She tells Zoe that her actions have changed her life…she was contemplating ending things if the money didn’t come in. Agnes is beyond grateful and accepts a sum of $1000 in her account. She also shares her handle for Instant Messenger, should Agnes like to talk further. Zoe writes back saying that she would be happy to wire the monthly rent payment to Agnes, and tells her to keep the apple peeler as well, not to sell it. The apple peeler is the last thing her mother gave her before she stopped speaking to her, and although she is loathe to sell it, she has no choice because she needs the money to make the month’s rent. She is struggling to make ends meet as she works as a secretary and doesn’t earn enough. Agnes explains that her parents disowned her when she told them she was gay. She asks Agnes why she wants to sell the apple peeler in the first place, given that it’s a family heirloom. Zoe, another user of the platform, writes back to Agnes expressing interest in the apple peeler, and tells her she’d love to buy it as a gift for her grandfather. Agnes’ great-grandfather has no choice but to relent and goes with his wife to buy the apple peeler, which is then passed down from mother to child till it reaches Agnes. Apparently, her great-grandmother’s husband refused to let her buy the coveted apple peeler in the 1800s, and she ‘accidentally’ gave him an apple with a sewing needle stuck inside. She sweetly narrates a story of how the apple peeler came into the possession of her grandmother, and mentions that she is looking for genuine buyers who can pay for the antique. The story begins innocently enough – Agnes is using a queer community forum to advertise the sale of her grandmother’s beloved apple peeler (of all things), and invites buyers to send her a message. We then dive into the novel and the first few attempts at communication between Agnes and Zoe. We now have the stage set – Agnes has died, and Zoe is a person of interest. Due to Zoe Cross’ questionable involvement in the death of Agnes, certain pieces of communication are omitted or redacted.Īs a reader, this works very well to pique our curiosity. The novella documents the virtual conversations between Agnes and Zoe Cross, a lady she meets online. The book begins with a note from the author, stating that there are edits and corrections in this story, caused by the untimely demise of 24-year old Agnes Petrella (our protagonist). Let’s now take a look at what Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is all about. Along with being a playwright, screenwriter and a prolific author of horror and dark fiction, LaRocca is also a member of the Horror Writers’ Association. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts with his partner.
La Rocca now identifies as non-binary and prefers the pronouns ‘he/they’. Published in 2021, this is LaRocca’s first work of fiction which has gone viral in so short a span of time.
THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE AUDIOBOOK FREE SERIES
It depicts a series of interactions which take place between the two central characters of the story, Agnes Petrella and Zoe Cross, and their choices in life which ultimately lead to the most surprising conclusion. Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is an epistolary novella, written in the form of emails and Instant Messages instead of letters. I’m not kidding, this is literally what the blurb says on the back of the book. I do think it brings a unique style of writing and perspective which I would love to see expanded into larger projects.Sadomasochism. The internet hype over this book is severely misplaced, this isn’t going to scratch your horror itch. We’re given nothing to go off of - did she kill herself? Did she die from some other cause? The build up to the ending is great, I thoroughly enjoyed the increasing desperation from Agnes with each email, but then the last few moments let it all fall apart. It isn’t consistent and doesn’t add anything. Overly dramatic communication to very typical online communication. The way they communicate feels forced too, one second they’re talking very properly to each other (over the early internet days), and the next it’s very casual. I’ve never built a friendship with someone on OfferUp with things I’ve sold and I’ve had more contact with those people than these two had before introducing the “contract”. Zoey and Agnes’ relationship was so… strange? The dates given in the email correspondence feels way too close to feel real, and there is never any mundane communication leading up to the “contract” to even sell the beginnings of a friendship. We’re not even shown properly why there is a police presence later on in the story as it ends so abruptly and with very little to go off of to speculate as to what happened. We’re constantly reminded of a police presence, but nothing comes of it. As much as I enjoyed this, it feels like it’s lacking in almost all aspects.
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