Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

86 reviews

kaymichelle's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Torture, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, and Toxic relationship

dabblingintgeminestrone's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Child death

Moderate: Medical content and Vomit

hannalizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Unnecessarily gross. The story being told within the frame of a true crime case is what held the book together, in my opinion. A trainwreck you can’t help but watch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Death of parent, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

cianarae's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

Too rushed and too focused on being shocking

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

spcandybars's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

1.75

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I can tell that what really took me out of this was the epistolary format. There’s absolutely no relationship development - you can’t even tell they’re becoming enamored with each other before it jumps to the unreasonable.

 I understand that both of these people are clearly mentally ill but even before the severity of that was revealed to us, I couldn’t follow along with how fast they were moving. If the initial messages had a flirtier tone or something that actually hinted towards attraction or trying to know each other, I could have been more on board but they barely said anything. If I could sense more attraction in the early interactions, I feel like I would be less irritated by the progression of events and more invested in the breakdown of the characters. 

The second half is decent -

I really wasn’t expecting that she would die by her own hand and it’s interesting because the way it’s written makes you think “oh this girl is so dumb, she deserves to get killed if she just walks back into this after seeing how sick of a person this is”. It was interesting to discover that she was actually the more depraved one.

The concept is interesting, I just don’t think this format was executed in the way it needed to be for this story to be as engrossing as the author probably wanted it to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Suicide, and Homophobia

esophagus18's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

for a while i thought this was a true story and was deeply disturbed by this knowledge. now i know it is a work of fiction and worry for the author’s wellbeing.
it was very well written and i quite enjoyed following along as this harmless interaction about an apple peeler transformed into an undoubtably detrimental relationship. the characters felt real which perhaps aided in my belief of the story being nonfiction. 
this novella was a delight in the most horrific way and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit

theillustriousgatsby's review against another edition

dark 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

0.5

no. just no.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

aaround132's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

ngl i finished it in one sitting and i was HOOKED. it got me out of a huge slump. but would i recommend it to anyone? absolutely not, im ashamed to do so. the characters brains were so out of control that made me feel lime im mentally stable comparing to them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cannibalism, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Excrement, and Domestic abuse

arys_library's review against another edition

dark 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

3.75

Uh wow. Why did I love this book. It was so entertaining I read it in one sitting. Of course the fact it’s only 100 pages helped. But still what? It wasn’t what I fully thought, it was gross and gory but not nearly as dark and emotionally grueling as I expected. Instead it shows just how far someone will go, how evil and crazy someone can become with a small push from someone else. There are only two things I didn’t like about the book. First, the main characters talked to eachother so weirdly in the beginning. (No spoilers don’t worry) in the beginning I get that they were more professional but still in every email they sent it felt like they worked together or something. But when they chatted on messenger it was completely different. I don’t know if I just wasn’t getting the point of that or if it was just weird. And the second is kind of hard to explain without spoilers. But it was so strange how Agnes so quickly agreed to everything Zoe asked her to do. These things she did with ty out question or deeper thought, or even proof that Zoe would follow through. Unrealistic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Sexual content, Cursing, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

katbamkapow's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

It was fun! I mean, if you know what you're in for. A quick, horrifying read on the sofa in one sitting. At times  it felt like the prose was working a little harder than it needed to, simply for the sake of itself, but for something so short it didn't really bother me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Torture, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Self harm, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content