Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes is a collection of three short stories by Eric LaRocca. LaRocca's strengths are originality and inventiveness; each story features a unique and interesting premise, particularly the titular story, which takes the form of an epistolary narrative set in an online chatroom in the early 2000s. LaRocca's writing is also a strength - its snappy and engaging. Unfortunately, the execution of each story left something to be desired. Though each story started strong, they all sort of trickled off, and I felt that the horror elements were used for shock value rather than as part of the narrative. Regardless, I'm definitely interested to read more of LaRocca's work in the future!

you know those books and movies that leave you vibrating with the need to dig in and analyze stories for hours and hours with others? that's how i feel walking away from this collection.

i read 'things have gotten worse since we last spoke' about a year ago, and was surprised to find it just as haunting and unsettling as it had been before. it's a gripping, unusual work about finding and projecting connection, and finding limits.

"the enchantment" absolutely absorbed me. this story of a couple working through the grief of losing their son is at once so simple and so complex, and i can't get it off my mind. there is so much to say about grief and faith, and reality and horror and how to make a story extra special by combining such simple writing with stunning horror. i need to talk about this story with someone, now.

"you'll find it's like that all over" was harder for me to get into, if only because i hadn't finished processing "the enchantment" and kept getting distracted. but this game of increasing-stakes bets played between strangers was fascinating and a really interesting look at polite connection. it mostly felt like horror when you start to question your own limits.

eric larocca accomplishes something so special and unique in these stories.

<i>thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I didn't realize that this was a collection of horror stories, so I was a bit puzzled as I was reading the first one, the novella with the same title as the book. In this story, two women form an online relationship where their devotion to one another is put to extreme tests. In the second story, The Enchantment, a couple on the verge of estrangement is brought back together by a tragedy. Serving as caretakers on an isolated island in the off-season, their solitude is broken by the arrival of an unexpected guest. The final and shortest story concerns Mr. Fowler, who is somewhat ashamed that he's never taken the time to get to know their elderly neighbor. When he has an encounter with the neighbor, once again (as with the other stories), things get taken to extremes.

As someone who doesn't read a lot of horror, I wasn't sure where these stories were going. I did enjoy them, although the characters all put themselves in bizarre situations and didn't really react as one would expect them to. I do think people who enjoy creepy stories that have unpredictable endings will enjoy these stories.

There are three very interesting and jarring short stories in this book that are definitely not for the faint of heart. The stories really made me think about the topics of desperation, companionship, and social interaction. I think if you're a fan of shock horror and can handle some gore descriptive, then I think you will enjoy this. After reading this, I think I am more of a fan of psychological horror, but I still liked this book.

Thank you Titan Books and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

Holy heck what a ride! This was dark, twisted and everything you could hope for coming into spooky season.

I loved the title story for this collection. It’s a staggering piece of fiction. It starts off innocently enough with two lonely women finding each other online and developing a relationship. The relationship becomes intense and the story gets darker and darker. The last few pages were almost unbearable to read. This is a corker of a story. I enjoyed the other two stories as well though they weren’t quite as good as the title piece. This is a writer to look out for.

I'd heard lots about Eric LaRocca and his work sounded right up my street.

This book includes his novella 'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke' plus two short stories. 3 stars felt like the right rating for this even though I did enjoy my time reading it.

I loved the title novella - it's was morbid, shocking and disgusting. Good times! Then the start of the second story had the same effect, but then it just trickled out. I then personally didn't find the third story lived up to the other two.

I'd definitely read more from LaRocca though - I loved the writing and concepts. I just wish there was more of it in this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book contains 3 stories:
* Things have gotten worse since we last spoke
* The Enchantment
* You’ll find it’s like that all over

In the first and main story two lonely young women in an internet chatroom in the early 2000’s find each other and a darkness that threatens to transform them. The second story follows a couple that is torn apart and brought back together, isolating themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son’s death. The third story is an escalating game between 2 strangers/neighbors.

In each of these stories we find themes of people wanting to connect, have a higher purpose, or struggling with some inner conflict. Unfortunately it just didn’t hit for me. I realize it’s fiction and it’s about seeing how far someone is willing to go - to find what they are looking for - but just didn’t feel believable or like horror despite the nature of the disturbances. I’m guessing others will enjoy these peeks into 3 lives so don’t let me discourage you; just wasn’t my thing.

This book was so good! It's strange, weird and made me feel super uncomfortable, and I absolutely loved it!

The book is made up of 3 novellas:

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - The title story is the longest in the book. Told as a true crime report and as emails going back and forth between 2 women. It takes some disturbing turns. Like I was not prepared for it at all! But it's a really good story! This was my favourite of the book.

