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ghouligann's review against another edition
dark
tense
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? It's complicated
2.5
It’s actually so sad that I can’t justify giving this a higher review. I adore the author’s writing style. The prose in this story was really nice. I truly hated the lack of a solid plot and the novella inside this story was my least favorite part of it. Which is unfortunate, since it makes up a majority of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and Gore
rylee_the_captain_krane's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Rather confusing, but great writing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Sexual content
addythebookbat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, Torture, Cannibalism, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
r_o_s_e's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Abandonment, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Alcohol, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Death of parent
nithya_natalya's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I have no idea what I just read, and I loved it! I read this so fast, and was just utterly mesmerized by it. The prose was really beautiful without holding on to any lit fic pretensions. It still felt solidly rooted in genre fic. I really wasn't sure where this was going. I love horror that feel cyclical. It's so creepy and haunting, and this book pulled that off well. The structure of the book was an interesting approach, and a great way to break up the novella within the novel, and leave you with cliffhangers. The only thing I didn't like were the the transcripts of phone recordings. It felt like kind of a wacky, unrealistic way to get the killers' actual voices into the text, and didn't quite make sense to me. Who records themselves having convos, and then records their inner thoughts during the conversation over the original audio after the fact? Can you even do that on a phone? Was he using audio editing software on his laptop??!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Murder, and Body horror
Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Car accident, and Blood
msradiosilence's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
TLDR; 4 rating, and I’m not sure how I feel about this one.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
Last year I read Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, and much like that book, this one is difficult to review. I know I liked the book, but I’m not sure, exactly, how I feel. The book is well written, and I love the way it’s written. It reminds me of found fiction, and good found footage at that.
The story reminds me a lot of those spiraling, restarting horror movies I sometimes enjoy. But again, much like with those kinds of movies, it’s hit or miss and hardly ever done well. While I called this particular twist, because these kinds of stories, movie or otherwise, are very formulaic, it was still interesting.
There were some typos, but since this book was self-published, I’m not gonna hold it against LaRocca.
Rating: 4
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy movies like In the Tall Grass/Triangle/Happy Death Day, and true crime.
Content warnings: Car accident, Child death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Vomit, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
Last year I read Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, and much like that book, this one is difficult to review. I know I liked the book, but I’m not sure, exactly, how I feel. The book is well written, and I love the way it’s written. It reminds me of found fiction, and good found footage at that.
The story reminds me a lot of
There were some typos, but since this book was self-published, I’m not gonna hold it against LaRocca.
Rating: 4
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy movies like In the Tall Grass/Triangle/Happy Death Day, and true crime.
Content warnings: Car accident, Child death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Vomit, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Car accident, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, Vomit, and Violence
mikepalumbo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death of parent, Confinement, Cursing, Alcoholism, Vomit, Car accident, Child death, Death, Sexual content, and Violence
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
hocuscrocus's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Violence, and Cursing
Moderate: Alcoholism and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer and Medical content