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A review by maketeaa
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
this was. certainly a book. a very unsettling exploration of the stages of giving yourself to someone and how it may never stop. agnes goes from a woman unable to bring herself to part from her antique apple peeler, too afraid to sell it to someone who may not take care of her late grandmother's heirloom, to crushing a salamander at the command of zoe. but it is once agnes carries out zoe's last, most unthinkable request that ends their relationship, that zoe feels that she, the Sponsor, cannot continue anymore. with promises of care, of safety, of responsibility, zoe shapes herself into a type of god, a deity which agnes must worship every night and tell her what she has done to deserve her eyes today. but to zoe, agnes is simply an activity -- something that can be regulated through a contract, that can be nulled and voided whenever one of them please. given what we know about agnes' death and zoe's police investigation, it is interesting to think about if, as foreshadowed by zoe's dream, she does, indeed, take agnes' place. it would not be too far out of the realm of possibility to believe that perhaps, posthumously, agnes keeps zoe bound to her the way she was, through the claims that the life inside her was 'theirs', imprinting the knowledge in zoe's brain that the act of owning someone cannot simply be passed, cannot end with a voided contract, cannot be denoted by an expiration date -- because, if one owns someone the way zoe owned agnes, the one being owned no longer cares for their own expiration.