Reviews tagging 'Grief'

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

36 reviews

morgansb's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

1.75

This was unpleasant. I don't disagree with the premise of a bizarre D/S relationship, but the pace at which the relationship progressed was confusing. I also didn't think that it ended well, or resolved itself. This book was quite short, and for that it suffers from being annoyingly incomplete. I'm confused as to why the correspondence is part of a police report, because this also does not get touched upon. Overall, the big shocker was more gross than anything, but weirdly enough there was an online gross out blog called "blowfly"(huge trigger warnings for body horror, trauma,sex, blood , etc) which honestly reminded me a lot of this, so I wasn't the most original idea. I would be surprised if the author didn't gather inspiration from that to be honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Gore, Body horror, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Murder and Mental illness

Minor: Blood, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Grief, Excrement, and Death

moss_martii's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Violence, Body horror, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, and Torture

devilledgreggs's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I’m speechless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Self harm and Homophobia

avelyn's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Minor: Grief

scrambled_meggs's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

I read this at the suggestion of a couple of friends. While I did find a few moments in this book to be disgustingly graphic overall it felt lackluster. It was just kind of disappointing ending and storyline for as much hype as it seems to have recieved. Not one I will be interested in reading again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Death, Grief, Gore, Torture, and Toxic relationship

aaround132's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

ngl i finished it in one sitting and i was HOOKED. it got me out of a huge slump. but would i recommend it to anyone? absolutely not, im ashamed to do so. the characters brains were so out of control that made me feel lime im mentally stable comparing to them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cannibalism, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Excrement, and Domestic abuse

katbamkapow's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• 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

3.0

It was fun! I mean, if you know what you're in for. A quick, horrifying read on the sofa in one sitting. At times  it felt like the prose was working a little harder than it needed to, simply for the sake of itself, but for something so short it didn't really bother me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Torture, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Self harm, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content

_chelseachelsea's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.5

It’s hard to digest this one. Some moments filled me with a deep sadness, others with an even deeper horror and disgust. If you are looking for a short story to twist your gut on a Saturday night, this is perfect. It is without question an excellent piece of fiction. But there was a glaring element of the story that really rubbed me the wrong way.

My biggest issue with this story is that it’s written by a male author, but the characters - Zoe and Agnes - are queer women. I would hardly imply that men are incapable of writing queer female characters, but when the sordid and twisted romance at the core of the story is between two queer women, it does beg the question as to whether Eric LaRocca is in any position to be writing it.

On one hand, the trope of the evil lesbian is tired and played out. On the other, Zoe and Agnes are unique in that both seem to be desperate for something that sounds better in fantasy than it does in reality, and neither is truly prepared for the fallout of what they’re asking for. It’s not so much a story about an evil lesbian manipulating a vulnerable young woman as it is a story about two strangers - who could almost be of any gender - toying with the bounds of codependency and pushing each other to the breaking point. It could have been about two men, or a man and a woman, and still played out the same way. However, there is no getting around the fact that LaRocca chose to use a queer relationship to tell this tale, and I find something very ugly about that.

I tried very hard not to let that ugliness influence my review too much. In terms of the story itself - the vivid descriptions provided in every email, the steadily increasing sense of dread that creeps in with every new instant message exchange - the writing is excellent. By limiting the narrative of the story to email and message conversations, we’re left in the dark about what the characters are thinking, saying, and doing while they were away from the screen. We don’t know who Zoe is, what she does for a living, or what her days look like when she’s not dominating her virtual slave. We don’t know what Agnes‘s relationship with her roommate is like, who she interacts with when she’s not emailing Zoe, or many of the details from her past that may have fed her seemingly irrational behavior over the course of the story. The reader is forced to answer those questions entirely on their own, and there is a lot of power in that. 

LaRocca is remarkably well-paced, carefully threading small details throughout the novella, and he does it with the fluidity of a tennis match. The power shifts from one side of the relationship to the other very quickly, and just when you think you know the direction the story is headed in, LaRocca takes another sharp turn to the left or right. It’s jarring, it’s upsetting,  and it’s indisputably impressive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Homophobia

rosesofthespring's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

I put "pregnancy" as a content warning because it's discussed in detail, but for further clarification:

no one technically gets pregnant. Technically.

harley_sage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

beautifully written gore, not really my cup of tea tho

i hate the open ending and it kind of ruins it a little bit for  me, i wish we could've gotten a more concrete ending and knew maybe what happened with zoey as well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Slavery, Sexism, and Misogyny