Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

708 reviews

wlw1tch's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

An intriguing, fast-paced downward spiral with a unique format. Not as shocking as people made it seem but definitely heed the content warnings, it does get graphic!
I wouldn’t go to this book for representation by any means, but the characters’ queerness makes certain parts of the narrative much more compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Terminal illness and Vomit

All instances of animal death are described in graphic detail,

a salamander

and

a cat

as is one child (infant) death in which

the narrator describes a case she saw on the news wherein a baby is murdered by his brother

gaycree's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• 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

3.5

One of my biggest issues was that it ended right when it was starting to get good. I also felt the setting of the story was superfluous in the sense that the sense of isolation and online community within the LGBTQ+ is just as relevant if not more prevalent today than in 2000. 

Great body horror novella, and exactly what I was looking for as an avid horror movie lover taking his first steps into the horror literature realm. Also if I can be candid (not that anyone will see this) but for some reason this reminds me of that one online article I read almost a decade ago about the woman who would love to lay in a garbage bin on a hot afternoon in NYC and letting all the bugs crawl all around and inside her. Disturbing

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

alexalily's review against another edition

dark tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

2busyreading's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Homophobia

sben13's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Death, Self harm, Blood, Toxic relationship, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death

Minor: Vomit

bluedesi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An unsettling quick read. Genuinely got sick to my stomach and had to skip over some emails in the first story. All interesting and kept me captivated however.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Body horror, and Confinement

agustdefault's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

collection as a whole - 4 stars

i surprisingly loved the second story the most. we love religious trauma! 

for the titular story, i have some mixed feelings. its extremely disturbing and i absolutely love stories about obsession. it was watching a descent into madness  and it made my stomach curl. however, the pacing in this story is super weirdly done and the ‘descent’ into madness is less gradual and more like stepping off of a cliff. it needed 50 more pages of relationship development and then it might have been 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Body horror, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Vomit, and Suicide

maddielae's review against another edition

tense fast-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? Yes

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Homophobia

annie_brewer's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• 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

3.25

This was an bizzare read that I absolutely did not enjoy, but it was quite good.

In summary, this is a documentation of a dissolution into madness. Additionally, the reader gets dragged along to witness the disturbing descent.

The writing is eloquent and quite disarming at times with a story-telling pace, but the charm is quickly contrasted by the dark purpose of the discourse between the women, the relaying of a debauched or sinister thrill.

Loved the ambiguity of the women and that it was a very quick escalation - I thought both of these factors promoted the unsettling gnaw that the derailment could not be stopped. I did find some of the pacing a bit disjointed, and the inclusion of the contract felt unnecessary for the plot.

Lots of gross and vivid imagery, very gritty and grim 'plot', a trainwreck that is hard to look away from.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Manipulation of vulnerable individual. Body horror.

Suicide alluded to

autumnwhite's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Gore, Body horror, Animal death, Suicide, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Lesbophobia