Reviews tagging 'Gore'

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

70 reviews

hellocath's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical trauma, Suicide, Medical content, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Racism

joperceptions's review against another edition

This book was disgusting? Once I’m done reading my current read I’m going to try and pick this one back up again but am super hesitant to. It takes gore to a whole new level and not it a good way- a level where I consistently had to stop reading for a bit and just sit in my feeling of “wtf am I reading right now”. 

Unsure what the purpose of writing something like this would even be? I really thought it would be better than it was, like a crime/ horror queer novel. And it was horror and it was queer but just the wrong kind of horror. Like a really, utterly fucked up kind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Infertility, Medical content, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

3.75

I really don't know how to rate this... I just rated each of the individual stories in the book and averaged the ratings.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - 3 stars
The Enchantment - 4.5 stars
You'll Find It's Like That All Over - 4 stars
The average doesn't exactly come out to 3.75, but it's close enough to what that average is. But anyway, I don't really want to say that I enjoyed this, because enjoy is definitely not what I felt while reading this. It was still really good, though! Things Have Gotten Worse was a lot to digest, and I also don't know if I want to? It's just a very complicated reading experience, but it was still really good! The last two stories were really good too, and I liked those even more than the first one. I think that's because, while I thought Things Have Gotten Worse was really good, I didn't really enjoy the reading experience. I had more fun with the other two. That being said, I really, really liked it! I definitely want to read everything this author writes! I have a very complicated relationship to horror, where I like reading it, but I don't necessarily enjoy reading it. I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but this book fit very snuggly into that for me. However, I really liked it, and would recommend it (at least to people who like this kind of thing and have looked at the trigger warnings!!!).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, Animal death, Death, Body horror, and Self harm

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Homophobia

molliundera_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Infertility, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

wall0w's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

Of the three stories in this collection "Things Have Gotten Worse..." was definitely my favourite, with themes that hit much closer to home than the others, viscerally disgusting with twists that come from way left field. "The Enchantment" would hit a lot harder for someone who has any kind of religious trauma, but still a very emotional story swimming in loneliness. The only thing I have to say about "You'll Find It's Like That All Over" is that it was a wild ride with a lead character that constantly had me thinking "I wouldn't have said yes to that but you did so I guess we'll see where this goes" and it sure does go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, Miscarriage, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit and Racism

whitneys_bookstack's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm and Gore

laurenvoice's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

 Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes is a collection of short stories centred around human connection and faith. This collection of short stories is dark and not for the faint of heart.

The titular story Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke was grotesque and disturbing. Eric LaRocca telling the story through emails and instant messenger was genius; they kept us guessing about Zoe's true identity and intentions towards Agnes and the truth behind Agnes's end. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke was a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read; with a nice true-crime vibe.

The second story in this collection, The Enchantment, was dark and mysterious. The beginning of this story was quite horrific and a tad confusing;

I was wondering how Milo managed to crucify himself

. After the main event that started the two main characters' story on an isolated island, it felt like the story dragged a bit, and it was hard to stay interested. Nonetheless, the message gained from the themes centred around faith and religion, to the point our main characters seem paranoid about it, was well worth the read. Overall, The Enchantment was a ⭐⭐⭐.5 read.

The final story You'll Find It's Like That All Over was weird and tense. It made absolutely no sense why Mr Fowler kept going with the bets, which caused a very stressful scene involving a guillotine. But LaRocca had me hooked from the start with this story. You'll Find It's Like That All Over was a ⭐⭐⭐.75 read; it would have earned an extra 0.25 stars if it was a tad longer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, and Suicide

Moderate: Torture, Self harm, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Minor: Lesbophobia and Racism

abhirupa's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

“Things have gotten worse” was still as chilling as I remember but the other two stories just didn’t land for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

wallywoahjack's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

2.75

This is not a book I would have typically picked for myself.. I found this book from a review from YouTube Jules Dapper. I’m mixed up which book is which and ordered this one instead of Dead Inside so I was really surprised by the plot even though I had already seen a review for the book.
This book is dark. REALLY DARK. the first story had me gagging. The writing style is really good but it’s a rough read. The stories themselves are good but like I said it’s a physically rough read. The writing is good but there is a lot of triggering content so I’d be very careful to read the tags and know what your getting into. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Body horror, Death, Blood, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Child death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

hunkydory's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Grief, Miscarriage, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, and Child death