The Enchantment - this is a story focused on religion and grief. I enjoyed this one although I wasn't sure what was going on for some of it! I really liked the ending!

You'll Find It's Like That All Over - this was a fun story showing how far we go to be polite and not cause offence.

I'm so glad to have read this book as I've had my eye on it for ages! I've added practically every other book the author has written to my wishlist and I can't wait to read more! Thank you to titan books for having me on the blog tour!

In this collection of three short stories, Eric LaRocca explores themes of desire, particularly our inherent longing for connection, and how far we will go to obtain it. The titular story immediately grabbed me, taking the form of online correspondence between two women who form an unusual relationship that soon turns dark and twisted. It's the longest of the three stories and the most captivating.

LaRocca's early 2000s take on an epistolary tale works well in appealing to our inner voyeur as we go through the private emails of these two characters. Despite knowing little about them, we feel a closeness because we have access to their private thoughts, which only serves to heighten the horror of the ensuing events. It's disturbing and unputdownable.

The second story deals with grief and religion—specifically the afterlife, while the third is the shortest and follows a neighbour who plays a series of mind games on the main character. These two stories weren't as captivating as the first but thematically fit in with the collection and left me excited to read more of LaRocca's work.

Many thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a digital review copy.

Thank you for the chance to read the arc. This is my first time reading a book by this author and it won't be the last
Each of the the stories left me scratching my head, yelling at the main characters, or just wanting to smack them to bring them back to reality.
The imagery is very clear but the unknown is scary. Im usually good at guessing what's going to happen but this book gave me the runaround. I loved it.
4stars

I’ve seen the novella, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke talked about and highly recommended in horror and book groups for a while now. When I saw the author was re-releasing it along with two other never before seen stories in one volume, I was eager to see for myself what all the hype was about. While Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is an excellent (and stomach churning) gem of a story, I have to admit I preferred the other two stories. My favorite being the middle one, only I wish it had been longer and given us a few more answers. This author really knows how to write in a way which leaves you feeling emotional, tense and just a little creeped out. This collection would appeal to new readers to this author (like me) or people who have read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and are wanting to revisit this story alongside some other chilling reads. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Having been a fan of LaRocca's Things Have Gotten Worse When We Last Spoke when I read it last year, I was surprisingly disappointed in this collection. Unlike my first impression of the first novella, I found the other stories childish and unpolished, the writing, at times, bordering on lazy. While I still enjoy the titular story, I was so bored reading the other two I almost dnf'ed this several times. Overall a disappointment, but I wouldn't rule out LaRocca completely---the potential and creativity is definitely there, but for a tradicionally published collection, it lacked proper direction.

4 ⭐️

My favorite read from this author thus far. so creepy and eerie and I loved every minute. I love how its so easy to read and get instantly hooked.

Thank you so much to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

I was approved to read this halfway through the day, and it gets archived tomorrow, so I'm not sure why the publisher is still approving requests, as this gave me no time to read. I felt very rushed, so my reading experience was probably not the best because of this.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - This went in a different direction than I was anticipating ! I read the last page several times, because I just could not believe that's how it was ending. I'm not sure how I feel about the portrayal of mental illness here though. Also, strong content warning for animal cruelty/death.

I did enjoy the format of telling this story through emails and IM messages. It made the story snappy, but man, I could not imagine entering a contract with someone that quickly. They really barely communicated with each other. Unless that wasn't supposed to be all their correspondance and I just missed that point.

The Enchantment - Honestly, I did not read this one. As I type this it's almost 10pm where I live, and the description of this story didn't appeal to me at all, so I'm not going to force myself to stay up to read it.

You'll Find It's Like That All Over - This started in a way that really had me hooked on wondering where it was going to go, but in the end I'm just left asking, "Why ?". I don't understand the purpose of this story, or anything it was trying to say.

Overall, this is an odd collection, but I'm sure fans will be happy that there is now another way to get their hands on Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

*4.25

So, I really really enjoyed Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes as a short story collection. I had already read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021) at the beginning of the year and I still love the story just as much as the first time. But I found the addition of Eric LaRocca’s two new stories, The Enchantment and You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over, fascinating. All three stories are very different stories to each other in the way that they are being told, but they do all have somewhat of a common theme of the need and wanting to belong and to feel a connection. I think, despite obviously loving the titular story, that The Enchantment is the most interesting and beautifully haunting story of all three of them. It’s the story that stuck with me for the longest, and I genuinely think if you are even remotely intrigued by LaRocca’s work that you shouldn’t miss out on reading this story.

