BOOK REVIEW | YOU’VE LOST A LOT OF BLOOD | ERIC LAROCCA

 

BOOK DESCRIPTION 

A disturbing new vision of terror from the author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

"Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood.

You've lost a lot of blood . . ."

REVIEW

You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood is a story in many parts, the texts and poems of Ambrose and Martyr, the transcripts of Martyrs thoughts and finally a lost novella by the serial killer and alleged plagiarist, Martyr Black.

Spinning these three strands together, Larocca plays with the concept of the narrative to produce a meta textual novel of stories within stories, narratives within narratives. 

In the first instance we have the interplay between Ambrose and Martyr, the thoughts of Martyr the serial killer as he meditates on taking the life of his partner, Ambrose and finally there is a novella that has supposed to have been written by the eponymous Martyr Black. The novella tells the story of Tamsin and Presley, who after their parents have been killed in a car accident are invited to join the team of the renowned and reclusive video game developer, Zimpago. 

Now I am going to be quite honest here in my reflections on the book. In the first instance, I am not sure that I actually liked this book. I know that I am supposed to as Eric Larocca is the up and coming name in horror fiction. However I couldn’t get to grips with this book at all. At first, the disparate threads seem to stand away from each other, each with its own separate identity, and when they finally did come together, I kinda thought ‘Am I actually bothered?’

It may be that I am too thick to get the point of the book, and I am quite happy with that, but when it comes to books, I want them to entertain me. I don’t necessarily need to see how clever the writer is to pull these stories together into an esoteric look at whatever it is I am supposed to be looking at. 

And whilst there were lots of things I didn’t like about the book, there were a lot of elements that I did like in the story. Larocca’s writing for instance! It put me in mind of the punkiness of people like Alison Rumfitt. In addition to this, the body horror of the novella caught my attention, with its mix of Giegeresque nightmares, the childhood horrors of Superman 3 and the scrunginess of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. 

Ultimately though, I have to admit, that overall, I wasn’t thinking ‘Wow! That blew me away.’ Maybe, I started my journey into Larocca’s books at the wrong point and I should have read something else that would lead me in gently.

Did it put me off? 

I don’t think so, it’s just that I have other stuff to read that I may get to first.