I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher- Titan

Published – 6/9

Price – £17.99 hardback £5.59 Kindle eBook

Three dark and disturbing horror stories from an astonishing new voice, including the viral-sensation tale of obsession, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. For fans of Kathe Koja, Clive Barker and Stephen Graham Jones. Winner of the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novella.

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.

A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son’s death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm…

And a man confronts his neighbour when he discovers a strange object in his back yard, only to be drawn into an ever-more dangerous game.

Three devastating, beautifully written horror stories from one of the genre’s
most cutting-edge voices.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Content Warning – this set of horror tales will be tackling suicide, self-harm, body-horror, pain and stress caused to animals and issues around childbirth. It is not something I would at all recommend for anyone who feels uncomfortable about this issues being used in a horror context

Hell is other people not just philosophical theory but also applicable to the commute and workplace but indeed horror needs relationships to work. Not always monster and human prey but the way two people can impact each other’s lives and make things terrible is a horror that an ancient curse can never create. In Eric LaRocca’s Things have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes, we get a triptych of tales exploring terrible bargains between people creating some chilling horror.

The collection starts off with Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. This tale is in the form of someone collecting the electronic correspondence between two women which we are told at the start leads to the death of one of them. A simple antique apple peeler being put up for sale leads to Agnes and Zoe chatting. An act of kindness leads to a quasi-online relationship that turns emotionally fraught and becomes a series of challenges Zoe sets Agnes in a form of Dominant/Submissive online relationship that goes very quickly to dark places.

What works is LaRocca creates the two different voices within the email. At first just two lost people but very quickly the relationship changes as the two bond. We learn very little about these two people bar odd comments about past relationships and a few mentions of the workplace. Here the question is how far you push someone to dependence on each other and Zoe enjoys pushing Agnes to ever further outrageous and more terrible acts. Then Agnes starts to push the boundaries too in a quite disturbing way back as she focuses on becoming a mother and in a truly terrifying metaphorical way. This feels more a whispered confessional as we hear what Agnes has done; how it makes her feel and the intensity gets stronger, and we begin to fear this will only end badly. There is a ticking clock of suspense wondering what exactly is going to happen and the last entry is indeed chilling and neatly rounds the while tale. It’s a dark and bleak tale but one that is supremely effective.

The next tale The Enchantment is a curious example of how an author has several recurring themes in their work. We again get a tale that looks at suicide, control, and even a focus on crucifixion (all tackled in the main tale above) . This time we have an estranged couple traumatised by the suicide of their son going to work on an abandoned island alone for the winter. Alone until a compelling stranger arrives. While this is a good short story, I ultimately didn’t find this as effective as Things Have Gotten Worse. The two stories are using themes and motifs so similar and placed so closely together that its hard not to compare them. It feels like it should have been either a much longer tale to expand the world and characters or a much tighter tale that focused the attention on the couple and not dwell so much on the son’s last days. LaRocca throws in really interesting concepts like scientists proving there is no afterlife; someone’s sudden religious conversion and an oppressive Shining like scenario but for me there is too much going on to explore any deeply and wrap up to create a cohesive story. Bar a few scenes of cosmic horror that really stand out I didn’t feel this was that effective.

Fortunately, the last short tale You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over is a much tighter and more menacing tale delivered perfectly with almost wry smile of dark humour. This is a Shirley Jacksonesque tale of two neighbours talking and one setting them unique bets for ever increasing large sums of money. LaRocca again is asking how far people go when all their better instincts are saying to run. I loved the way politeness can lead to people being very very careless. Again, LaRocca demonstrates a fine understanding of how tension works and as the story gets more macabre it makes a fascinating statement on suburban life and how we refuse to talk about dark subjects for fear of embarrassment.  An incredibly skilful piece of storytelling.

This is a dark and unsettling horror collection where the message is to unsettle you and not make you comfortable about humanity. I think LaRocca is very skilled at creating flawed people doing flawed things and you start ti understand why they did this and yet making it as the slow-motion car crash we cannot take our eyes away from. It has certainly made me interested in what LaRocca has to tell in the future and as the nights lengthen some horror to help add extra chill to your bones.