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blackcatkai's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
5.0
CW: body horror, violence, murder, mentions of a form of sexual assault (not super graphic), death (adult, child, animal mentioned), blood, mentions of sexual assault, animal cruelty (one scene), suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship, sexual content, gore, torture
I was first introduced to LaRocca as an author via his contribution to the short story collection The Book Of Queer Saints put together by Mae Murray. His was one of my absolute favourite additions to the collection and i was excited to read more, longer, works from him.
this is essentially a character study through a horror story that interweaves another story within it that mirrors the framing device pretty fucking well imo. the ending is pretty open so you can come to your own conclusions about a couple of aspects so if you like a more neatly tied bow in your novel endings, probably skip this one. this was dark, upsetting, and a bit gross. i liked how the two stories were mostly separate until you get to the end and realise what you'd been reading the whole time and what it essentially may mean. i like how the two mirrored each other and that the framing device was more a character study of an individual while the story within that was more plot focused. a little bit of both of these worked well for me but may not for others.
i want to go a bit into what could be considered spoiler territory when it comes to what i overall enjoyed in the story so consider this the end of my main review.
alright, maybe i am wrong in my reading of this one, but this is my interpretation, essentially.
i liked the back & forth with ambrose & martyr, especially the bits where they talk on stories, horror, & a couple movies. these conversations tell you just about exactly whats going on here: that not all horror is meant to scare, simply to upset, that it depends on the reader. that people will prefer dread that is about what you dont see while others will prefer what you DO. they even talk about what is or isnt plagiarism, and then in the end, when you discovery martyr & ambrose truly know nothing about each other because all martyr is is what hes taken from others. that its part of why he kills? fucking genius.
the novella within follows a sister and her brother as she gets a job with a gaming company. this story touches on the idea that violent video games create violent people. they don't in real life (ive been a gamer the majority of my current 35 years and i can show you studies that come out every year that show no correlation between video games and the creation of violence in kids or adults.), but i love how LaRocca plays with the idea of "but what if they did>" what if someone created a game, a simulation, a machine, that takes from the player and replaces them with a replicated machine, itself? sound familiar? martyer is the machine. his victims are the players of the simulation. his killing of them is the victims experiencing the simulation and martyr is replacing them with himself afterwards.
this novella is meant to be a work of fiction BY martyr that he had published but, but the end, you see it never was at all. ambrose discovers him writing these things & realises he stole it from a victim. that he steals all his writing & personality, his entire self, from those he kills. and therein lies the open ending. did ambrose dispose of martyr after this realisation? did ambrose publish the novella in martyr's name after the fact then leave all the recordings and writings for the authorities to find later? we may not ever truly know, but that's how i feel it went down.
i can not wait to read more of LaRocca's work. i'll probably even read this one again and again.
I was first introduced to LaRocca as an author via his contribution to the short story collection The Book Of Queer Saints put together by Mae Murray. His was one of my absolute favourite additions to the collection and i was excited to read more, longer, works from him.
this is essentially a character study through a horror story that interweaves another story within it that mirrors the framing device pretty fucking well imo. the ending is pretty open so you can come to your own conclusions about a couple of aspects so if you like a more neatly tied bow in your novel endings, probably skip this one. this was dark, upsetting, and a bit gross. i liked how the two stories were mostly separate until you get to the end and realise what you'd been reading the whole time and what it essentially may mean. i like how the two mirrored each other and that the framing device was more a character study of an individual while the story within that was more plot focused. a little bit of both of these worked well for me but may not for others.
i want to go a bit into what could be considered spoiler territory when it comes to what i overall enjoyed in the story so consider this the end of my main review.
i liked the back & forth with ambrose & martyr, especially the bits where they talk on stories, horror, & a couple movies. these conversations tell you just about exactly whats going on here: that not all horror is meant to scare, simply to upset, that it depends on the reader. that people will prefer dread that is about what you dont see while others will prefer what you DO. they even talk about what is or isnt plagiarism, and then in the end, when you discovery martyr & ambrose truly know nothing about each other because all martyr is is what hes taken from others. that its part of why he kills? fucking genius.
