There are three stories in this collection, all with speculative fiction themes. I will say up front I disagree with the genre choice: featuring vampires, zombies etc. these stories are more sci-fi or horror than suspense thriller. Despite being called short stories these are closer to novellas in length and are divided into chapters.

The first story is in some ways the strongest. Invited for a night of fun with a group of college boys, Sheila finds herself fighting for her life. I love the ending. After reading hundreds of these victim short stories, it was so nice to have a lead character who reacts to the situation in a somewhat different way. I won’t spoil it.

The next two stories, zombie and sci-fi themed, are similarly nicely written, well planned with no obvious loose ends, and competently presented. There are no glaring spelling or grammar errors, and each chapter starts on a new page – a touch which too many books forget.

The problem for me, which might not affect other readers, was that I found it hard to get into the stories or feel for the protagonists. For suspense and thrills you need to care about the characters. While I found myself sometimes wondering with academic interest what was going to happen to a character, I never found myself really caring one way or the other.

Given the ages of the protagonists, this is probably going to appeal more to YA readers, as the stories are fairly standard for the horror or sci-fi genres. I’d probably have to give this a three. It’s good, but there’s nothing to make it stand out, and although it wasn’t a bad read, it isn’t a book that I’d go back to.