Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Las cosas han empeorado desde la última vez que hablamos (y otras desgracias) by Eric LaRocca

20 reviews

melliedm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

A slick collection of variably disturbing short stories that will consume a few hours of your time without you noticing.

1. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a gruesome epistolary story connecting two women through email and text message where their quickly dread-inducing kink relationship becomes a nausea-inducing horror-show on the desperation people have to love and be loved. Truly disgusting and I could never bring myself to read it again, but it was the best story in the collection.

2. The Enchantment follows an estranged couple as they act as caretakers for an island hotel the winter after their son’s suicide. Heavy religious themes might resonate more with other readers, but they didn’t with me. The beats in this one read more like the author wanted very much for this to be a screenplay and not a short story. It felt a little like other familiar stories in the horror canon put into a blender? My least favourite of the bunch.

3. It’s Like This All Over was mildly interesting. A man finds something strange in his yard and politely confronts his aloof neighbour about it, and then finds himself unable to refuse the neighbour’s invitations.  The way the author presented the protagonist’s perspective seemed to have the opposite effect as was intended. By the end I got the sense we were supposed to very much view him as an insert that any of us could very well be, but there was a strange depersonalizations of him that made it difficult. Perhaps it was that he never has a first name, and is only “Mr. (Surname)”, which in my mind has a way of othering someone. I also would have liked to spend more time with the protagonist actually engaging with the neighbour, the escalation seemed far too sudden.

Overall an enjoyable collection of disturbing tales, and quick to read in a single dark evening alone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Slavery, Sexual content, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Abandonment, Body horror, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

meecespieces's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity and Animal death

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

the first story out of these three was fine, but the other two were quite boring :/ reading the afterword did make them both a bit clearer, but it doesnt make the stories any more enjoyable. the first one was really well-written and i wanted to know how it would end, but the second story was a little too drawn out, and the third one was just...strange. i also dont know why the third story's main characters husband was described as being racist because he's literally only mentioned. it just feels like a really weird detail about someone we dont ever meet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Vomit, Self harm, Body horror, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Blood, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death, and Gore

gotabookforeverysituation's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mental illness, Child abuse, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, and Torture

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Infidelity

Minor: Racism

selkieteeth's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Grief, Gore, Animal death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Xenophobia, Racism, Infidelity, and Alcohol

tesshersh's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

3.5

“things have gotten worse” is def the star out of the three, even tho it is the most nauseating one - don’t think the others are really worth the read but they’re quick at least so I don’t feel like my time was completely wasted

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, and Gore

molliundera_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Infertility, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

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

2.75

This is not a book I would have typically picked for myself.. I found this book from a review from YouTube Jules Dapper. I’m mixed up which book is which and ordered this one instead of Dead Inside so I was really surprised by the plot even though I had already seen a review for the book.
This book is dark. REALLY DARK. the first story had me gagging. The writing style is really good but it’s a rough read. The stories themselves are good but like I said it’s a physically rough read. The writing is good but there is a lot of triggering content so I’d be very careful to read the tags and know what your getting into. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Body horror, Death, Blood, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Child death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

boglord's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, and Body horror

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Infertility, and Vomit

nobeliumreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

Three short stories so this review is basically three reviews in one. I have to admit that I do not read horror often and the last two did not feel like horror to me. But, they were all quick and fast-paced reads that I found intriguing regardless and am excited to see what the author has for us in the future. 

1. Things have gotten worse since we last spoke (4 stars)

CW: Animal cruelty, animal death, body horror, vomit, suicidal thoughts, sexual content, child abuse 

I’ve already read this one and I didn’t notice any changes when I reread it so I’m going to assume nothing was changed, however I definitely appreciated the story a lot more this time around and even though I already knew what was to happen, I did still feel dread whilst reading it. 

I remember not knowing what to expect going into this book; all I knew was that it was sapphic horror in an internet chatroom and though the format was quite new to me and I wasn’t expecting it, it was good! Pretty much my only complaint was that I wish we had more because I was quite invested in Agnes and Zoe’s relationship but I liked where it left off too.

Agnes eating the meat had me cringing just like when I’d first read it. After reading the contract, I really thought Zoe would be the one to look out for, but Agnes’ downward spiral became surprisingly morbid and horrific pretty quickly. She was so entranced and eager at times to do whatever Zoe asked, and then it culminated in her desperation for a child and her unhealthy obsession with it. It was so intriguing to see Zoe’s clear apprehension in where things were going, and then after that how she ended things when it became too much for her.

Overall, my favourite of the three!

2. The enchantment (3 stars)

CW: Death of a child, suicide, suicide attempt, infidelity, miscarriage, death 

An intriguing beginning and end and I did like it and thought it had potential, but the writing and pacing really threw me off. The word ‘notice’ and the phrase ‘senses herself’ appeared way too much and I found that the story wasn’t subtle at all as things that the characters miss are constantly pointed out in a ‘what they don’t see is…’ sort of fashion. I’m not sure if that was intentional, but it just felt juvenile to me. 

As we neared the end, I felt like everything was being rushed as we had time skip after time skip and there wasn’t enough happening in each little section. I think I would have liked more set up on the religious aspect of the story, or even the story just being longer in the first place. In general, I was just so thrown off by the writing that I did not feel any strong emotions with this one.

3. You’ll find it’s like that all over (3 stars)

I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. It felt more like a really long riddle than anything else and although I did love the theme and the ending, I think it’s just not for me. I did like the writing though and how Mr. Fowler was so desperate to stay courteous and polite he went through all of that despite his growing reluctance because honestly relatable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Body horror, and Child abuse