TW/CW: Animal abuse, animal death, child murder, grooming,
I finished reading this story on June 2nd, and
have sat here for the past 2 months and wondered repeatedly to myself, “Wtf did
I just read?” In Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,
Eric LaRocca has written a story unlike any I have ever read before, and
probably will never read again. Just kidding, I’m totally reading this again.
In just 102 pages containing a few emails and instant
messenger conversations, LaRocca built a story that started out as one human
being helping another human being who was going through a rough time and
quickly turned into a person giving up their freedom, autonomy, and safety to a
stranger. Voluntarily at that! The dynamic between Agnes and Zoe ramps up to
pure madness. We know from the very beginning how Agnes’s story will turn out,
but getting to the how and why is brutal and harrowing.
I read Eric’s first novella, Starving Ghosts in Every
Thread, and would have begged to review this book if I had to.
LaRocca’s prose while exquisite, has a way of chilling me and digging down into
my brain and camping out. While I thought the first book was also beautiful and
unsettling, I clearly had no clue what was to come next.
Highly, highly, highly recommended
5/5 Stars
Thanks to the author and his publisher Weird Punk Books for
providing me with a eARC of this novella to read and review. I have also
purchased a copy of this novel at my own costs from Amazon. All thoughts and
opinions are my own.
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