Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

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This story was interesting. I wouldn't say this story had a twist. As she's slowly slipping into madness and desperation from missing her son Olive thinks the man that shows up is an angel here to save them. I didn't understand then how she ended up pregnant because I'm assuming that James couldn't get her pregnant. So the angel got her pregnant? But then when she crossed him by changing his room he made her lose the baby or were these things really miracles? It doesn't make sense then for the angel to take them. Were they going to die from a gas leak and that was when he was going to take them? I left with too many questions. One common realisation is that we need to stop thinking that economic growth will lift all boats,” he said. “We’ve seen in most OECD countries that growth of GDP has been going hand in hand with increasing inequalities and a failure to reduce levels of both relative and absolute poverty. Samantha Kolesnik’s return from her retirement from writing is here! And it’s quite different from her other books but incredible in its own way. Plus holy shit look at the cover art from Evangeline Gallagher! No disrespect to Eric LaRocca but maybe they doesn’t get out much. There are some verrrry gruesome books and stories out there, not to mention movies. This was like a 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. It was a trifle nauseating in places, and I most people shouldn’t read this while eating lunch. But people, you shouldn’t read and eat anyway. You might get stuff on your book. Anyway, how the hell do you talk about horror: “I was deeply discomforted by these stories but in a way that reflected well on the skill and intentions of the author”? I admired the tonal and stylistic range between all three stories, although the first is probably the most impressively “voicey” of the three. In fact, it was probably a little bit unbalancing because, for me, it was the most striking and also incidentally the longest, taking up about the first 50% of the book, while the middle story is takes you to about 85%, and the final story fills up the last 15%. It’s probably an unfair quirk of perception, but the fact there’s only three stories, and they decrease so noticeably in length … it kind of makes the book as a whole feel like it’s deflating as it goes? Like an old party balloon. Or, um, a post-ejaculatory penis. The last story is the closest to optimistic that they get (which is, y’know, a highly qualified statement) so in that respect it’s a softer landing for the reader. But it also, perhaps inevitably, felt like a weaker one.

The Enchantment’ follows James and Olive who decide to act as live-in caretakers of a hotel during its off season (another example of LaRocca wearing their horror influences on their sleeve) after the suicide of their teenage son. While ‘The Enchantment’ doesn’t shine in the way that the previous story does, the way that LaRocca explores Judeo-Christian faith is inspired. The story takes place in a world where the concept of an afterlife has very recently been scientifically disproved. In the wake of this new atheistic realism, the characters discuss worldwide mass suicides as just another news story, and Olive’s obsessive faith becomes irrational and pitiful. It’s a wonderful setting, and most of the story is a well-written character study detailing the comfort of irrational beliefs. Ultimately, however, ‘The Enchantment’ loses its grip on the humanism that makes the first chunk of this book so special. 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. This was probably one of the dumbest books i have ever had the chance to read. I was very eager to try this book and really thought it would be a favorite or at the very least, entertaining. Unfortunately, it was neither and maybe that's why I wanted to rant about it. It begins with a divorced couple and their disturbed son and ends up on an island in Batsh*t Insane territory. I still have no clue what happened. Again, there just wasn't enough detail in this to help me understand it's purpose. There's some kind of message about faith but there's so much other random mixed messaging going on that it was hard to tease out what this story was going for.

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I’ve said countless times before, LaRocca is changing this genre. His writing, their ideas, how he’s able to craft such magnificent stories and how well they’re able to draw the reader in, strap them to the chair and keep them there is a talent I admire. In the first, titular story, a relationship initially developed from a wanted ad, creates a sense of intimacy and knowledge which is not always possible when meeting in the physical flesh. The distance between yourself and the people you are conversing with is paradoxically widened, and narrowed, by the potential to re-invent yourself and to compel other lonely souls to do your bidding. What begins as a cautious dance , escalates into a folie a deux with, at its core (pun intended) an antique apple peeler. Please don’t google what one looks like, before reading the story, let your imagination roam first, is what I would advise. The story takes the form of internet chatroom conversations being used as evidence of some criminal act, therefore some of the details are redacted, making you feel both voyeur to their relationship as well as judge on the appropriateness of this form of communication. As the layers are built up, their defences are peeled away leaving both women raw, and vulnerable. Or are they?# Part Dennis Cooper’s’The Sluts’,part David Cronenberg’s’The Brood’… Eric LaRocca’s’ Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke‘is a masterpiece of epistolary body horror.”– Max Booth III author of We Need to Do Something

