A review by elyssajoh
You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

IT’S ENOUGH SLICES.

This book had me captivated nearly the entire time. The format of the book was quite unique and I enjoyed it. There was so much to read into from the socratic dialogue between the two main characters to the slow reveal of the horrific plot in the novella within. I enjoyed trying to interpret all these details and how the various works within the book related to the main storyline.

However, there was too much going on (hence it’s enough slices). I am having trouble even concisely summing up what this book is about
- plagiarism?
. I can’t quite make up my mind if it would benefit from being longer or if some of the details should have been cut. A lot of the explanations
i.e. the wax priest thing, the Martyr has a tumor thing, Tamsen blames her brother for her parent’s death, they’re stuck in a loop, the video game changes people, Ambrose is involved in the murders, the sex scenes of Tamsen versus Martyr, the reveal that it was all plagiarized actually
seem just glossed over and not fully explained, part of which is intentional and leaves the reader to interpret for themselves what it means. Part of it seems rushed- did LaRocca really do the work of investigating the psychology of serial killers before writing this? (For a book largely based on dialogue with the main character, this is important.)

Overall, it was really cool but it was just tooooo much. Delving deeper into just a few of the big reveals may have been more impactful than shoving as many horrific reveals into the plot as possible. 

That being said, I do plan to try another book by LaRocca at some point.
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