Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca

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.

A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. 

A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son’s death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm…

And a man confronts his neighbour when he discovers a strange object in his back yard, only to be drawn into an ever-more dangerous game.

Three devastating, beautifully written horror stories from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Overall Rating

3/5

Spooky Rating

4/5

Quick Take

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca is an eclectic collection of three novellas. The primary focus of the stories was on love and connection and what we will do for both. While I did enjoy the variety of the novellas and the religious undertones, I just found that they were poorly written and used grotesque descriptions to shock the reader, which wasn’t scary to me. It felt like a cop out, as though it was used to hide the fact that the writing was rather basic and bland. However, if you enjoy splatterpunk and the shock factor that is often used in this sub-genre, then you might enjoy this collection.

Tell Me More

I read this collection of three novellas for the Trans Rights Readathon after hearing so much about how terrifying it was. I’m always wary of books that have been deemed “horrifying” by BookTok because it seems like most of the booktokers who make these statements are not regular horror or splatter punk readers – and some of them even demean splatter punk authors for what they write – but that is for a whole other post.

The primary focus of this collection was what we will do for love and connection, and that in itself was terrifying. I loved how the title story was written in emails and online posts, and while it got to be a little too disgusting for me, the ending was brilliant. I found myself going back and rereading the last passage, and it sent chills down my spine. When it comes to horror, I tend to not like horror that focuses on the gross out aspect because that’s not scary to me. It seems to be used just for a shock factor rather than focusing on the art of the writing and creating an atmosphere, but that’s just my opinion. If you enjoy gross out horror, then you may fall in love with this story.

The second novella was my favorite. It featured a lot of scary religious elements, as well as how grief affects us. It hurt my heart and reminded me a lot of Midnight Mass in certain ways. LaRocca’s experience with religion heavily influenced this story, and I found that intriguing. It was very thoughtful and well put together. While the characters weren’t entirely realistic, I felt that this story was meant to be more obscure, which made me appreciate the odd gothic feeling that the story gave off.

Unfortunately, the last novella did not leave an impression on me. I found the writing to be very basic, the story rushed, and I’m still not even sure what it was about. Therefore, I don’t have the ability to fully review it here.

While LaRocca does have a lot of heavy, interesting ideas and elements that he infuses in his stories, I would love to see him write a full-fledged novel so that we can see more of those ideas fleshed out. His writing tends to be very basic, and I would love to see him focus more on the atmospheric element of horror writing, rather than just the shock factor. With that being said, I do appreciate his unique perspective, and I’m excited to read his other collections to see how he has grown as an author!