Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

174 reviews

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

sweetpea4's review against another edition

dark tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

aliceayork's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

This book is really weird ad not as horrid as people make it out to be. With no real plot but characters who are crazy its a fast read that leaves you confused. If the book has a theme outside of gore I have no idea what it is. Its written as a police report but gives no reason why.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, and Mental illness

literally_mint's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

arthur_ant18's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit

tkatt20's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Disgusting but I couldn't stop reading. I loved the interesting formatting and the storytelling itself, but I can definitely see how other reviewers are getting "trauma porn" from this. Very torn between loving this and hating this so it gets 3 stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

tapiwa's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Homophobia

teaselkie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia

beatreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Well… it has a nice cover

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual content, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

haileylouise's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

This was absolutely one of the worst things I’ve read. 

I decided to pick this up while I was watching indie horror game play-throughs (Fears to Fathom) on YouTube. And it felt more like an unfiltered crazy gory story one of your friends heard about and told you because they were bored one day. Especially with the scenes of Agnes describing the salamander, the priest and the cat, and the baby christ stories. This book was depicted as a piece of true crime, however these events are not real. It was an interesting concept to go through all of the emails and chat room things (reminded me of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder), but lacked so much in what could have been a better plot and understanding of wlw relationships. While the author could have gotten away with using the mental health illnesses both characters had to explain the Dom/Sub contracting, Agnes wanting to bear children, and the whole tapeworm fiasco, those aspects were still poorly executed. Or maybe there’s just so little detail about Zoe, that makes it more horrible.

After Agnes tells Zoe that she wants to meet and Zoe says no, I immediately thought to myself that she said no because they aren’t actually “Zoe” or a woman, but a creepy old man preying on a random person online to live out their Fifty Shades fantasy. It’s also the fact that we never get details about Zoe, Agnes sent a picture of herself to Zoe after the red dress task. 

Another point I wanted to bring up was Agnes wanting to bear children while also explicitly stating that she’s gay and that she’s contemplated suicide before. I am so unsure if that’s even a possibility for someone without any negative consequences. It’s one thing to want to have children while in a same sex relationship but also a complete 180 to equate a tapeworm parasite to a pregnancy. There was no mention of like even talking about other options like insemination or anything, just straight into “I love you but we can’t have a baby together, but I will get tapeworm for you.” It was just so frustrating to me. 

I also believe that it’s one thing to be so traumatized and to romanticize this person who’s offered you more help than you deserve, but another to blatantly listen and follow every single thing they tell you to do out of love that further harms your work life, physical health, and mental health whilst also knowing you’ve been suicidal/contemplated suicide before.

The only thing this book made me feel was disgusted with the random horror stories Agnes told and how it had so much potential to be good, had it been worked on for longer and with more research done on what wlw are actually like and not some male fantasy/male gaze on wlw relationships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia