Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

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

92 reviews

jasper_wildlife's review against another edition

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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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minimicropup's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Mood Reading Match-Up:
  • Bizarro, speculative, satirical threaded with low key, suggestive horror
  • Hits of heavy, sad, macabre horror and exploring the effects of that trauma in symbolic prose
  • No plot just vibes-ish, snapshot of life drama with polarizing experiences and themes
  • Eclectic mixes of short/novella style stories
 
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕
 
🎬 Tale-Telling: The writing throughout was mesmerizing. There was a rhythm to the words that made me eager to discover what would happen next. Even when the stories seemed to wander into the abstract, the prose held my attention without being distracting or seeming fake. It didn’t feel pretentious, just…different and literary?  
 
🔥 Fuel:
1: My favourite and sits perfectly in the realm of realistically skewing nostalgia. For those millennials who grew up with the internet, this isn’t so far-fetched. Pretentious people writing long-winded weirdness was like, the entirety of late ‘90s/early aughts discussions on websites anyone could make and hardly anyone would ever find 😅. And for the younger reader wondering why anyone would even interact with the giant red flag these people were…think of Catfish fully unhinged. 
2:  With its echoes of "The Shining," it had an atmosphere and a deep, unsettling vibe that carries the narrative far, even if the ending leaves you scratching your head and feeling insecure about clues you might have missed (or was that just me?)
3:  While not hitting the same high notes, still offered its own unique flavor.
 
Random Thoughts
🤓 What worked: Most of these tales were suggestive, symbolic horror more Kafkaesque nightmare than gory spectacles. It was the kind of horror that sometimes had shock value but mainly aimed to unsettle through the absurd, the satirical, and the downright bizarre. The collection might not be for those seeking straightforward or gory scares; instead, it was a deeper, more introspective form of unease and existential dread.
🫠 What didn’t: Since they're so different, not every story in this collection may hit the mark for every reader. Those who like 1 may dislike 3...those who love 3 likely dislike 1 etc.
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Content Heads-Up:
1: Food horror. Sexual content (brief, self). Animal cruelty and torture (wildlife
salamanders
). Financial insecurity. Body horror. Parental rejection (of adult child). Unemployment.
2: Divorce/separation. Suicide. Delusions. Death. Murder. Sexual content (consentual, brief). Religious/spiritual horror (death, afterlife, punishment). Parental rejection (of adult child). Infidelity. Loss of a child. Miscarriage (brief description on page). Loss of a spouse. Grief. 
3: Racism (racist character opinion; off page). Gambling. 
 
Rep:
1: Lesbian. Ambiguous gender and sexual identities. 
2: Heterosexual. Cisgender and ambiguous gender identities. 
3: Gay. Cisgender. 
 
👀 Format: Kobo Plus
 
“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”
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sleepyshelves's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Ew.
A collection of short stories that have been ruining my brain and rotting my bones.
Eric LaRocca writes religious existentialism so well. Christ-figures adorn each story in this collection. Crucifying the believer and challenging nonbelievers alike, LaRocca can tie a noose and execute the reader without them seeing it coming. Wild.
I still can’t figure out how his relationship with his mom must be if they keep dedicating these stories to her and her faith. 
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lil_owl_reads's review against another edition

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dark tense 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

3.5

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is by far the best in this anthology. It is dark and twisted and so weird. The other two stories are alright, but didn’t have the gripping pace the first did. Definitely twisted stories of human depravity and definitely some body horror in there as well.
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pinecone22's review against another edition

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

3.5

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plutos_atmosphere's review against another edition

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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.

-

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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archaicrobin's review against another edition

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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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ptrmsschrs's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.0

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alexandmor's review against another edition

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

3.25

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jesscoast's review against another edition

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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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