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A review by morganpearcy
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
4.5
This is a collection of 3 shorts by LaRocca: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke; The Enchantment; You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over. LaRocca is brilliant with shorts. They have been added to my list of authors that I’d like to read the entire bibliography of, just from these three. I would have given it 5⭐️, but the descriptions of two fat characters bothered me. Those descriptions were not atrocious as some, but had an undercurrent of fatphobia that I could not ignore. I only took 0.5⭐️ off for it because both are just a few words, not the focus, and it’s not full of vitriol - just using unnecessary words that really need to be removed from our language.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
At first, I was surprisingly aroused. Who doesn’t love an intense queer love story!? Then, I was shocked. Then, I was utterly disgusted and fascinated. This one was a fucking trip. 😳 I relished the grotesqueness of it very, very much. Even though I wanted to vomit at times, I couldn’t put it down, and I couldn’t look away. That’s how you know it’s a damned good horror short.
The Enchantment
This was a dark and emotional read for me. I did NOT see the end coming. I felt the sadness, anger, frustration, and arousal of these characters. Could not stop reading until I was done with the short. This was really perfection on so many levels. Be prepared with tissues at the very end.
You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over
More queer characters. I flew through this story, although it was my least favorite of the three, by far. I definitely felt the tension of this one building in my chest until the very end. I love it when authors don’t wrap the ending up in a nice little bow - letting the reader fill in their own ideas. This did that really well.
Definitely check the CW before reading to ensure that you can stomach the content.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
At first, I was surprisingly aroused. Who doesn’t love an intense queer love story!? Then, I was shocked. Then, I was utterly disgusted and fascinated. This one was a fucking trip. 😳 I relished the grotesqueness of it very, very much. Even though I wanted to vomit at times, I couldn’t put it down, and I couldn’t look away. That’s how you know it’s a damned good horror short.
The Enchantment
This was a dark and emotional read for me. I did NOT see the end coming. I felt the sadness, anger, frustration, and arousal of these characters. Could not stop reading until I was done with the short. This was really perfection on so many levels. Be prepared with tissues at the very end.
You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over
More queer characters. I flew through this story, although it was my least favorite of the three, by far. I definitely felt the tension of this one building in my chest until the very end. I love it when authors don’t wrap the ending up in a nice little bow - letting the reader fill in their own ideas. This did that really well.
Definitely check the CW before reading to ensure that you can stomach the content.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Death, Slavery, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Gore, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, and Self harm