With that said, I don’t necessarily think this is LaRocca’s best work, I have a personal preference for You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood, but I do think they have an exceptional way of capturing their audience. LaRocca manages to write, well, fucked up queer stories and it is REFRESHING. I love an author who doesn’t shy away from queer stories that are horrific, terrifying, but also so so beautiful. This collection is all of these things, there are horrific and gross off-putting moments, moments that make you feel squeamish, but there are also beautiful and soft moments that captivates you in these stories. I have to admire LaRocca for this.

He is by far one of the most interesting authors of our time and it’s great seeing them become more ‘mainstream’ and have their books become more available in bookstores. I can’t wait to read more by him in the future (I mean, this may have been an e-ARC but I am absolutely going to buy this next time I get paid so I can add to my ever growing collection of Eric LaRocca books)

TL;DR please do yourself the pleasure and read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes. You won’t regret it.

This was my second book by Eric LaRocca and I absolutely loved it!
I was so exited when I got accepted of this ARC on NetGalley and it was amazing!
This novella contains three short stories with such a unique writing style. It was impossible to put it down, these stories are tied together and each story have a deeper meaning and message.
I highly recommend this book!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really don’t have anything eloquent to say about this one. Apparently this just isn’t for me. I know this is highly praised but I just wasn’t feeling it. There was a lack of cohesion, plot holes, disjointed writing styles and just bizarre scenarios . The cover is stunning but the book left me underwhelmed.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a new collection of three short stories by author Eric LaRocca that brings together three vastly different types of horror story that it at times feels surprising that they came from the same person. As my introduction to LaRocca, it was something of a wild ride. I'm used to reading anthologies from the same author where they tackle different themes and sub-genres of horror, but where they're all recognisably from the same person; but if you'd have told me that the three stories here had come from three different people I'd have believed it; because LaRocca seems to have that broad a range in their writing style.

The first story in this collection, the one the book is named after, is the longest one here, and is more of a novella than a short story. It takes up the first half of the book, and it's the story that readers will be spending the most amount of time with. It's not your average narrative though, and it's written in the form of chat-board messages, emails, and instant messenger transcripts that a reporter is putting together; and kind of reads like the book equivalent of a found footage film as it puts you into the shoes of the people inside the story whilst keeping you somewhat detached from them.

It tells the story of Agnes, a twenty four year old woman who is dead come the start of the story. The unnamed reporter is accessing evidence from the police in order to put this transcript together, and is attempting to chart the course of events that led to her death. It begins when Agnes posts onto a queer website looking to sell a vintage apple peeler. She's soon approached by an older woman named Zoe, who wants to buy it from her. After some back and forth where they talk about the reason why it's being sold (to pay for Agnes' mounting bulls) Zoe tells her to keep it, and sends her a gift of a thousand dollars to help her out.

A friendship forms between the two of them very quickly, with Agnes feeling indebted to Zoe, and it soon starts to turn sexual. I say sexual over romantic, because it soon becomes apparent that it's more intense desire that motivates Agnes over romantic feelings. Unfortunately for Agens, Zoe seems to be very much into control, and manipulates and encourages Agnes into engaging in a master/slave type relationship with her. As she gets Agens to do increasingly more bizarre things you see Zoe getting into her head, making her indispensable to Agnes, twisting her to be willing to do some dark and destructive things.

There are some pretty dark moments in 'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke' that make this story unsettling; especially for those who are freaked out by body horror.But perhaps some of the more disturbing parts of the story come from the level of control and manipulation that Zoe begins to exert on Agnes. However, this also led to some of my biggest problems with this story. The first is that it includes animal cruelty; which I don't think ever really needs to be in things. It could have simply been alluded to, but when Agnes gives a detailed description of how she killed an innocent animal at Zoe's request it put me off a great deal.

Another thing that I didn't really like was the way the story presents their dom/sub relationship. I don't know if LaRocca is putting this forward as a true BDSM style relationship, if this is what they think happens in them, but it's such a false, twisted version of that kind of lifestyle that is borders on a little bit insulting. I understand that depiction doesn't mean that an author thinks a certain way or believes a certain thing, but it very much reads like an author who doesn't understand that kind of relationship presenting it in a very wrong, and damaging manner. I know that there will be people in the BDSM community who would read this and not enjoy it, because it's yet another example of the community being portrayed in a poor, and incorrect light.

Perhaps this is all done to unsettle, to add to the elements of horror because you're supposed to see straight away that this isn't a normal, healthy relationship and it's supposed to set of alarm bells, but it left me feeling more uncomfortable than anything else. That's not to say the story is bad, it is interesting and does some cool things, and did leave me with some strong feelings; which I guess is a sign that it's at least not forgettable.

