You've Lost A Lot of Blood

Not as good as the other Eric Larocca book, but it was a decent read. The most unique thing about this novella (it was pretty short) is that it is a novella inside of a novella. The main character is named Martyr Black who has written a novella called "You've Lost A Lot of Blood". The book has two separate stories that are interwoven together. We have Martyr's real-life transcripts with his lover Ambrose and then we have the story that Martyr wrote. That story has two main characters called Tamsen and Presley. Tamsen has been summoned to a remote mansion to work on a sinister video game as a developer. Her younger brother Presley tags along because he is young and Tamsen is like a mother figure to him. Not gonna lie, the story gets confusing and I'm not sure how the two stories are supposed to tie in together. They could just be completely different stories with no connection other than the author. Martyr's story is very surreal and a bit hard to digest. The premise is basically these two are involved in this game called "You've Lost A Lot of Blood" and there seems to be a real stake of dying. Presley goes into a pod where his real version doesn't seem to revive from. Tamsen finds that many people in the mansion are actually dead and their robot versions (idk how else to describe it) are actually inhabiting the mansion. There are also a number of poems included in the novel and they are all dark, apathetic pieces. I really enjoyed them. The book ends with Ambrose telling Martyr that he has lost a lot of blood (a reoccurring theme) and has a neck injury. The bleeding seems to stop, and I believe Martyr and Ambrose go missing. This book is definitely not for everyone and takes time to understand, but overall, I enjoyed the book.