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A review by sonice
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
2.0
2.0 stars, blended. This was painful.
First story, two young women in their early 20s are communicating back and forth via email and an msn-esque instant messenger in the year 2000. For some reason they both talk like an 80 year old grandmother sending a hand written letter to a cousin they haven't seen in person for thirty years. Like long, wordy, overly polite, overly elaborate and bizarrely personal messages that don't fit the context at all (one is trying to sell an item online to the other, they have never met irl). It's jarring to say the least, and as someone who was in his late teens during this time, I can tell you this is not how anybody spoke online back then. It feels so phony and mismatched. It improves slightly as they become romantically involved with each other, but still I find the writing in general to be poor.
And so it goes, until about the halfway point. Halfway, and I'm shaking my head, wondering why I picked this up, how this could be so bad. Halfway in...and it starts getting weird. Super bloody weird. A few pages more and I couldn't care less about the garbago writing, I'm staring at the page with wide eyes and a dry mouth. I find myself with my jaw hanging open. No she fucking didn't. You have to be kidding. No way she just did that. Holy shit she can't be serious. It's like a series of rapid-fire wtfs that doesn't let up. I find the events lingering in my thoughts, like afterimages of a natural disaster or particularly horrible car accident. I guess that must be worth something, right? 3/5 stars.
Second story. This was the worst thing I have read in recent memory. An utterly nonsensical mess. I had to google around and try to see if anyone else could explain what this was even supposed to be, but only found other people just as confused as I was. At this point I'm upset that I spent money on this. 1/5 stars and that's being generous.
Third story. Am I being memed on or something? What even is this? Gomez Adams makes some silly and unsolicited bets with someone who would rather stick their head in a literal guillotine than say 'thanks but no thanks'. 1/5, because I have pissed more interesting combinations of words into snowbanks.
Somebody please tell me LaRocca's other works are a step up from this? I may have impulsively purchased several of them all at once.
First story, two young women in their early 20s are communicating back and forth via email and an msn-esque instant messenger in the year 2000. For some reason they both talk like an 80 year old grandmother sending a hand written letter to a cousin they haven't seen in person for thirty years. Like long, wordy, overly polite, overly elaborate and bizarrely personal messages that don't fit the context at all (one is trying to sell an item online to the other, they have never met irl). It's jarring to say the least, and as someone who was in his late teens during this time, I can tell you this is not how anybody spoke online back then. It feels so phony and mismatched. It improves slightly as they become romantically involved with each other, but still I find the writing in general to be poor.
And so it goes, until about the halfway point. Halfway, and I'm shaking my head, wondering why I picked this up, how this could be so bad. Halfway in...and it starts getting weird. Super bloody weird. A few pages more and I couldn't care less about the garbago writing, I'm staring at the page with wide eyes and a dry mouth. I find myself with my jaw hanging open. No she fucking didn't. You have to be kidding. No way she just did that. Holy shit she can't be serious. It's like a series of rapid-fire wtfs that doesn't let up. I find the events lingering in my thoughts, like afterimages of a natural disaster or particularly horrible car accident. I guess that must be worth something, right? 3/5 stars.
Second story. This was the worst thing I have read in recent memory. An utterly nonsensical mess. I had to google around and try to see if anyone else could explain what this was even supposed to be, but only found other people just as confused as I was. At this point I'm upset that I spent money on this. 1/5 stars and that's being generous.
Third story. Am I being memed on or something? What even is this? Gomez Adams makes some silly and unsolicited bets with someone who would rather stick their head in a literal guillotine than say 'thanks but no thanks'. 1/5, because I have pissed more interesting combinations of words into snowbanks.
Somebody please tell me LaRocca's other works are a step up from this? I may have impulsively purchased several of them all at once.