Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

I really have no idea what to say besides WTF.
The build up was great but the end came suddenly without any really closure. There is probably some ‘deep' thing going on here but it really felt like the author was just throwing stuff on the page to shock the readers than really try to carve out a story. 

This made me realize that if I were ever asked to be a slave or submit to someone in this way, I would never. The book was equally disgusting and grotesque, it made me cringe and wonder just what exactly the author was on. I couldn't help but wonder who is more fucked up, Zoe of Agnes. Every time I would think that its one of them, the other goes and does something far terrible. I thought the salamander scene was gross, but then the tapeworm was just fucked up.

Even though the writing was great, I would still give three stars to this book because it's not my type and because it mislead me into assuming that it's a nice, lgbtq romantic book.

I was really hoping this book was going to be as big as everyone made it out to be. I hadn't realized how short it was, which I honestly didn't really mind. I was hoping for more but I had hopes that more would be accomplished in a such a short period of time.

But no. I feel like nothing and everything happened in the 100 or so pages this book has to offer. After hearing what everyone had to say about this book, I was hoping to be shivering in my bed with a trash can full of vomit at my side. Instead I sat staring at my screen, constantly thinking “Well, that was weird,” and finished before I even realized it. I kept saying to myself “Okay, when's the big thing happening?” You know, the thing everyone was raving about that I was so excited to read after anticipating the book to be sent to my device after having it on hold for weeks.

Although it wasn't the worst thing. I enjoyed the idea of this story. I wish this would be the prologue to something much more grand, more disgusting. To see that this was all the story had to offer left me wishing for more.

The emails had a very strange tone- the characters wrote in length and in prose as if they knew they were going to be in a book. Perhaps this is true to the way email was written in 2000, but I had difficulty suspending my disbelief.

The relationship between the main characters progresses at a strange pace. In a week after first contact they are sending suggestive messages and making master-slave contracts, but then communication is cut off for a whole month? Given how desperate Agnes is said to be, this seems like too long a time.

Speaking of desperation, Agnes says she was suicidal, but there seem to be no signs of this other than the only time she says this - and that only to inform Zoe that 250 dollars have blown the feelings away.

The ending, moreover, does not feel like an ending at all. Perhaps the author wanted to make a point about how suddenly death arrives, or something, but it is not well done.

There is some nice horror in the later parts, but that isn't enough to make me like this book.

This book was hyped by a lot of people as one of the scariest books they'd ever read. I kept waiting for that to be true for me too, and it never was. There was zero character development, and therefore zero stakes. The only truly disturbing thing in the book had nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, and isn't exactly going to keep me up at night. Really disappointing.

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.

I like the idea of this book. The pitch was great, the way people talked about it so much more intriguing than what it actually was. I only finished it cause it was so short. But a disappointment feels like an understatement. There were several things inserted that felt just placed there for the sake of being disgusting or disturbing  or whatever, but  it didn't work for me. Honestly the way Angnes talked about wanting a baby to begin with was probably on par with the grossness of everything else for me. 

What did I just read? I have no words. I don't know how to rate this. On one hand I want to rate it five stars because it made me feel things so strongly. Even if those feelings were of horror and disgust. But on the other hand this book was horrifying and disgusting and I don't think that I “enjoyed” it. I think I'm going to go with five star because this book achieved what it set out to do and it did it well. I'm honestly impressed.

This was just such a wild ride and I'm still reeling. My stomach hurts and I still want to throw up. I am horrified.

This had the same effect of taking out your beautiful golden crusted pie from the oven and cutting into to find a half-baked disappointment.

It's a great idea to have a story about someone taking advantage of someone who is vulnerable and progressively that person becoming more & more dependant on their abuser, dealing with the mental stress comes from that etc etc but this story was just silly in every way. Relationship & tasks escalation was too quick. The other part too is the messages just reeked of 2010s Tumblr which can work (i.e. How to lose a time war) but here it was just groan worthy.

Reviews are dumb, I'm just annoyed because I wanted to like this book. Such a great cover.