You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

Tamsen arrives at the mansion with her little brother, Presley.

She’s so enthralled that she doesn’t notice every red flag in her wake. She just landed the gig of a lifetime - helping her favorite video game creator with designing his next game. Tamsen is hopeful as she approaches the Zimpago mansion. Tamsen is much like Things’ Agnes in different ways. I purchased this book with my own money and the review of this is very much my own. But for the sake of the review, I will separate this review into different sections: one for Lost A Lot of Blood, one for “Stories,” and a general section for the various other poems and shorts. I do compliment LaRocca on this unique way of presenting these various stories and poems. I’ll be honest, this was a little confusing at first. These stories are interwoven throughout the book. You find out why at the end of the “Stories”/Martyr/Ambrose story, but I’m not going to give it away. Keep in mind that this edition features the Lost A Lot of Blood novella plus the shorts “Stories You Can’t Tell at Parties” as well as various other shorts and poems. What I got was that same innovative writing style that I saw in Things Have Gotten Worse, but so much more. He recently re-released You’ve Lost A Lot of Blood.

I wanted to write a LaRocca review but also wanted to focus on a book I hadn’t read yet. LaRocca’s imagery is very ornate but the subject matter is so dark. Even though I’m picky about poetry, I do love the way that LaRocca writes. I’ve always been a novel person, poetry was never my strong point. I think the reason why I like LaRocca so much is that the writing style is different than mine. I grew up in the early days of email and AIM, so that book also brought me a huge sense of nostalgia. For that story specifically, I loved how the book was written through a series of emails and IMs. The salamander scene was rough, not going to lie, but I love the innovative and modern writing style. The first work I read from LaRocca was Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and I really liked it. And like many people, I was first drawn to the covers. Eric LaRocca is a writer I see everywhere on social media.

You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca