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Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
69 reviews
bunnyprincess's review
- 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? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
cmartin's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, and Suicide
szyca's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Abandonment
wellreadandhalfdead's review
- 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
1.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
mfrisk's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The first of the anthology, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, was disgusting to say the least. It touched upon toxic relationships, cyber dating and complete domination over another. I was expecting murder, physical abuse etc. but it went in a different direction entirely. It also played on a specific fear of mine very well. This story was a 4.5 stars.
The second story, The Enchantment, was a bit of a miss for me personally. In this story, the afterlife has been scientifically disproven and masses of people commit suicide as a result of this. The religious fanaticism was interesting to read as ive never personally experienced this or seen this first hand. But I hated every single character and I felt a little confused about the message it was trying to convey. This story was 4 stars.
The final story titled, "You'll Find It's Like That All Over" centers a middle-aged man living in the middle of a neighbourhood with his racist husband who hates a foreign neighbour. This one felt like a short story from Shirley Jackson and I quite enjoyed it for that reason. Themes included social niceties, courtesy, and humiliation. I really enjoyed reaching the end of the short story and realising the cyclical narrative structure of this piece, I think this effect really rounds out the story and highlights just how severe this burden is. I rated this a 4.5 stars.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
hue's review
2.5
The enchantment 1/5
You'll find it's like that all over 1/5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
stardustdreamer's review
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy
Minor: Lesbophobia
melliedm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
1. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a gruesome epistolary story connecting two women through email and text message where their quickly dread-inducing kink relationship becomes a nausea-inducing horror-show on the desperation people have to love and be loved. Truly disgusting and I could never bring myself to read it again, but it was the best story in the collection.
2. The Enchantment follows an estranged couple as they act as caretakers for an island hotel the winter after their son’s suicide. Heavy religious themes might resonate more with other readers, but they didn’t with me. The beats in this one read more like the author wanted very much for this to be a screenplay and not a short story. It felt a little like other familiar stories in the horror canon put into a blender? My least favourite of the bunch.
3. It’s Like This All Over was mildly interesting. A man finds something strange in his yard and politely confronts his aloof neighbour about it, and then finds himself unable to refuse the neighbour’s invitations. The way the author presented the protagonist’s perspective seemed to have the opposite effect as was intended. By the end I got the sense we were supposed to very much view him as an insert that any of us could very well be, but there was a strange depersonalizations of him that made it difficult. Perhaps it was that he never has a first name, and is only “Mr. (Surname)”, which in my mind has a way of othering someone. I also would have liked to spend more time with the protagonist actually engaging with the neighbour, the escalation seemed far too sudden.
Overall an enjoyable collection of disturbing tales, and quick to read in a single dark evening alone.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
hiveofbees's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide