Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

7 reviews

rory_john14's review against another edition

dark fast-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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Child abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Gore

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Vomit, Cursing, Pregnancy, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Classism, Medical content, Abortion, Terminal illness, Slavery, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Dementia, Abandonment, and Death of parent

wlw1tch's review against another edition

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

3.0

An intriguing, fast-paced downward spiral with a unique format. Not as shocking as people made it seem but definitely heed the content warnings, it does get graphic!
I wouldn’t go to this book for representation by any means, but the characters’ queerness makes certain parts of the narrative much more compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Terminal illness and Vomit

All instances of animal death are described in graphic detail,

a salamander

and

a cat

as is one child (infant) death in which

the narrator describes a case she saw on the news wherein a baby is murdered by his brother

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.

kassandra_ase's review

dark 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

3.5

After reading this I think I'd rather be single from now on, it traumatized me into having romantic relationship with someone 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Gore

Moderate: Slavery, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Animal death, and Blood

touiani's review

dark fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Slavery, Body horror, Terminal illness, Vomit, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

honeytangerine's review

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

mothie_girlie's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit