Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Very gross and descriptive writing, the imagery of eating maggot infested meat and crushing the maggots like jelly between your teeth almost made me vomit.

The ending was abrupt and kind of disappointing, I wished for a more planned out and better end but overall it was okay.

Bonus points for such an amazing book cover.

I've been seeing this book circulating around social media and Goodreads so I decided to give it a go on audible. First, I think the audio version is definitely the way to go. The narrator did a wonderful job and hearing the conversations made it all the more creepy and disturbing.

I noticed some low reviews, and I can't help but wonder if the point of the book was lost on some.

This is a well-written, disturbing psychological horror and it's frightening to come to the realization that there are actually people out there like these characters.

Zoe is a manipulative person and a perfect representation of why a person should use caution when engaging in online relationships with total strangers.

But the true messed up character is Agnes. The author shows her complete desperation by having Agnes immediately open up to a stranger that showed the smallest amount of attention to her. The whole time I was listening I was shaking my head and saying to myself “ why the heck would she do that?” Agnes is truly ill and the author did an excellent job showing mental illness. Mental illness is not easy to write about, but the author nailed it. The story about the egg shells and Agnes' aunt was a nice touch to show why Agnes may be sick as an adult. That and the complete isolation she felt when she came out as a lesbian. Remember in the early 2000s, being gay wasn't very accepted and a lot of people didn't feel safe being open about it. I felt disturbed down to my core listening to the desperation towards the end from Agnes. It's scary because it's possible.

The horror elements were also done well, specifically with the grotesque descriptions of eating tainted meat, the crucification of a child and the animal abuse/torture

I enjoyed that the story was written as a series of emails and instant messenger chats. It was a quick, disturbing read that really makes you think.

THIS IS SUCH A GREAT BOOK !!

A slow & disturbing descent into madness.

Greatly exposes the way loneliness can break someone's mind & make them completely give up on themselves just for an illusion of happiness and affection.

She didn't care about how toxic and deeply harmful their relationship was as long as she felt loved. She was in utter despair to receive love.

Sickening psychological horror, 5/5 would recommend.

Idk wtf I just read. This was absolutely disgusting and disturbing but you know me, I'm quirky and like shit like that lmao. This made me sick to my freaking stomach and that's the reaction I wanted from a lot of horror that advertising doing that, but just didn't for me.

I didn't give this a full 5 stars because I honestly wish there was more. I understand why it ended where it did but I really want more lol.

I have no idea what the hell I just read. It was weird, very weird. The ending was a disappointment because there was no payoff, or at least I didn't feel like there was. It felt like things were building to a climax...and it just never happened.

Edit: I'm revising my rating from three down to 1.5 stars. I kept thinking about this story today and the more I did, it's faults became more glaring. The development of the relationship between Agnes and Zoe had next to none. One minute the former is espousing the history of an apple peeler she's trying to sell to the latter, the next they're engaged in some bizarro sadist relationship conducted completely via email and instant messaging. There's no build-up over a long period of time so there's no real tension or even since of dread as Agnes descends (like a bowling ball dropped off the top of the Empire State Building) into madness.As for the "disturbing" nature of the plot, it isn't. What happens between Agnes and Zoe is weird and not much else. I was expecting to be creeped or grossed out to the point that I would DNF the book and honestly? We're probably talking like PG-13 for the most part. You could maybe stretch it out to an R rating (since I appear to have slipped into movie ratings somehow), but it's no more disturbing than like the first Halloween movie.

I think ultimately, the book would have been better if it had been longer, since then more substance, more meat could have been added to it.

I'm trying to think of the right words to write a review for this book but I seem to be coming up with a blank because... how do I explain this?

I went into this with no knowledge of the book whatsoever so I was definitely taken aback by what occurs in the story and I can full-heartedly confirm that I did not predict what was going to happen... At all.

However, I do feel that had the interactions between the two main characters been paced slower, this would've had more impact and the meaning that the author was trying to portray behind the story would've come across more profoundly.

This was a head spin of a read!

This book is not for the faint of heart, or anyone with any heart at all.
I advise you to go into this with extreme open mindedness, to the point where you have no thoughts or opinions of your own.
This is gruesome, horrifying, the biggest mind fck I've read in my entire life but I absolutely loved it. The writing is gorgeous. It is very reminiscent to me of Mein Teil by Rammstein which I think is why I loved it so much as Mein Teil absolutely has my heart. Mein Teil follows the cannibalism case of Armin Meiwes, and the two also met in a chatroom in the 2000s. This parallelism is what made me absolutely love it even more. I am still shaken. I hallucinated about it in my dreams last night. My heart feels like it came out of my chest. But I do not recommend it to anyone who cannot understand the dimensions at play here. It is heavy. It will knock you out. I am so horrified, in a good way, I feel if I spoke no sound will come out. And the idea is so unique and good. Chefs kiss*

Wow! This was just bad at every level. Not even entertaining. I pushed through because it's short and everyone was gushing about how fucked up the ending was. And it was just nothing? Also I don't know the author etc but I find it hard to not see the homophobic connotations of a lesbian obsessed of having a child to the point of doing atrocities.

The dialogue was extremely unnatural, so was the relationship progression, I know I know it's not a normal relationship plus it's basically a short story but as is it just feels like a - “wouldn't it be fucked up if that happened”. Have read 2 sentence horror stories with more substance. Boring.

WTF did I just read?? This was such a weird little book. I don't even know what to classify it as... horror, maybe? I don't think I'm the right reader for this. It's not even that I didn't like it, because I do like horror/thrillers. I think it's more that I don't understand the need for this story. It was like a drug-induced fever dream. Who is the audience for this?