Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

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

101 reviews

morganpearcy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

4.5

This is a collection of 3 shorts by LaRocca: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke; The Enchantment; You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over. LaRocca is brilliant with shorts. They have been added to my list of authors that I’d like to read the entire bibliography of, just from these three. I would have given it 5⭐️, but the descriptions of two fat characters bothered me. Those descriptions were not atrocious as some, but had an undercurrent of fatphobia that I could not ignore. I only took 0.5⭐️ off for it because both are just a few words, not the focus, and it’s not full of vitriol - just using unnecessary words that really need to be removed from our language.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
 At first, I was surprisingly aroused. Who doesn’t love an intense queer love story!? Then, I was shocked. Then, I was utterly disgusted and fascinated. This one was a fucking trip. 😳 I relished the grotesqueness of it very, very much. Even though I wanted to vomit at times, I couldn’t put it down, and I couldn’t look away. That’s how you know it’s a damned good horror short.

The Enchantment
 This was a dark and emotional read for me. I did NOT see the end coming. I felt the sadness, anger, frustration, and arousal of these characters. Could not stop reading until I was done with the short. This was really perfection on so many levels. Be prepared with tissues at the very end.

You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over
 More queer characters. I flew through this story, although it was my least favorite of the three, by far. I definitely felt the tension of this one building in my chest until the very end. I love it when authors don’t wrap the ending up in a nice little bow - letting the reader fill in their own ideas. This did that really well.

Definitely check the CW before reading to ensure that you can stomach the content.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

t3mp3st's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

kattrent's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I finally got to read this after many years, and LORD. That first story really messed with me. The second one was great, and the third one, which is the shortest, was my least favorite of the bunch. That bein said, all three of them are well written, interesting, and have a nice Splatterpunk feel to them. But man, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke was worth the wait, even though it was short and I wanted more!

The ending of the first story, where she is CRADDLING HER TAPE WORM?! Yeah, that was real messed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Homophobia

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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Infidelity

amberbjorge's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Homophobia

I had to pause multiple times while reading this book because it gave me the creeps. Great storytelling in an interesting way.

libbywibby's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

this book was an adventure and i’m kinda of concerned i liked it as much as i did lol. the last short story was very dull tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

If you can't handle talk of Christianity, praying, etc. Skip the second story

ptitirodactyle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

THGWSWLS: 4,25 stars
The Enchantment: 3 stars
YFILTAO: 3 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

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

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, and Pregnancy

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