[Review] Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

[alaterdate]

I love having to put [Review] before book titles so people don't think I'm spiraling lmfao. Anyway...
I'd been wanting to read Eric LaRocca's horror story Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, but I had to wait for the September publication that includes two other short stories alongside the titular one. Perhaps my anticipation hyped the story up in my mind, but it didn't deliver.

The titular story concerns two women who meet online on a queer forum. Their relationship quickly goes from friendship to a romantic nature all via email. Agnes is a lonely woman who becomes attached to her penpal Zoe, Zoe on the other hand is not characterized as much more than a manipulator. I thought Zoe was going to end up being some kind of supernatural being because the book was being so vague about her, but no she was just an asshole that pushes Agnes into a downward mental health spiral.

I wish the events in Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke had actually been creepy instead of the story just being mostly filled with unrelated gruesome imagery. There was a sense of apprehension in the beginning, but the doddering middle ruins it and the end doesn't have the impact it thought it did. I liked the weird stories that Agnes relays in her emails to Zoe, and I notice an undercurrent that each of them tries to bring into to the larger story of the women's relationship, but they're over relied on for the horror aspect of this horror story. Beautifully/horrifically written, but they dull the pacing and cheapen the overall narrative for me.
Speaking of cheapening... the phrase "what have you done to deserve your eyes today?" is set as an anchor for the end to yank your guts out, but it was never tethered correctly to your insides. It's a nice line, but it holds no bearing.
Overall the story tried to include too many elements, ensuring they bump into each other too often and ruin any chance of taking hold of the reader.

And for the other two short stories: Too much repetition of the same idea. I gave the benefit of the doubt to thematic use until I read near identical description in the next story. You can write about the same theme without rewriting the same expression over and over. LaRocca has his pet phrases as well and they grated on me when repeated in such a short span of pages.

With that said, I was certainly entertained and I liked the stories a tad more after reading the afterword:

When I was very little, I desperately wanted to believe in God. [...] This collection of macabre tales is my attempt at making sense of some of the connections I've missed or forsaken over the years. Religion and faith play a huge component in some of these stories as I continue to struggle with the fact that I still cannot reasonably believe in a divine creator. Of course, I admire the dedication of others; however, the connection and balance that faith presumably provides is still lost to me.

I'd like to see those feelings tapped into more masterfully so I'll visit this author again in the future to see if they are.