Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca

104 reviews

tropicalpanda's review against another edition

Too gory and disturbing, I barely made it through the salamander murder and I had to stop when she began describing crucifying a baby in excruciating detail

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Child death, Gore, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Body horror

jasper_wildlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, Gore, Miscarriage, Vomit, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Homophobia, and Infertility

lordslag's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This was my first time ever reading a short story collection and I had super low expectations because everybody I’ve seen talk about it hateddd the last two stories but I liked all of them. They didn’t move me or anything but I enjoyed reading them all the same. Not an all time favorite but looking forward to re-reading eventually. I don’t think any of the stories are like super horrific or disturbing and crazy, so if that's what you’re looking for maybe pass but they were all fun quick reads to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Child death, Pregnancy, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death, and Vomit

eldritch_bxtch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Gore

thebechdelbitch's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

Some cool and creepy ideas in here but I kept being pulled out of the stories by how little these characters behaved like real people (obviously there is only so realistic you can get when someone

agrees to voluntarily contract a tapeworm for their Dom

but even in everyday interactions everyone seemed to be totally lacking in motivation or realistic drives). The middle story was especially lacking, but the final story turned things around somewhat as it seemed to live in a more "magical realism" world from the off. 

Also Finneas. It's kind of worth reading for Finneas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Child death

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Grief, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

plutos_atmosphere's review against another edition

fast-paced

2.0

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS AND MENTIONS OF UNSETTLING THINGS!

Things have gotten worse since we last spoke:

3 🌟  Was as gross as people said it was, so that's great? Certainly an interesting read, to say the least. It also made me feel quite uncomfortable. So so so so so weird - please don't read if you don't like

animal abuse and, let's say, the destruction of one's self (in a few ways).

The Enchantment:

2 🌟  Felt a little slow although it certainly wasn't. I think I wasn't fully concentrating when reading this so I missed a few core details that left me confused for the duration of the short story. I'm not sure if I was a big fan of how supernatural it was because I felt it jumped around a lot. Please don't read if you have trauma around or are sensitive to the mentions of

miscarriages

.

You'll find that it's like that all over:

1 🌟  So, soooo boring. I think that the meaning could've been carried out in a different way. I also think that

the racist husband

was just not needed. Very disappointing.

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Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke was certainly the star of the show and the other two stories were just not it. I wish I could be more positive about this book but it was just not very fulfilling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Miscarriage, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

archaicrobin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

This is the first book I’ve read by LaRocca and I am intrigued. The first novella in this collection was my favorite and definitely the one that stands out the most. Each story has characters desperate for connection with others in anyway they can get it, all three are dark and pretty disturbing. I gave this a 3.5 stars because while I did enjoy the novella the other three stories weren’t as memorable in my opinion. I look forward to reading more by LaRocca. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

moosereads1's review against another edition

dark slow-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

1.0

I try not to rate books as one star but I just couldn't stand this. The stories were dark, which I usually like but the characters were just outright awful. I couldn't stand any of them, and thus I couldn't feel for them. I had to push myself to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Self harm

blackcatwitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Minor: Animal death

jesscoast'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I ripped through these three short horror stories, all with their own strange and unsettling premises. I was drawn in by the first, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, because of the chat room format and internet friendship gone wrong plot. The plunge into darkness was abrupt, disturbing, and shocking. I found myself getting queasy and squeamish, for a story set entirely online, the fictional real world consequences and true crime set up were intensely gory. The build up was addictive though and I couldn’t help but brace myself for the worst, dreadful of how far things could go. For a former internet teen such as myself, this is maybe the ultimate horror because it blends internet anonymity with the late night isolated, curious, frenzied message boards and chats with no supervision, guidebook, or sanity or safety checks. 

The other stories were dark and sad though I won’t say they’ll be nearly as memorable to me.

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Content Warnings

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