Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

15 reviews

rosage's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

what did i just read?! this was the most incredible horror novel i’ve ever read! i want to read any and everything by eric larocca now. this book was phenomenal! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, Child death, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Blood, Car accident, Death, and Kidnapping

stephanieluxton's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book. What's it about? I don't even know. It's kind of a dialogue between two men who are dating. One is a serial killer. It switches back and forth between that and a novella written by the serial killer in which we follow the story of a video game designer and her little brother who move to a rich/well-known game developers estate because she was hired to work on one of his new games. There's a lot of strangeness surrounding the designer and his estate. Weird stuff happens. Best to go into it not really knowing anything.

Things I liked:

• This book is very eloquently written. I literally enjoyed the words used. It was poetic.
• It felt like reading two books in one and neither part was boring. It did this incredibly well despite not being a lot book itself.
• There was a lot of ambiguity but it seriously worked in this book. No information dumping!
• I was surprised. Little hints are dropped throughout the book that certain things were happening and it really comes full circle (mostly in the novella portion).
• I found a lot of the characters to be likeable and colourful.

Things I Didn't Like:

• That it ended. I wanted to know more!! Although I suspect knowing too much would take some of the magic and the mystery away from this book. This might be my favourite book of the year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Child death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol

Body Horror:

After playing the video game, characters become part machine with oil, gears, and wires beneath their skin.

There's obviously some blood. Child Death/Death:

Lots of characters die. It hard to say if a child really dies, or if his soul is trapped inside the video game and he can be saved. Much ambiguity.

Murder/Toxic Relationship:

One of our main characters is a serial killer and wants to kill his boyfriend.

Some alcohol use. Sexual Content: Most of this is talked about rather than witnessed.

There is one lesbian sex scene. Not too graphic.

wadefrye's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was amazing. It was the first book that have ever read fully through. When i first started to read this book I was a little confused on how the poems, the novella, and the conversation recordings linked together, but then in the end it made sense. I will definitely be recommending this book to others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

thebookishlibra_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Torture

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol

mikimachtchaos's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredible. I've never read anything  like this  ever before. I was unable to stop reading or to take my mind off the book. It's depicted in such an interesting way, truly a masterpiece

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Minor: War, Vomit, Alcohol, and Self harm