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is the kind of body horror that is more disturbing because of the psychological implications. There are two memorable scenes here. The first one includes eating spoiled meat, maggots and all. The second—which I won’t give away here because it’s a little gem all readers should discover themselves—involves a tapeworm. Together, and taken along with the rest of the narrative, these scenes prove that body horror punches harder when we know why it’s happening and have built some empathy for the characters involved. 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.” If I had to guess why this is the first Weirdpunk release to gain so much attention, I’d guess those attributes are part of the formula for success, along with its striking cover and that ominous title. The well-circulated promise to feel changed after reading it—grossed out, unable to sleep—probably pulled in some curious readers. There are always bonus points if tears and/or fear are involved. (It’s physiological: The rush of being scared raises your adrenaline and leaves you with a sense of calm and relief.) Foregone Conclusion: The author's notes at the beginning let the reader know that Agnes does not survive the events of the book. Unsettling. Unusual. Ultimately satisfying. These are the words that come to mind when I think about this collection.I shouted to the world how much I loved the titular story when I first read it. You can read my review of it here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... I hated that it's made out the bdsm is just being selfish and personally pushing someone to do something they clearly don't want to do for the fun of it. First of all, i thought the concept of the police report/true crime setting was nice but there was literally no point to it. It was merely mentioned in the (fake) author's introduction, only to be able to tell the story in an epilostary fashion i guess (which added nothing in the end). This is a strange, dark book that manages to both be gruesome and fun in equal measure, while also carrying an undercurrent of sadness to it. Basically, it’s a perfect fit here at Weirdpunk. The Enchantment has a very powerful opening (reminds me of the suffocating dread of a Ari Aster film), and some beautifully depicted imagery, but it also meanders aimlessly (particularly during the middle), and never fully explores the intriguing spirituality inquiry it puts forward at the start.

This book will not be for everyone. It’s very dark and at times gruesome with no happy endings. I'm not a big fan of gore and I honestly felt as if some of those elements could have been removed and it wouldn't have taken away from the overall story. Since it contains a ton of things that could be triggering, I will only recommend it to only seasoned horror readers. Kolesnik’s Elogona transports readers to a time after the world’s end, when a long-dormant sea creature has awoken to stake its claim against one of the last human settlements. You've Lost a Lot of Blood is a high concept, very strange splatterpunk with a holdover on the "splatter". Eric LaRocca puts more focus on traditional horror elements of this one.

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That wind, here, could more accurately be called “the algorithm”—but before we get there, let’s talk about that hard-to-forget cover. It’s a painting by Kim Jakobsson called Passing Oxygen, which Richard and LaRocca agreed “was perfect.” The author’s strong prose does an impressive job anchoring everything on solid ground even as the stories spiral into surrealist grotesquerie. LaRocca is a writer to watch.”– Publishers Weekly So we should stop focusing on creating the macroeconomic conditions that will stimulate growth and focus instead on providing support to low-income households providing access to work for all people, including people who have low levels of qualification and creating a much more inclusive economy rather than one that creates wealth for the elites and particularly for the shareholders of the largest corporations”.

Eric LaRocca’s superb collection Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes is cutting edge horror with pristine writing sharp enough to slice open your skin. Strongly recommend.” -Ray Garton, author of Live Girls and Crucifax Autumn Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood.

Honestly, it has been a bumpy road with this book. Initially, it was intended to be our August release, but given some life stuff from a handful of the contributors (very much myself included), it got delayed until October. The 31st, so be precise. There are moments of this brilliance in the other two stories, but Things Have Gotten Worse… doesn’t again reach the consistent quality of its titular tale. Which is, to be fair, really not that hard to achieve as I literally jumped at the most predictable, low budget jump scare in a children's movie about 3 kid detectives the other day, so that's how pathetic I am easy it is to scare me.