Reviews tagging 'Grief'

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

36 reviews

tobibi's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, Excrement, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

akane_readsyt's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Torture, Abandonment, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Grief, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

charlizardbookboi17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.75

This book was ROUGH but what a story. I was not prepared for that ending in any way, shape or fashion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Self harm, Suicide, Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Gore, Grief, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

deepwebkinz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide, Self harm, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Miscarriage

Minor: Racism, Grief, Abandonment, and Body horror

emmdashed's review against another edition

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.

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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

2.5

Regretfully, this collection simply wasn’t my cup of tea. The work was emotionally impactful and intriguing enough that I simply couldn’t put it down, but it surpassed my tolerance threshold with respect to certain themes and imagery.

That being said, I am glad I read this. LaRocca exhibits technically-skilled writing, compelling style, and a cohesive voice, a combination that makes for a powerful, even formidable storyteller. I would recommend his work to fans of dark, reflective fiction and horror that seeks to reflect and linger rather that titillate and dissipate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Body horror, Homophobia, Blood, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Vomit, Murder, and Miscarriage

little_noel's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

I literally can’t give this book a rating. I finished reading about 20 minutes ago and I still feel sick. I think this book gave me similar vibes as Bunny by Mona Awad (sorry if I spelled that wrong it’s 1am) except it had more gore and I liked this ending slightly better. It was interesting and I don’t regret reading, but I’m gonna need a few days to process this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

booksofautumn's review against another edition

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

jhaneveauguste's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

salvatorer2's review against another edition

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

The book was really distressing to read.

The detailed accounts of maiming, animal death, and recounted gruesome events from the news will probably stay with you long after. However, there was some missed oppotunities. I feel that the rabbit eating their babies was unneeded, as well as the priest running over the cat, because neither of them add anything to the themes of the story.

They were unnecessary. Just for shock value. Other than that, it was okay. Idk if im gonna read it again, but we’ll see

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Animal death, and Body horror