The second story, 'The Enchantment' is the second longest here, and follows a separated couple, James and Olive, as they try to throw a small surprise party for their teenage son. Their son, Milo, is something of a loner, withdrawn and loathed to talk to his parents other than to try and encourage them to get back together. Despite best efforts, the birthday gathering kind of fizzles out to nothing. That night, Milo, who's been working on a supposed school project in his room, completes the huge cross he's been building, and crucifies himself. The note he leaves behind asks that his parents get back together and never separate again.

Six months later, James and Oliver, who are trying to give their marriage another try to honour their son, are looking for something of a fresh start. James has managed to find a winter job, acting as the custodians to a remote island hotel whilst it closes for the season. Together, the two of them travel to the remote island and settle into the small cottage that's been put aside for them. However, on their very first night there a strange young man arrives on the island, claiming to have been caught in the storm. But it soon becomes apparent that there's more to him than first appears.

'The Enchantment' is a story about isolation and grief, and it focuses on Olive and James, though Olive in particular, as they deal with the loss of their son. It's clear that the two of them are unsure whether they want to give their marriage another shot, especially on James' side, but they're forcing their way through it because of the guilt they feel over the loss of Milo. As the story progresses and their isolation on the island becomes more extreme than they were led to believe, their bonds and their grip on reality gets pushed to the limit.

There are elements of the story that remind me of The Shining in the sense that the characters are spending the winter as hotel caretakers in a remote location and find their sanity being pushed when strange things start to happen. And unfortunately, this was the aspect of the story that I found least interesting. There were other things going on in the background here that I'd have liked to have seen more of. There's a legend about people vanishing on one of the nearby islands, and this is set in a world where scientists have proven there's no afterlife; those are things I'd have liked to have known more about.

As it is, 'The Enchantment' is a decent enough story about isolation, grief, and a failing marriage that does some interesting thing, although it is often light on the horror elements.

The final story in the trio, the shortest of the three, is 'You'll Find It's Like That All Over' tells the story of a man who digs up a piece of bone in his garden, a bone that he suspects is a human bone, and has the initials of his strange, loner neighbour etched into them. When he goes to visit his neighbour to investigate the situation he ends up getting dragged into a series of escalating bets that begins with him clearing a car of snow, and ends with him risking his life.

This is the story that gave me the most trouble here, mainly because I don't really understand it. I don't get what the point of it is. Why is the neighbour luring people into weird and elaborate betting games, why is he leaving fragments of bone with his initials etched into them buried in people's gardens where they may never be found or might just be thrown out, why would someone willingly climb into a guillotine with just five seconds to un-cuff themselves and get free and think that's doable? There are a lot of questions left over in this story, and we just don't get any really solid answers to them.

There's sometimes a thing in horror, especially short stories, where authors present a series of weird events without any real reason or explanation to them and and expect the strangeness and lack of answers to be the thing to unsettle the reader. And when that's done well it can be great; but it's so often not done well. When it's not it leaves a story feeling disjointed, confusing, and not scary at all. And sadly, for me, this final story in this collection fell into that category.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a book that starts strong and begins to decline. The length of the stories gets shorter, the horror elements begin to drop away, and the entertainment factor decreases. The first story left me feeling grossed out and disturbed, whilst the last one left me bored and confused. The result is a book that feels a bit bland by end, and I can't help but feel that a stronger final story would have helped to leave a better impression of the book. As it is, it's a read that I'd say is fine, that I didn't love or hate, and whilst I found it entertaining at times I wouldn't read it again.

This long weekend I read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes. I saw the original novella going around Bookstagram last year and the original cover really caught my eye. The first novella published June 1, 2021 and this version with 2 more stories publishes tomorrow & I binged this in one sitting yesterday so thank you @netgalley the author and @titanbooks

I have to say my expectations were set too high for the horror and grotesque elements after seeing reviews. There were definitely elements that were disturbing like the animal abuse & cuddling the thing that shouldn’t have been cuddled but I had expected more.

The first story was probably my favourite which read as emails and IMs between two women and demonstrated how easily manipulated some people can be why someone they’ve never even met.

The second story follows a couple who isolate on a remote island to recover after their son’s death and someone finds their way to them. This one involved some religious aspects & took some turns I wasn’t expecting. To me, this was really about what we’ll do to make someone else comfortable and how many of our own boundaries we’ll cross.

The final story followed a man who found something in his yard that he believed was out there by a neighbor. This story touched on how far someone will go to be polite.

Overall, I’m glad I read this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️