Reviews with content warning for Blood - You've Lost a Lot of Blood

This was my second novel by Eric LaRocca and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I had read Things Have Gotten Worse Since we Last Spoke previously and didn’t really care for it but I picked this one up regardless just because I love the cover, I was pleased to have really enjoyed it. You’ve Lost a lot of Blood was a collection of poems, transcribed audio recordings, and journal entries written by a serial killer, intertwined with a short storycalled “You’ve Lost a lot of Blood.” The short story was easily my favorite part, I enjoyed that bit so much that the rest was just icing on the cake. This book was weird and different though I can definitely understand why it maybe would not be your cup of tea if you’re looking for something with a more concrete plot. As someone who reads a lot of horror, I always love to pick up something unexpected, so if you’re looking for a story unlike anything you’ve read before with some stunning visuals and gnarly body horror, I think you’d enjoy this. I personally had such a fun time reading!

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loongbooy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

5.0

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malaikawrites's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

no plot - just philosophy, mild horror, suspense and vibes. i loved it :)

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hexedmaiden's review

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dark tense fast-paced

4.0

I knew absolutely nothing going into this book and it’s probably for the best that everyone does especially due to the length of this book.

This is essentially the collections of journal entries, poems, transcripts, and even a novella written by a serial killer.

The story within this story, a novella called You’ve Lost A Lot of Blood, and we get to read part of that story in chunks. I really loved that it was a video game horror novella. It's something I don’t think we really see in the genre that often. I literally can only think of the film Stay Alive and Brainscan.

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stefanie_duncan's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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? It's complicated

3.5

Maybe I need to read it again to understand it fully. This is my 3rd book by this authors. And while I loved the other 2 by the author this one is not my favorite. I will re-read it some other time to maybe “get it”.

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_lera_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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elyssajoh's review

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dark 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

3.0

IT’S ENOUGH SLICES.

This book had me captivated nearly the entire time. The format of the book was quite unique and I enjoyed it. There was so much to read into from the socratic dialogue between the two main characters to the slow reveal of the horrific plot in the novella within. I enjoyed trying to interpret all these details and how the various works within the book related to the main storyline.

However, there was too much going on (hence it’s enough slices). I am having trouble even concisely summing up what this book is about

- plagiarism?

. I can’t quite make up my mind if it would benefit from being longer or if some of the details should have been cut. A lot of the explanations

i.e. the wax priest thing, the Martyr has a tumor thing, Tamsen blames her brother for her parent’s death, they’re stuck in a loop, the video game changes people, Ambrose is involved in the murders, the sex scenes of Tamsen versus Martyr, the reveal that it was all plagiarized actually

seem just glossed over and not fully explained, part of which is intentional and leaves the reader to interpret for themselves what it means. Part of it seems rushed- did LaRocca really do the work of investigating the psychology of serial killers before writing this? (For a book largely based on dialogue with the main character, this is important.)

Overall, it was really cool but it was just tooooo much. Delving deeper into just a few of the big reveals may have been more impactful than shoving as many horrific reveals into the plot as possible.

That being said, I do plan to try another book by LaRocca at some point.

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