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

I went into this book completely blind, and I'm glad I did! I was so entertained by this. There's 2 stories within the novella, and some poetry as well. I didn't know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's not super violent or gory, but it does have a ton of suspense, and a few moments that sent chills down my spine. I would highly recommend this book to people that like psychological horror. I don't want to give much away, because I truly feel like everyone should go in blind on this one!

Content Warnings

nithya_natalya's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

4.25

I have no idea what I just read, and I loved it! I read this so fast, and was just utterly mesmerized by it. The prose was really beautiful without holding on to any lit fic pretensions. It still felt solidly rooted in genre fic. I really wasn't sure where this was going. I love horror that feel cyclical. It's so creepy and haunting, and this book pulled that off well. The structure of the book was an interesting approach, and a great way to break up the novella within the novel, and leave you with cliffhangers. The only thing I didn't like were the the transcripts of phone recordings. It felt like kind of a wacky, unrealistic way to get the killers' actual voices into the text, and didn't quite make sense to me. Who records themselves having convos, and then records their inner thoughts during the conversation over the original audio after the fact? Can you even do that on a phone? Was he using audio editing software on his laptop??!

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candoreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Holy shit. No, like literally holy shit. This book is disturbing but in a good way? I read it in one sitting and I can't imagine reading it in multiple sittings. This book is unsettling. It's not even the murder or the thoughts of the main character that are unsettling, what really got me was the book within the book. That premise and idea unsettled me so much. I was unexpectedly unsettled but the book within the book. Bravo and congrats I may never read this again.

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

TLDR; 4 rating, and I’m not sure how I feel about this one.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Last year I read Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, and much like that book, this one is difficult to review. I know I liked the book, but I’m not sure, exactly, how I feel. The book is well written, and I love the way it’s written. It reminds me of found fiction, and good found footage at that.

The story reminds me a lot of

those spiraling, restarting horror movies I sometimes enjoy.

But again, much like with those kinds of movies, it’s hit or miss and hardly ever done well. While I called this particular twist, because these kinds of stories, movie or otherwise, are very formulaic, it was still interesting.

There were some typos, but since this book was self-published, I’m not gonna hold it against LaRocca.

Rating: 4
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy movies like In the Tall Grass/Triangle/Happy Death Day, and true crime.

Content warnings: Car accident, Child death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Vomit, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content

Content Warnings

mirnda's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A book that demands to be reread as soon as you've finished it. The plot slithers in a delightfully disturbing circle, and the series of reveals near the end are perfectly foreshadowed in a way that hit my brain's dopamine button over and over. I've been devouring LaRocca's work over the past couple weeks, and this is my favorite so far.

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mikepalumbo's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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nittiotvaan's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

2.25

Content Warnings

illtakethenightshiftx's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

I don’t know how to rate this, so I’m leaving it blank for now.

This novella feels like House of Leaves but easier to understand and also sort of like an episode of Hannibal. I’m not sure what the “point” of this work was, but it’s intriguing to say the least. Eric LaRocca is an extremely effective writer and they use language in ways that bring the story to life. And in ways that really grossed me out at times. I typically don’t get squeamish easily when reading, but some of the body horror in this made me a little queasy and cringe. This novella is really strange and dark. I implore anyone to read the content warning before reading this. I listened to this on audio and, at times, I was reading the physical copy

I also don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but I think a lot of the material in this novella would work effectively as a short film. I doubt I’d watch it, but I think some folks may enjoy it.

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