Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes

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I am not going to drone on and on… clearly I am in the minority and others found this and will find this beautiful and the way it was intended, unfortunately I did not. The best part of it was the absolutely gorgeous cover, well done on that. LaRocca's combination of structure, adept pacing and masterful language is more complex than meets the eye... A must-read for fans of body horror, epistolary novels, and depravity" - Library Journal

It took a while for me to realize what had occurred. It was brief and had a depressing message about love and death. I adore the images used here. Three dark and disturbing horror stories from an astonishing new voice, including the viral-sensation tale of obsession, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke . For fans of Kathe Koja, Clive Barker and Stephen Graham Jones. Winner of the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novella. The three stories do complement each other in intriguing ways. As the afterward explains in, perhaps, unnecessary detail they’re all about the human need for connection, be in romantic, in faith and family, or just the overwhelming pressure to feel socially acceptable. While, in some cases, queerness does contribute to these characters’ sense of isolation there is something quite deeply horrifying—at least to me—to see that fundamental search for connection becoming increasingly twisted and detached from anything meaningful or real. The middle story has some explicitly supernatural elements, but in the first and last the awfulness is mostly kind of banal and human. And, because of that, incredibly effective. There’s a sort of flinching despair and incipient dread that wends its way through all three stories. Fun times. Good stuff. Domestic Abuse: Zoe initially sets herself up as a Dominatrix, promising to take care of Agnes as long as the latter remains her slave. However, as the story unfolds her actions appear closer to this trope. Not quite played straight, as by the end Agnes and Zoe never meet each other in real life.Despite being horrifying and sinister, I can understand this tale of self-interest, power, lust, and fixation. So flawlessly put together, with the ideal conclusion. The term perfect cannot be emphasized enough. A perfect 5 star and the finest by far. But the story isn’t just parroting genre conventions. The form is familiar, but its narrative is ground-breaking in its exploration of the darker side of online queer ‘safe’ spaces. It is a skillful interplay between the intense psychological trauma of its characters, the sexual simulacrum of online dating, and the unfeeling bureaucracy of legal paperwork – a juxtaposition similarly explored by Nat Ogle’s 2021 novel In the Seeing Hands of Others. The eight stories here are a mixed bag. At one point, early on, I was ready to toss this, but I feel a responsibility to try and finish anything I had specifically requested. The story that triggered me was “Bodies are for Burning,” where we are dredged into the mental illness of someone struggling to keep from torturing a baby. Granted, the author has the skill and talent to make this vividly real– it is just a place I do not need to go to. LaRocca’s combination of structure, adept pacing and masterful language is more complex than meets the eye… A must-read for fans of body horror, epistolary novels, and depravity”– Library Journal

Let's take a stroll through the mind of the gifted, creative, and twisted writer: Eric LaRocca. I hope I can come out unscathed on the other side. If not, then I hope it only hurts a little. Time will tell.... This book kind of blew me away 😅 I’ve been waiting months to read “Things have gotten worse since we last spoke”. It’s the story of a woman named Agnes w Although I didn't really enjoy reading this one coz of elements of elaborate body Horror but yet I was intrigued with it. It is about how in a relationship one is always taking things and other is giving. It was quite obvious that the taker cared nothing for the giver, they wouldn't even flinch to get rid of the giver if needs are done. But what happens if giver decides it's enough? Rating : 3.5 stars The Enchantment - There is ZERO way dude can nail himself to a cruifex by himself. Zero👏🏻! Like the only way you can nail your feet down is if you nail your wrists up first because your feet nailed to the board would not hold you up enough to finish hands. As soon as it's mentioned that this kid is building a cruifex you know he's going to nail himself to it. Didn't understand how this super religious person is chill with suicide.I would advice any reader who find dark and twisted tales triggering to stay away from all novels of Eric LaRocca, they have that kind of punch in almost every story. A married couple Vince and Terry are at the park with their son Philip when a couple approach them - Lyric and Melody who want to play a little game. The final story in this collection disgusted me beyond words. The theme shown in this story alone removed a star from me. And in November, Weirdpunk is accepting submissions for an upcoming anthology titled Stories of the Eye, edited by Sam Richard and Joanna Koch. They’re seeking horror stories “that explore the complex relationships between artists and models. Go beyond the male gaze. Show us the queer gaze, the disabled gaze, the un-colonialized gaze, the intergalactic gaze.” The book in question is Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, a 2021 title from author Eric LaRocca. It’s a short horror story that takes place exclusively online, in chatrooms of the early 2000s. One lonely woman sells a family heirloom to another, and the two dive into a whirlwind of toxic self-disclosure. Critics agree: It’s not for the faint of heart.