Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

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

77 reviews

jasper_wildlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, Gore, Miscarriage, Vomit, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Homophobia, and Infertility

minimicropup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Mood Reading Match-Up:

• Bizarro, speculative, satirical threaded with low key, suggestive horror
• Hits of heavy, sad, macabre horror and exploring the effects of that trauma in symbolic prose
• No plot just vibes-ish, snapshot of life drama with polarizing experiences and themes
• Eclectic mixes of short/novella style stories

 
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕
 
🎬 Tale-Telling: The writing throughout was mesmerizing. There was a rhythm to the words that made me eager to discover what would happen next. Even when the stories seemed to wander into the abstract, the prose held my attention without being distracting or seeming fake. It didn’t feel pretentious, just…different and literary?  
 
🔥 Fuel:
1: My favourite and sits perfectly in the realm of realistically skewing nostalgia. For those millennials who grew up with the internet, this isn’t so far-fetched. Pretentious people writing long-winded weirdness was like, the entirety of late ‘90s/early aughts discussions on websites anyone could make and hardly anyone would ever find 😅. And for the younger reader wondering why anyone would even interact with the giant red flag these people were…think of Catfish fully unhinged. 
2:  With its echoes of "The Shining," it had an atmosphere and a deep, unsettling vibe that carries the narrative far, even if the ending leaves you scratching your head and feeling insecure about clues you might have missed (or was that just me?)
3:  While not hitting the same high notes, still offered its own unique flavor.
 
Random Thoughts
🤓 What worked: Most of these tales were suggestive, symbolic horror more Kafkaesque nightmare than gory spectacles. It was the kind of horror that sometimes had shock value but mainly aimed to unsettle through the absurd, the satirical, and the downright bizarre. The collection might not be for those seeking straightforward or gory scares; instead, it was a deeper, more introspective form of unease and existential dread.
🫠 What didn’t: Since they're so different, not every story in this collection may hit the mark for every reader. Those who like 1 may dislike 3...those who love 3 likely dislike 1 etc.
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Content Heads-Up:
1: Food horror. Sexual content (brief, self). Animal cruelty and torture (wildlife

salamanders

). Financial insecurity. Body horror. Parental rejection (of adult child). Unemployment.
2: Divorce/separation. Suicide. Delusions. Death. Murder. Sexual content (consentual, brief). Religious/spiritual horror (death, afterlife, punishment). Parental rejection (of adult child). Infidelity. Loss of a child. Miscarriage (brief description on page). Loss of a spouse. Grief. 
3: Racism (racist character opinion; off page). Gambling. 
 
Rep:
1: Lesbian. Ambiguous gender and sexual identities. 
2: Heterosexual. Cisgender and ambiguous gender identities. 
3: Gay. Cisgender. 
 
👀 Format: Kobo Plus
 
“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Gore and Miscarriage

Minor: Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

sleepyshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Ew.

A collection of short stories that have been ruining my brain and rotting my bones.

Eric LaRocca writes religious existentialism so well. Christ-figures adorn each story in this collection. Crucifying the believer and challenging nonbelievers alike, LaRocca can tie a noose and execute the reader without them seeing it coming. Wild.

I still can’t figure out how his relationship with his mom must be if they keep dedicating these stories to her and her faith. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Child death, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, and Pregnancy

lordslag's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This was my first time ever reading a short story collection and I had super low expectations because everybody I’ve seen talk about it hateddd the last two stories but I liked all of them. They didn’t move me or anything but I enjoyed reading them all the same. Not an all time favorite but looking forward to re-reading eventually. I don’t think any of the stories are like super horrific or disturbing and crazy, so if that's what you’re looking for maybe pass but they were all fun quick reads to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Child death, Pregnancy, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death, and Vomit

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

3.0

Some cool and creepy ideas in here but I kept being pulled out of the stories by how little these characters behaved like real people (obviously there is only so realistic you can get when someone

agrees to voluntarily contract a tapeworm for their Dom

but even in everyday interactions everyone seemed to be totally lacking in motivation or realistic drives). The middle story was especially lacking, but the final story turned things around somewhat as it seemed to live in a more "magical realism" world from the off. 

Also Finneas. It's kind of worth reading for Finneas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Child death

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Grief, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

plutos_atmosphere's review against another edition

fast-paced

2.0

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS AND MENTIONS OF UNSETTLING THINGS!

Things have gotten worse since we last spoke:

3 🌟  Was as gross as people said it was, so that's great? Certainly an interesting read, to say the least. It also made me feel quite uncomfortable. So so so so so weird - please don't read if you don't like

animal abuse and, let's say, the destruction of one's self (in a few ways).

The Enchantment:

2 🌟  Felt a little slow although it certainly wasn't. I think I wasn't fully concentrating when reading this so I missed a few core details that left me confused for the duration of the short story. I'm not sure if I was a big fan of how supernatural it was because I felt it jumped around a lot. Please don't read if you have trauma around or are sensitive to the mentions of

miscarriages

.

You'll find that it's like that all over:

1 🌟  So, soooo boring. I think that the meaning could've been carried out in a different way. I also think that

the racist husband

was just not needed. Very disappointing.

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Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke was certainly the star of the show and the other two stories were just not it. I wish I could be more positive about this book but it was just not very fulfilling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Miscarriage, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

moosereads1's review against another edition

dark 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

1.0

I try not to rate books as one star but I just couldn't stand this. The stories were dark, which I usually like but the characters were just outright awful. I couldn't stand any of them, and thus I couldn't feel for them. I had to push myself to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Self harm

alexandmor's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Body horror, and Child death

rowstream's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

- Älskar formatet med utdrag av chattkonversationer och mail i 1:a novellen. Gör att vilken text som helst känns mer lättläst. 
- Älskar att det lämnas mycket för tolkning och spekulation. 
- Älskar att det hela tiden ligger en tryckande känsla av obehag genom alla 3 novellerna. 
- Älskar författarens skrivsätt. 

- Varför parasiter?! Hujedamig. 
- Uppskattar mindre sonens dödsfall i 2:a novellen då den verkar OMÖJLIG. Men alla har artistisk frihet, jag kan bara inte se hur det är möjligt?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Suicide, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

dexlud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes is a beautiful short story collection by Eric LaRocca, consisting of 3 beautifully told horror stories that make your blood run cold. My favourite story was the second one, The Enlightenment. I found the storytelling amazing and loved it so much! My least favourite was the final one, You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over, which was amazing and I still loved, just not as much as the other two.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Child death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Self harm

Moderate: Vomit