Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

20 reviews

lacee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal death, Death, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Medical content

Minor: Cursing, Confinement, Child abuse, Vomit, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

marprokup'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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was bewildering, agonizing, thrilling, and fantastic. I read the entire book in one sitting. It will make you squirm, and (I mean this in the best way possible) I understand how and why this book has mixed reviews. It's definitely meant for a very specific audience, and thus many view this book as off-putting. However, as someone in the LGBTQ+ community who has previously engaged in a toxic, online relationship and chatrooms (I feel inclined to say it was not nearly as grotesque as the relationship explored in this book!!!)... it nevertheless hit very differently for me than it probably will for the majority of readers. If you read the trigger warnings, enjoy reading about twisted characters and grotesque imagery, identify with the LGBTQ+ community, and/or have history with online chatrooms, I highly recommend reading (especially since it's such a quick read)!

A side note for readers still on-the-fence about this book: Look up Ivan Albright and pull up images of his paintings. I feel like is artwork pretty efficiently encapsulates the tone of this book (plus he's one of my favorite artists of all time).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, and Vomit

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Cursing

ren97's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicide, and Vomit

bookswithgracie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

honeybuns's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Suicide, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

lleebee's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Child death, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery

Minor: Vomit

lizjenkins's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.25

The book had so much potential and ended up being strange and uncomfortable. The gore felt misplaced and forced. The plot was bland. I do not recommend 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

saintsunshine's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

Things Have Gotten Worse presents interesting ideas but mostly falls flat in its execution. I'm personally not a big fan of the way in which the story was presented— though the narrative itself was interesting, the long-winded emails destroyed much of the story's immersion. This style also made it difficult to connect with the characters despite the narrative's insistence on caring about their wellbeing. Overall, feel that LaRocca touches on interesting concepts surrounding that obsession and control but are ultimately underexplored and underdeveloped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

lavender99's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.25

I enjoyed unique format of using IMs/emails, but the story ended up feeling rushed. This would have benefited from being a novel as apposed to novella so the characters could have been more fleshed out and we could see the story develop more. It definitely made me feel something, so points for that, even if that feeling was a mix of disgust and horror. Did also play into some negative tropes regarding BDSM, lesbians, and women, which didn’t entirely ruin it for me but is something to be aware of before you pick this up.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Cursing

Minor: Homophobia and Vomit

jonbar94's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Drudge,

I have a task for you.
I want you to go town to your local bookstore and purchase a copy of “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.” I have wired the essential funds to your bank account. Then you are going to sit in your chair at home and open the book. Do not get out of the chair until you have finished the entire little nasty thing in it’s entirety. You will probably become more uncomfortable the further you read, but I know you will stick it out for me. There will be consequences if you do not do this. 
I love you more than anything.

Signed,
Sponsor

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

It’s a good, hard read.