. The animal and child death stood out particularly to me but other bits might bother other people.

bloomlove's review against another edition

dark medium-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

Literally only writing a review of this book to say DO NOT READ THIS. It’s terrible awful vile and disgusting I would not recommend this to anyone just save yourself and don’t even go near it. Don’t even look this books way it’s not worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

jtkerlin's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

0.25

Will never read again, and likely never anything else by this author. Basically a short very dark LGBTQ 50 shades of gray, all in a bad way. The animal cruelty was not needed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Abandonment

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Regretfully, this collection simply wasn’t my cup of tea. The work was emotionally impactful and intriguing enough that I simply couldn’t put it down, but it surpassed my tolerance threshold with respect to certain themes and imagery.

That being said, I am glad I read this. LaRocca exhibits technically-skilled writing, compelling style, and a cohesive voice, a combination that makes for a powerful, even formidable storyteller. I would recommend his work to fans of dark, reflective fiction and horror that seeks to reflect and linger rather that titillate and dissipate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Murder