Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

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

131 reviews

trashgobby's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Blood, and Abandonment

therealmsroth'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

4.75

Quick, highly intriguing read. Took a partial point off because of all the unanswered questions. I wanted more... In a good way? Very interesting characters. I wish I could get more of their stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

tibcanread's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

1.25

I hate giving 1 star reviews, but I couldn't stand this book even more. I read this for a horror book club pick and I'm going to be honest, I just skimmed the last story. I couldn't anymore. It was gross. Not even in a fun way, just gross. I actually felt sick to my stomach reading some of these nasty descriptions. And what was the obsession with pregnancy in the first two stories? Like, why? Really.  

I found no real redeeming quality in this collection. The writing was not great (if I hear someone spooned something ever again it will be too soon, and how do ears furrow exactly??) It's only January 9th and I'm pretty sure this is going to the top of the worst books I read list for 2024 already. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

erinmichele_reads's review against another edition

dark

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Miscarriage, and Suicide

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

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: Child death, Miscarriage, and Suicide

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

2busyreading's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Homophobia

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.

-

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

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