things have gotten worse since the last time we spoke

“Things have gotten worse…” is a story firmly rooted in the time and space of when it’s set – the early 2000s United States when everyone still firmly believed in the internet’s potential to connect people, yet it also lives outside of time and space, forever stuck in AOL chat rooms and email chains. LaRocca questions how we go in our determination to control our lives and other people’s lives, how giving up control feels like freedom and safety, how isolation, both social and economic, breeds horror and demands us to look at the utter toxicity of parenthood – biological or otherwise. To interpret this grotesque conclusion to the story as a mere online “stranger danger” precaution would be a cheap oversimplification. Two bodies parasitizing off each other’s obsession, uniting into one to produce new life and thrust it into reality, disregarding its will, disregarding how unnatural and ugly it is. The body horror elements reminded me of Matt Cardin’s notion of the horror of birth that he described in “To Rouse Leviathan”. Yet she was not ready for her obsession over controlling another person’s life to face Agnes’ even bigger obsession – a complete, religious devotion, to serving Zoe, even if the cost is her health and wellbeing. This is not her first time being a master.

She establishes strict rules and merciless punishment. She methodically micromanages Agnes’ life, her clothing, her body. After this fatal turn there was no resemblance of balance of power anymore, there was no going back.įrom how she had positioned herself and how quickly she jumped from buying a peeler to offering a Master/Slave agreement, Zoe’s experience in these matters is evident.

Their email and instant message exchanges quickly spiral from the monetary exchange and sentimentality of the peeler history into something different, ugly, disturbing.Ī couple of emails after mentioning that she “ believed she could grant wishes”, Zoe offers to take Agnes under her wing, wiring her monthly rent money (who could decline an offer like that?) and otherwise caring for her. Her post attracts Zoe who quickly forms a bond with Agnes. Though it’s understandable if you would need to take a break from this epistolary tale of intoxicating obsession and an apple peeler with a vibrant history.Īgnes, a young woman who was exiled from her family, tries to sell her grandmother’s peeler to make ends meet and pay for rent in an online queer community board. This novella can be read in one sitting and it should be read in one sitting.

Things have gotten worse since the last time we spoke