A novella that grips you by the throat and refuses to let go, Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a masterclass in unsettling storytelling. It’s the kind of book that leaves a pit in your stomach, a lingering unease you can’t quite shake.

LaRocca crafts an intimate horror that crawls under your skin through the slow unraveling of a disturbing relationship. Told through emails and instant messages, the epistolary format gives the story an unnervingly personal edge, making every interaction feel voyeuristic and invasive.

The grotesque elements are hauntingly vivid, yet they never feel gratuitous. Instead, they serve to peel back the layers of human desperation and depravity, revealing the raw, unfiltered underbelly of the characters’ psyches. And the constant question shared between the two: “What have you done today to deserve your eyes?” is pure nightmare fuel, a line that burrows into your brain.

While I found myself wishing the ending pushed the darkness even further, the journey there is so uncomfortably captivating that it doesn’t really matter. This is a story that leaves you questioning not just the characters’ motives, but your own fascination with their unraveling.

Highly underrated and devastatingly effective, this novella is perfect for fans of psychological horror who aren’t afraid to stare directly into the void. Just be prepared for it to stare back.