You've Lost a Lot of Blood

I don't know how to rate this, so I'm leaving it blank for now.

This novella feels like House of Leaves but easier to understand and also sort of like an episode of Hannibal. I'm not sure what the “point” of this work was, but it's intriguing to say the least. Eric LaRocca is an extremely effective writer and they use language in ways that bring the story to life. And in ways that really grossed me out at times. I typically don't get squeamish easily when reading, but some of the body horror in this made me a little queasy and cringe. This novella is really strange and dark. I implore anyone to read the content warning before reading this. I listened to this on audio and, at times, I was reading the physical copy 
I also don't think I've ever said this before, but I think a lot of the material in this novella would work effectively as a short film. I doubt I'd watch it, but I think some folks may enjoy it.

2023 reread

this reread made me connect to the story and the themes significantly more!

2022 readread for strangeathon 2022: lgbtq+ rep

i really enjoyed the writing here because it was so good. most horror literally doesn't affect me anymore but something about eric larocca's writing truly makes me feel unsettled and disturbed. i wish we had more of the actual story and less of the book within the book and seeing the connection between those more but i still enjoyed this book immensely nonetheless. 

THE PLOT
“Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood. You've lost a lot of blood.”

MY OPINION
I have read three of Eric LaRocca's novellas and I have felt different feelings for each of them. Out of the three that I have read, I enjoyed this one the least. I was really invested in the story within the story which is called “You've Lost a Lot of Blood.” I was captivated by Tamsen & Presley, and the video game/coding job Tamsen had started. I didn't really care for the Ambrose & Martyr portions, they just didn't intrigue me. I've seen a couple of reviews say that they wish these two stories were separate books and I completely agree.

The author really shot himself in the foot when his character said that not all stories need a point, that being shocking can be enough. This book failed in both regards. Not terribly written prose, but everything involving characters and plot fell extremely flat. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone, unfortunately.

This is a tough one to rate because you essentially are reading two stories, or three I guess if you include the editor, but I failed to find a connecting piece outside of “a character in Story A wrote Story B”. I enjoyed the title story (has a Soma/Amnesia feel) but struggled a bit with Marcus's story and poems. Felt very reminiscent of old school creepy pastas which I think is why I am not looking too too hard for connections between the two as I quite enjoy those. It kind of have a “found footage” vibe, but in book form.

I feel like what may be needed to connect the two pieces is possibly a Story C. This book is a compilation of a serial killer's written work and recordings. But that's really it. It doesn't have a point why it's compiled. So while interesting, it does feel like somethings missing.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke which was disappointing. 

I really enjoyed the novella component and would give that section 5 stars. 
However the rest of the book was boring for me which drug the entire thing down to a 3. I just didn't care about Martyr and Ambrose at all, and how were their stories even related to the novella? 
They felt like two different books shoved together. The novella should have been the entire story and Martyr and Ambrose should have been edited out.