A review by ethancf
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

4.0

Absolutely engrossing, and also absolutely gross. This is a quick epistolary novella that will suck you in right away, but you'll probably be grimacing throughout. LaRocca writes fluidly and easily; in the acknowledgements he talks about how fast it was written and how far he pushed his own mental health to do it. That comes through - it's very disturbing very quickly. There's some body horror and some real nasty gross-out stuff aside; sensitive stomachs should probably look elsewhere. Anyone who has ever had an odd experience with an internet stranger will see a lot of truth here as well, he just takes it to a more disturbing conclusion. I do think the characters aren't fully realized that well; their characterization seemed to shift about halfway through. But it's such a short piece that quibbles like that are pretty inconsequential in the end, and otherwise his writing is quite good, even if it doesn't necessarily match the format. There are some great sentence-level gems that don't ring true in the epistolary format.

Read it in two sittings - I'd recommend one, which is very doable. I needed my lunch break to be about 20 minutes longer and I'd have done it...that said, I'm also glad that I *didn't* finish this while I was eating.