Hello! and a Review of "Things have gotten worse since we last spoke"

Hi! I'm Joey, I like to read books and this will be my first ever book review, I'm eager to know any of your recommendations for books, manga, or anything! 

On January 1st 2024, I finished my first book of the year, it was a very short read, mostly in part due to the fact the book itself is barely 100 pages long. Despite being a fast read, I still feel like this book wasted my time. 

It is titled "Things have gotten worse since we last spoke" By Eric LaRocca. It's an Lgbtq horror short story about two women, Zoe Cross and Agnes Petrella. Throughout this book, the relationship between these two women grows darker and more strange, very, very quickly.

At the beginning, it started with a format of a post published by Agnes Petrella on a queer dating website selling a family heirloom, an apple peeler (Why would you sell something on a dating website....). The post contains with history on the apple peeler, and a story about the memories made with Agnes's Grandmother and her. This leads to an Email chain between Zoe Cross, and Agnes, Zoe being interested in buying the apple peeler, with also an insanely long and formal email on why. 

Eventually, During this long email thread, Zoe asks Agnes why she would sell a family heirloom so clearly important to her, And Agnes confesses that she's been struggling to pay her rent, which in turn, Zoe offers to pay for her. Agnes accepts and is extremely grateful, they then add each other on a chatroom website (?) and proceed to talk there.

During Chatting, Agnes opens up about her insecurities and struggles, in which Zoe then gives Advice to her on, The advice start innocent, and really help agnes, and progressively become more suggestive. During this time Zoe reveals to Agnes that She and her girlfriend have recently split up (Notice the small detail that Zoe, Despite already having had a girlfriend, was still on the dating website where Agnes first published her post? hmm.) Things escalate from there, as They then agree to have a master-slave contract (LITERALLY THROUGH EMAIL- Does agnes have no sense of danger like  h u h) with the email entailing that ZOE WOULD HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER AGNES'S ASSETS AND ACCOUNTS.

Things ensue. 

I don't want to reveal anything in the book, But if you have less than 1-2 hours to kill, and want to be severely disappointed while also question on how would these events happen in real life, Read the Book. Warning: Plot is confusing and Both of the Characters have no personality.

Both Agnes Petrella and Zoe Cross agitate me, Agnes especially since she accepts a master-slave contract with a person she only ever talks to online. Zoe is convoluted, but not in an interesting way. Her motives make no sense and She comes off as robot-like except in the scenes where she's talking about owning a person.

The Book has Mature themes, as there are suggestive and kind of grim(?) scenes within the book. I can only advise people over 18 to read this, Though I cannot imagine anyone over 18 liking this book. 

Overall, as I have said in the beginning, This book was a complete waste of time. The plot is just a mess, and without the first few pages explaining a case file on Agnes's death with Zoe as the main suspect, this could be easily brushed off as two internet trolls messing with each other. a 1/5 stars. One of the worst lgbt books I have ever read. 

Feel free to comment on your opinion, and if you like the book, feel free to explain why (Though I will not take you seriously/j)