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galokarp's reviews
57 reviews
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
dark
fast-paced
3.0
This epistolary novella gets you hooked the second you pick it up. You feel like an archivist junkie sorting through emails and text messages and, like Zoe, you too are enthralled to see how far this authoritarian relationship will go.
However the grotesque ending shows the limitations of such a short story: there is little to no build up to the tipping point when an apparently benign submissive kink turns into pure madness. Likewise, LaRocca makes little use of his epistolary medium and offers no gap for the reader to fill.
In the end, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is sadly unambitious. To
However the grotesque ending shows the limitations of such a short story: there is little to no build up to the tipping point when an apparently benign submissive kink turns into pure madness. Likewise, LaRocca makes little use of his epistolary medium and offers no gap for the reader to fill.
In the end, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is sadly unambitious. To
The Fraud: A Novel by Zadie Smith
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Zadie Smith's first take on historical fiction tries to do many things but is only successful in some. The novel reaches apex with its embedded narratives – mainly the Tichborne trial and the Bogles' journey accros the globe – but falls short of being as relevant when dealing with Ainsworth's bourgeois literary circles. In spite of navigating the implications of slavery for almost 500 pages, the character (including the narrators) often seem two-dimensional.