Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca Review (Book, 2021)
content warning: homophobia, violence against women, sexual content, animal abuse, gore, toxic relationship, mental wellness, foul language, self harm, medical content
Agnes is a lonely young woman just trying to get by. After being disowned by her family for coming out as gay, she’s been struggling to make her rent payments each month. She decides to make a listing on a queer message board to sell her grandmother’s antique apple peeler. This gets the attention of Zoey, another lonely young woman, who is more than willing to help Agnes make her rent and find a new family. If Agnes agrees to enter a virtual BDSM contract with Zoey, she will have more money than she could ever use. Agnes just needs to do everything Zoey says, whenever Zoey says to, without question.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is an extreme horror novella from Eric LaRocca. The entire book is a modern epistolary novel, told in DMs, live chats, and emails. The framing device is a true crime case, as Agnes is reported dead and Zoey reported the suspect from the opening paragraph.
This is a true slipstream novella, playing with everything from true crime and detective stories to splatterpunk and erotica. The two women are in a consenting relationship and even have it in their contract that either one can cancel the arrangement at any time. That doesn’t mean that they are incapable of causing each other frustration, stress, or pain along the way.
LaRocca crafts a tense story out of these exchanges. The stakes keep rising after Zoey asks Agnes “What have you done to deserve your eyes today?” Zoey is trying to get Agnes to loosen up and be present in her life; Agnes is trying to do everything she can to save this romantic relationship, even if she’s not totally onboard with all of Zoey’s challenges. They’re both desperate to be with someone and are willing to settle for a less than perfect match.
The only issue I have with Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is the voice. LaRocca knows how to write compelling first person prose with a great sense of rhythm and style. However, in this book, the two character voices sound nearly identical. Agnes and Zoey message each other with the same grammar, tone, and expressions throughout the novella. There’s an argument to be made about the anonymity of the internet and trying to force a match to happen, but I did lose track of which character was in control at several points in the story.
This is, admittedly, a very nitpicky critique, as LaRocca is playing on the form of the Gothic epistolary novel through a modern queer lens and those books largely have the same problem; it’s one of the main reasons I will roast Bram Stoker’s Dracula whenever given the opportunity to. The opening narration from the character compiling the redacted evidence in the case makes this stand out more: they also write with the same tone and style. It’s a very distinct, high button, almost academic tone for a queer novel about obsession, kinks, and destruction.
Fans of extreme splatterpunk and body horror will find a lot to like in Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. The plot is great and the scares are unexpected. I’ve never quite seen this combination of horror motifs before and the result is a horror novella you won’t easily walk away from.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is available in print, eBook, and audiobook formats.
