Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

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

47 reviews

nittiotvaan's review

dark emotional reflective medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Torture, and Emotional abuse

christylouise'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I had really high expectations for this book, but felt like the stories fell short. Except from its interesting email format and making me say ‘eww’ out loud once it had very little else to offer. Maybe this type of book just isn’t for me, but overall it was a fast read and decently well written so I’d say give it a read and decide for yourself.

The other two short stories in this collection were off a similar vein, I don’t regret reading them but they were nothing special.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

This books does not spare the details, two crucifixions take place, one is a child. Extreme Caution Advised!!!!

lilybear3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was on everyone's tiktok so I wanted to experience it for myself.  This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Do I have critiques?  Of course, so let's get into it.  I liked this edition because it had 2 other stories.  I don't know if the original book has this, but the author explains the inspiration for each short story and I really appreciated that.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke:  WTF did I read?  I get why people are disgusted, horrified, etc, but isn't that the point?  There's just about every CW/TW possible.  The ending was confusing in the sense that why on earth did it end like that.  My critique is in the characterization.  The characters didn't seem realistic in the way they talked to each other in the emails.  The Instant Message chats were more believable.  This story had more potential to be suspenseful and horrifying, but the pacing was too fast.  Their relationship escalated too quickly and it's hard to believe that Agnes would dive so deep into a relationship within, what, like 2 weeks?  I looked up the meaning of the ending because I was curious if I missed something, I like that there is discussion surrounding it. 3/5

The Enchantment:  I liked this better than the first story.  It was truly suspenseful, but the ending was confusing.  I am interested in things with religious undertones and I was trying so hard to put the pieces together.  It wasn't as climatic as it could've been but I was scared of what would come next. 3/5

You'll Find It's Like That All Over:  This story reminded me of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe.  I don't know if it's as good as those since it's been a while, but it's similar.  I could tell where this story was going since it was familiar, and I don't think that's a bad thing.  3.5/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Self harm, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement

jazhandz's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.25

Firstly this review is for the version of the novella that was published in a collection with the novella "The Enchantment" and the short story "You'll Find It's Like That All Over." To be frank, I don't think either of those are worth your time and wouldn't recommend either. Nonetheless the content warnings include warnings for all three servings, and the additional notes section will explain what warnings apply where.

"Things Have Gotten Worse..." is half haunting and half boring. Something I noticed throughout the story (throughout all three, honestly) was some incredibly strange pacing. The novella(s), and I would say should, have been drawn out into full novels rather than being stifled by the length. Everything felt underdeveloped and rushed. And yes, the horror aspects were thrilling, but I thought they were underwhelming. The characters were underdrawn and unconvincing. I'll likely keep thinking about some of these ideas for some time.

Also, one thing about "The Enchantment" that drove me nuts (cw for death/suicide):

I recognize it's supposed to be supernatural in nature but how, god, HOW did Milo crucify himself. Once you nail one hand to a cross you cannot nail the other one. That's not how hands work. This legitimately distracted me to the point of not being able to focus on the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Animal death, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Miscarriage and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia and Sexual content

Things Have Gotten Worse...: animal death/cruelty, body horror, implied suicide/death, sexual content, toxic relationship,

bodily parasites

The Enchantment: suicide, sexual content, miscarriage, injury, unhealthy relationship You'll Find...: xenophobia

boglord's review

challenging dark tense medium-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, and Body horror

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Infertility, and Vomit

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes 

I strongly suggested if you are  squeamish or detest in depth descriptions of animal or human cruelty that you skip this book.

The first story is very disturbing, gory and unsettling. I barely made it through a couple parts due to the graphic nature, but I just couldn't look away. I loved and hated it all the same.
I wasn't a fan of the last 2 though.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Animal death

ardentreads_'s review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Blood, Torture, Physical abuse, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Toxic relationship