You've Lost a Lot of Blood

A disturbing piece of horror that makes you think…

I don't know where to start with You've Lost a Lot of Blood. It's a disturbing (not scary) little novella that makes you think about the authenticity of your own creative efforts in life. We are presented with a steampunk style modern story within a story, allegedly written by Martyr Black, whose own story is that of a serial killer. The story written by Martyr Black could easily be a commentary on the increasing effect of AI in our world. But it's not entirely that, and I don't want to go deeper because...spoilers.

I enjoyed the read. I think I most enjoyed the asides between Black and his partner Ambrose, as they discuss art and life and why they are compelled to do the things they show more do.

The writing is almost scriptlike, in general terms -- crisp action without a lot of inner thoughts intruding on the story, crisp dialogue between two characters to convey the relationship story between Black and Ambrose.

I'd like to see this done as a short horror script. I think it would be possible.

Either way, it's a bit of a think piece horror study, and I like those. show less

To start off, I'm not sure if I love or am irritated by this book, or maybe both. "You've Lost a Lot of Blood" is the first work of LaRocca's that I've read. It's visceral, unnerving, and honestly acutely misery-inducing; exactly what I'm looking for in literary horror. However I found the interspersing of Martyr's novella with pieces of his point of view and recording transcripts to be very distracting. Every idea seems to melt together to the point of incoherence, and I found myself confused as to what exactly the novella was trying to say.

I really wanted to know more about Martyr and Ambrose, but perhaps that is exactly the goal of the story; to tease the reader with what drives them without us ever being able to fully understand show more them. Either way, I certainly plan on reading more of LaRocca's work. show less

You've Lost a Lot of Blood
by Eric LaRocca
This was an interesting read. You get a story about Tamsen and Presley (which was really good and I wish the entire book was about them) and conversations between Ambrose and Martyr (who wrote the novella You've Lost a Lot of Blood). This was definitely different than anything Ive read before and I have another EL book on my shelf that just got bumped up to my priority TBR.

I'm not actually sure why I picked this up considering that I wasn't a fan of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. The fact that it's very short combined with the striking cover I think. I'm not upset that I did though, because I liked this book better.

There are two stories going on side by side here. Conversations between a killer and his boyfriend dispersed between chapters of a novella that the killer had written. Although not perfect, these were enjoyable to read individually. But mixing them together in one book didn't work for me. They just felt like they had... no relevance to each other aside from the fact that the killer was the author. And once the relevance was revealed, it felt out of place and just gave a show more disappointing conclusion to the story.

That issue aside, the writing itself was wonderful to me. Unsettling, just the right amount of gruesome, and captivating. If you enjoyed the writing and overall vibes of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke but not so much the actual story, I think you'd find this a flawed but more enjoyable read. show less

Genre-twisting, world-bending layers of horror folded on top of each other in a fascinating exploration of identity, theft, and love. The ending was a little abrupt and it didn't cohere as much as I'd like, but it made up for that with a profound display of vivid imagination

Actually 3.5 because the writing was spectacular. The story is really like two stories, because it's a story within a story, within a story and I think there wasn't enough of any of them to make any one of them amazing. But, the words are beautiful, the settings well visualized and a lot of really great ideas. This was my first LaRocca and will not be my last.

3.5 rounded up, this is pulling me deeper into a subgenre of horror I am unfamiliar with. I enjoyed the novella within, but it apparently was not "written" by our main character any more than the rest of the interstitials? It must be a dark life being someone who longs to create but finds they can only destroy.