the novella within follows a sister and her brother as she gets a job with a gaming company. this story touches on the idea that violent video games create violent people. they don't in real life (ive been a gamer the majority of my current 35 years and i can show you studies that come out every year that show no correlation between video games and the creation of violence in kids or adults.), but i love how LaRocca plays with the idea of "but what if they did>" what if someone created a game, a simulation, a machine, that takes from the player and replaces them with a replicated machine, itself? sound familiar? martyer is the machine. his victims are the players of the simulation. his killing of them is the victims experiencing the simulation and martyr is replacing them with himself afterwards.
this novella is meant to be a work of fiction BY martyr that he had published but, but the end, you see it never was at all. ambrose discovers him writing these things & realises he stole it from a victim. that he steals all his writing & personality, his entire self, from those he kills. and therein lies the open ending. did ambrose dispose of martyr after this realisation? did ambrose publish the novella in martyr's name after the fact then leave all the recordings and writings for the authorities to find later? we may not ever truly know, but that's how i feel it went down.
i can not wait to read more of LaRocca's work. i'll probably even read this one again and again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Gore, Violence, Child death, Death, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content
nittiotvaan'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Gore
Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, Car accident, Torture, and Sexual content
aitanavec's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
No plot, just weird.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Death of parent
malaikawrites's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
no plot - just philosophy, mild horror, suspense and vibes. i loved it :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
Minor: Animal cruelty and Alcoholism
hexedmaiden's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.0
I knew absolutely nothing going into this book and it’s probably for the best that everyone does especially due to the length of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, and Car accident
doomluz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
3.5
This story was interesting. It didn’t gross me out as much as Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
The twist is that the short story and poems were supposed to have been written by different people that Martyr Black had killed, but the voice and reoccurring imagery throughout feels like the same author. Unless he edited the pieces or picked them because he liked the originality and he's drawn to that imagery?
I liked the poems, but the short story "You've Lost A Lot of Blood" was ok. It was kind of predictable. I liked the imagery and idea of it, though it uses one of my least favorite tropes.
The twist is that the short story and poems were supposed to have been written by different people that Martyr Black had killed, but the voice and reoccurring imagery throughout feels like the same author. Unless he edited the pieces or picked them because he liked the originality and he's drawn to that imagery?
I liked the poems, but the short story "You've Lost A Lot of Blood" was ok. It was kind of predictable. I liked the imagery and idea of it, though it uses one of my least favorite tropes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Murder, and Blood
keen's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Vomit, Child death, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, and Death of parent
iliveinletters's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Vomit, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse
ariet's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-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
2.5
While I enjoy LaRocca's work (well, enjoy is a bit strong, find myself mulling over them occasionally weeks later when I go to peel apples for pie is probably more accurate), I found myself having a more neutral feeling about this one.
Narrative-wise, we shift between transcripts, diary entries, and poetry, interspersed with a novella written by one of the main "real world" characters. While I enjoyed the novella, I really feel like the breaking up didn't work out as well as it possibly could have. I can see how in some circumstances you could see the reflection of worldview or narrative events, but it just fell kind of flat.
It was by no means terrible, and there were some great moments of body horror and narrative turns, but on the whole, it was just an alright experience. Worth reading if you come across it, but not going to haunt you for ages.
Narrative-wise, we shift between transcripts, diary entries, and poetry, interspersed with a novella written by one of the main "real world" characters. While I enjoyed the novella, I really feel like the breaking up didn't work out as well as it possibly could have. I can see how in some circumstances you could see the reflection of worldview or narrative events, but it just fell kind of flat.
It was by no means terrible, and there were some great moments of body horror and narrative turns, but on the whole, it was just an alright experience. Worth reading if you come across it, but not going to haunt you for ages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Animal cruelty
sunsetcity's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gore, Medical content, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent