Title: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last SpokeAuthor: Eric LaRocca
First Published: June 1, 2021
Publisher: Weirdpunk Books
Pages: 102
Genre: Horror, LGBTQ
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death.
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.
What have you done today to deserve your eyes?
Review
I picked this book up some time ago, not knowing a thing about Eric LaRocca, but the title and the cover were captivating. I’ve been slow to get to it, and since then, this story has exploded on social media, catapulting LaRocca into mainstream popularity. After reading and loving two of his other works, I decided it was time to give this short story a read and see what all the fuss was about. Maybe I had just been spoiled by the other books that I had read, but I found Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke to be only okay.
I was a fresh teenager in the year 2000, terminally online, socializing daily on message boards and AIM. People’s online and offline lives were not nearly so interconnected back then, and it was harder to know much about online friends, and I liked that this was presented well here. Even so, how quickly the women’s correspondence went from surface level to bizarre pushed the limits of my suspension of belief. This is certainly a story about mental health and needless cruelty; the story about the two brothers was especially ghastly. Even as someone that reads extreme horror that story was too nauseating for me to stomach.
I’m not the type of reader that needs to like characters. I love unlikeable characters, but I found myself feeling apathetic toward the two main characters. Part of it could be the epistolary format; both of their characters were so thinly drawn that I didn’t feel any emotional impact during key scenes. I don’t know if perhaps that was the aim, being that they are both strangers on the internet. It is less the case today than before, but being behind a screen adds a layer of separation between a person and the people they encounter online. Growing up, I’d often be admonished by family that the friends I was talking to online were not “real” people, and therefore any friendship or feelings I had toward any of them was equally not “real.” While there is less anonymity on the internet and prejudice against the use of the internet for social engagement has lessened, I don’t think that view of “real” and “not real” has changed at all. But the desperate need to feel connected to someone is a theme that is keenly felt.
In some ways, it kind of surprises me that this is the one work that has become the most well-known, knowing what I do now about how good the rest of LaRocca’s catalog is. At the same time, I’m not surprised because this short story focuses heavily on shocking scenes and stories, so I can understand the appeal. Even so, this one wasn’t quite for me. I was never bored while reading, and I finished it quickly, but I wasn’t blown away either.
Quote
“There’s something Godlike about holding something so small—something that solely depends on your kindness, your generosity. I had never thought about hurting something before. Until now.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Eric LaRocca
Eric LaRocca holds an MFA in Writing for Film and Television from Emerson College. His fiction has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies published in the US and abroad such as Stiff Things and Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 2. He is also the author of several plays that have been developed and produced at theaters across the country including, Gadfly Theater Productions, Hartford Stage, La Petite Morgue, and Love Creek Productions. He currently resides in Cambridge, MA.
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