This is in no way shape or form meant to convey a healthy or romantic relationship. This is emotionally an absolutely raw piece. That said, it’s also meant to feel off-kilter, atmospheric and creepy so it still ends up working. While I find this a very interesting medium that the author is playing with, I believe that LaRocca seems a lot better at writing actual prose than at these exchanges a lot of the messages don’t really read like how real people would speak, and there’s a beautiful kind of poetry to the language utilized that feels like it would be stunning in a prose novel, but feels forced and in-authentic in what is meant to read as emails and chat logs. This leaves a lot of guess work, and makes the reader pay close attention to details like dates and timestamps on these messages to pieces together exactly how quickly this story and relationship is progressing. It therefore has a kind of quasi-realism to it as we are reading the correspondences of the two characters, but are privy to none of their experiences or thoughts aside from what is detailed in these correspondences. The writing here is unique and quite ambitious, as instead of being told via prose, it is told exclusively over a series of archived forum posts, IMs and emails exchanges. While it is now out of print, it is as of this review available for pre-order as a part of a novella collection entitled Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes. As a piece of queer horror it is every bit as creepy and atmospheric as it’s rather haunting cover illustration promises it to be. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a short horror novella that delves into a toxic, abusive long-distance lesbian relationship conducted online in the 90s/2000s over IMs and forum postings. Warnings: Violence, Abusive relationship, Animal death, Suicide What have you done today to deserve your eyes? 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.

Eric larocca things have gotten worse