Why Is 'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke' So Disturbing?

2025-06-25 23:30:52 383

4 Answers

Neil
Neil
2025-06-26 14:27:33
What makes this novella so unsettling is its realism. The horror isn’t supernatural—it’s the way ordinary people can coax each other into atrocity. The power dynamics shift subtly, from friendly banter to disturbing control. One character starts small, asking for harmless favors, then escalates to demanding self-harm. The other complies, desperate for connection. It mirrors real-life abusive relationships, making the fiction hit harder. The sparse prose amplifies the dread; every sentence feels deliberate, like a knife twisting slowly.
Ruby
Ruby
2025-06-27 03:47:43
The horror in 'things have gotten worse since we last spoke' creeps up on you like a slow poison. At first, it’s just two people exchanging emails—mundane, almost boring. But the way their conversations spiral into psychological manipulation and grotesque acts is chilling. The author doesn’t rely on jump scares or gore; it’s the gradual erosion of boundaries that unsettles. You witness a character willingly degrade themselves, and the casual tone makes it worse.

The epistolary format traps you in their heads, forcing intimacy with their madness. The lack of physical descriptions leaves your imagination to fill in horrors worse than any explicit detail. It’s disturbing because it feels plausible—no monsters, just human depravity dressed in polite emails. The climax isn’t explosive; it’s a quiet, inevitable collapse, leaving you questioning how easily anyone could slip into such darkness.
Dean
Dean
2025-06-29 18:19:10
It’s the mundanity that unsettles. The horror isn’t in what’s described but what’s implied. The emails start innocuously—selling a vintage apple peeler—then descend into grotesque transactions. The characters’ descent feels organic, their choices horrifying yet weirdly logical. The novella exploits the fear of how easily ordinary lives can unravel. It’s short, but each sentence punches, leaving bruises on your psyche. You finish it feeling complicit, as if reading their emails made you part of it.
Yasmine
Yasmine
2025-07-01 05:24:03
This story disturbs because it weaponizes loneliness. The characters aren’t evil caricatures—they’re achingly human. You see how isolation primes one to accept cruelty as affection. The emails read like a car crash in slow motion: you know it’s wrong, but you can’t look away. The lack of physical violence somehow makes it worse. It’s all psychological, a masterclass in how words can destroy someone. The ending lingers, haunting in its ambiguity.
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