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rosaelia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, and Murder
brynniek's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Excrement
kharv294's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
05olivia15's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Yes, I gave it 4 stars. But I do not recommend anyone read this book ever.
This book made me physically nauseous to read. I read this whole book in a day because I knew if I set it down and allowed myself to think about picking it up again, I wouldn't have the stomach to do it.
An absolutely fucked early 2000s era epistolary novel, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke chronicles the emails and instant message logs between Zoe and Agnes who meet on a craigslist-esque LGBT forum. Agnes is estranged from her family, underemployed, and financially screwed. Zoe is mysterious, wealthy, and has a penchant for cruelty. What follows is a train wreck that I wished I could look away from the entire time.
The horror of this book comes from 2 fronts: The first and most obvious is the body horror that basically shows up from the very beginning of the book. I'm not going to quote anything or go into detail, but trust me, it's foul.
The second comes from the eery-sick feeling that this could have happened to the friends I knew as teenagers. That this cautionary tale was narrowly avoided through luck rather than skill. Being an emotional vulnerable queer with an unmonitored internet connection is billed as something empowering, a way to find community outside of your shitty hometown, to give you hope for a future that you can see happening in a city near you. But it can also lead you to places like this. Lonely corners of the internet where people with no power in their real lives decide to create some by dominating someone even weaker, someone hundreds of miles away. The real fear of this novel came from the lingering thought that had a charismatic Zoe found me in cyberspace when I was at my most vulnerable and wrote me poetry about apple peelers and undeserving eyes, I could have ended up an Agnes too-- consumed from the outside in.
The lesson of this book for me (if there even is one) is about how oftentimes victims and perpetrators have more in common than we are comfortable admitting. That desperate and lonely people are just as prone to hurt each other as they are to lift each other up. That words on a computer screen can be just as persuasive as those you hear from people in real life. That people will, unfortunately, do anything for love.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, and Pregnancy
afriendwithfiction's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit
Moderate: Emotional abuse
gabrielleclarke05's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
kathann's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, and Excrement
annanonymous's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lmao
Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Excrement
nimbos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
What starts as a suspiciously innocent interaction (derived from the naïvety of one of the characters which can sometimes be almost irritating), soon turns into a twisted and dark tale that I couldn't have anticipated. While short, it still retains enough detail that allows the reader to have a vivid (too vivid) image of the events, even appealing to other senses. It's hard for me to find a piece of writing that makes my skin crawl, but this one did exactly that. As much as I found myself frustrated by the end of the book, with many questions unanswered, I think this is one of those cases that teaches you that you don't have to find the meaning behind everything.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Torture and Vomit
wiktoria_bojda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Gaslighting