Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

23 reviews

janey_bones's review

challenging dark sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Woah. The wildest story I've read in a while. Grotesque, weird, outlandish. I loved it! The pace, the style, the whole thing was crazy! 🪱

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit

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 death, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Animal cruelty

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

saint_eleanor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This was mind boggling y’all. I don’t think i could say enough good things abt this book so I’m just gonna compare reading each story to watching specific movies. ¯\_(•3•)_/¯ 

1. the first story was like watching Helter Skelter (2012), Love Exposure, Bones and All, Anti-Christ, Raw, and Titane.
2. The second one is like watching Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lodge, Enys Men, & Saint Maud.
3. The third is JUST like Speak No Evil, The Invitation (2015) and Creep.

read it!
Discord: @pickledfishxoxo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Violence, Self harm, Suicide, and Infertility

Minor: Sexual content

Eating bugs, crucifixion, psychological abuse.

ribbenkast's review

dark tense fast-paced

4.25

At one point I literally wanted to vomit. What a great horror book!

It's a gripping tale of a toxic relationship gone even more wrong. It could've benefited from being a bit more of a slow burn but it works great as this short novella.

Please check the trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Infertility, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Animal cruelty

bowlingforboots's review against another edition

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gore, Abandonment, and Infertility

Moderate: Animal cruelty

emmdashed's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

I should have looked at the Content Warnings for this one lol 😬

It's probably not the Grossest Book Ever but it's up there and it features Very Graphic Animal and Child Cruelty/Death. And there are some other really gnarly moments of just nasty stuff. And some cringey sexting. 

Ultimately I am still not sure how I completely feel about this book. It was both extremely easy to read and extremely difficult to read. You want to know what happens and it's so short you can just inhale it but at the same time the images it paints are disturbing and I found myself just really bummed and grossed out. I think it crosses the line at points into being 2 Edgy 4 U so like.... that's certainly a choice. I found myself wondering what is the point what are we saying why this story. But also I read the whole thing so ??? 

I think it could either have been longer so we could get more into the characters and why they behaved the way they did. Or it could have been shorter and excised some of the unnecessary anecdotes (like honestly the Little Christ and the Priest and the Cat moments added literally nothing apart from being ~edgy and disturbing ooooo~). The length that it was was just awkward. 

Some more spoiler heavy thoughts below: 

I honestly could somewhat buy Agnes' immediate devotion to Zoe. It was 0-100 real fast, but it seemed like she was the victim of a lot of emotional abuse in the past, even more than she described. Unfortunately that kind of trauma sometimes leads victims to unintentionally attach themselves to more abusers. (This is not trying to victim blame, abuse is a fucked up cycle that can ruin lives). It almost felt like a Cult Initiation story with this vulnerable woman being caught by this leader and the mentality/lifestyle Zoe offered her?? Not sure where I'm going with it but ??? 

 I was more bothered by the speed at which the Tapeworm grew like... it takes weeks not days. Especially for them to get that big. But maybe I'm just pedantic. 

Also.... I feel bad for Agnes' roommate while all this nonsense is going on like. Your roommate is keeping rotting meat and eating it like that would stink up the house at the very least. Besides all the other weird behavior lol.

TLDR: idk this was a weird one and I can't say if it's good or bad. Bummed me out but I've been thinking about it for days. Blades of Glory says it best. 
"Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative. It's gets the people going." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Death, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Chronic illness, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Miscarriage

Minor: Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Not sure about the severity ratings but I tried to put as many of these as I can. I cannot stress enough that this book gets r o u g h. The animal and child death stood out particularly to me but other bits might bother other people.

literally_mint's review

challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Violence, Body horror, Infertility, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

skillwithaquill's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

It built suspense and dread so well. It also made me want to puke. Like, I very nearly had to stop for a bit because it nauseated me so severely.

That’s never happened to me before. 

So…congrats? It’s definitely effective horror, but wow do I never want to think about it ever again. Bleh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death and Gore

Minor: Infertility

booksofautumn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Self harm, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Suicide

tailwhip's review

fast-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Infertility