Eric LaRocca

am Jones, author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw

“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

“A startling affair… I’ll be cleaning up particles of darkness in my office for weeks.”

Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box and Malorie

“Bleak, clever, edgy, and vicious. Eric LaRoc

I take the apple peeler from the kitchen, and I crawl into the bathroom closet, gently cradling our child.

I pretend I can hear the sound of him faintly breathing.

The peeler trembles in my hand.

I close my eyes, and for a moment I wonder if I truly deserve them today.

Aer all, what exactly is a family, if not a brotherhood and sisterhood afflicted with the same terminal disease?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TODAY TO DESERVE YOUR EYES?

I slipped the dress on as if it were a second layer of skin.

It’s because the planet is a carnivore and just wants to be fed

I tell her it’s only natural to hurt the things we love the most.

But then I remember that the worst thing a person can do to you after they’ve hurt you is let you live.

That’s how you truly and unmistakably destroy another human being

Is that what we become? I wondered to myself. Useless vegetation that would rot if we didn’t have others to tend to us?

“The problem with most people is they think about what something will cost them,” the shopkeeper says. “They don’t consider what their purchase will offer them in return.”