Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

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

3 reviews

tropicalpanda's review against another edition

Too gory and disturbing, I barely made it through the salamander murder and I had to stop when she began describing crucifying a baby in excruciating detail

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Child death, Gore, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Body horror

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

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