‘Things have gotten worse since we last spoke’ – Eric LaRocca (Titan Books)

I am always the last person to read the cool book that everyone is talking about, especially these days when reading time is at a real premium and I have a nasty habit of falling asleep on the bus home (I’m getting old…) ‘Things have gotten worse since we last spoke’ is a novella that I’ve meant to read, ever since Twitter blew up about how good it was, but somehow never managed to get round to until I finally grabbed a copy of the collection, back in September, and gave the titular story a shot. That was back in September and it’s taken me until now to finally get to a point where my stomach has calmed down and I can write something about a story that I think will occupy a dark corner of my head for some time to come. That should give you a pretty big clue about what I thought about ‘Things have gotten worse’ but if you need more… Let’s go.

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chatroom in the early 2000s – a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires…

Let me kick things off by saying that there are two other stories in this collection that I’m sure are very good, I just can’t bring myself to find out as ‘Things have gotten worse’ freaked me the hell out that much, I haven’t been able to turn the next page… And I’m normally pretty good with this stuff as well… ☹ Eric LaRocca is simply that good; if you like horror and haven’t read this collection already, give it a go and see if you get any further along than I did.

In the meantime, I’m left with a story that starts fairly innocuously and then proceeds to spiral into a scenario where the two leads play off each other in a series of events that not only had me hooked but also marvelling at how LaRocca pinpoints the weaknesses in these two ladies to show us a relationship that should be fairly straightforward (given my own very limited knowledge that is, I’m very likely completely wrong) but is anything but. Who is really in control here? You could make a compelling case for either Agnes or Zoe here and that’s part of what makes ‘Things have gotten worse’ such a gripping read. It’s a war for control and the tragedy is that you can’t help but feel that it didn’t need to be.

The other part…

I won’t go into it too much as you really need to read it yourself but just when you thought that things couldn’t get any more convoluted, LaRocca throws the curviest of curveballs and we’re suddenly in a realm of body horror that we really should have seen coming but somehow never did, even though we knew that this relationship would never end well. LaRocca doesn’t hold back, not once, and that is just as it should be (even though my stomach disagrees, still) It’s pretty much the ‘perfect’ end to a relationship where control is fought for on every page. Who won though…? I don’t know but I’d say that Agnes definitely got the last word.

Of course I’ll read the other two stories, at some point, but ‘Things have gotten worse’ is such an uncompromising and intense read (and that ending…) that it needs to sit in my head for a little longer. Give it a read and you’ll see just what I mean.