A startling affair... I’ll be cleaning up particles of darkness in my office for weeks." - Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box andMalorie In the first, titular story, a relationship initially developed from a wanted ad, creates a sense of intimacy and knowledge which is not always possible when meeting in the physical flesh. The distance between yourself and the people you are conversing with is paradoxically widened, and narrowed, by the potential to re-invent yourself and to compel other lonely souls to do your bidding. What begins as a cautious dance , escalates into a folie a deux with, at its core (pun intended) an antique apple peeler. Please don’t google what one looks like, before reading the story, let your imagination roam first, is what I would advise. The story takes the form of internet chatroom conversations being used as evidence of some criminal act, therefore some of the details are redacted, making you feel both voyeur to their relationship as well as judge on the appropriateness of this form of communication. As the layers are built up, their defences are peeled away leaving both women raw, and vulnerable. Or are they?#

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is the kind of body horror that is more disturbing because of the psychological implications. There are two memorable scenes here. The first one includes eating spoiled meat, maggots and all. The second—which I won’t give away here because it’s a little gem all readers should discover themselves—involves a tapeworm. Together, and taken along with the rest of the narrative, these scenes prove that body horror punches harder when we know why it’s happening and have built some empathy for the characters involved. The voice actress was good, and clearly trying her best. The set up was intriguing, and I like how the story is laid out using the messages between the two main characters. LaRocca's combination of structure, adept pacing and masterful language is more complex than meets the eye... A must-read for fans of body horror, epistolary novels, and depravity" - Library JournalYou are never entirely sure where Eric LaRocca is taking you, and what impact each story will have as an impact on your sleeping hours will change from reader to reader, and yet, you are quite happy to let him take you by the hand, lead you down a very dark alley and when he tells you to open your eyes, will you? The relationship between the leads is a hollow representation of a queer relationship. I am not implying it should’ve been happy relationship or it’s bad. It’s just not a real relationship. It’s a essentially trauma porn as another reviewer put it, and not indicative of an actual relationship between two women. Eric LaRocca's unflinching Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke will crawl inside you, move stuff around, and make you see the world differently, like all great stories do." - Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Pallbearers Club.

Some Conservative MPs think the move suggests Downing Street wants to be in a strong position to send voters to polling stations next May or June, rather than waiting for autumn, as had previously been thought. Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement tax cut has fuelled speculation Rishi Sunak could be gearing up for an election in the first half of 2024. With the Tories still lagging behind Labour in the polls, the chancellor made the surprise announcement that he will slash national insurance by two percentage points,and bring forward the change to January rather than waiting until the new tax year in April.From Bram Stoker Award finalist Eric LaRocca, this is devastating, beautifully written horror from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices. Some horror walks you down a dark corridor, where there’s whispers and laughter, sobs and screams. Other horror starts down at the end of that corridor, where there’s a door that opens on to you don’t know what. Read this, and then decide where Eric LaRocca has left you. Not that it matters. There’s no way out.” - Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw Eric LaRocca (he/they) is the author of several works of horror and dark fiction, including the viral sensation Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

Bleak, clever, edgy, and vicious. Eric LaRocca draws his readers in for something they will never expect and never forget." -Sadie Hartmann, 'Mother Horror'

Eric LaRocca's superb collection Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes is cutting edge horror with pristine writing sharp enough to slice open your skin. Strongly recommend." -Ray Garton, author of Live Girls and Crucifax Autumn Traditionally, some have used euphemisms to get around the rules - most famously Sir Winston Churchill when he said someone had told a "terminological exactitude" instead of a lie. He said: "You've got the orchestra, you've got the voices, you've got this big combination. This is very sort of Labour. I did and I absolutely do not regret it, his is one of the most exciting new voices in horror for a very long time.