Ella is the overweight, unloved middle child of an unhappy family. Living with them in an old, slightly broken-down home in the middle of nowhere, she only cares about her baby brother. He parents despair as things always seem to go wrong around her and her elder sister is as beautiful as she is ugly. Teased constantly for her weight, she hides as best she can spending her time in the attic looking at the old mementos left behind by the previous owner. And on this particular night, a group of four rich frat boys decide to initiate the newest member of their secret group, by heading out to the house and killing Ella and her family.

For a short story, it makes heavy use of some fairly standard tropes and clichés to set the scene and to try and push the story along quickly. There are several plot points that are included but don’t appear to go anywhere, as if the author was looking to throw as many possibilities into the story without have worked out which ones should be included.

It’s a shame because the writing is clear and gives a good idea of the characters, their thoughts and fears as the night progresses. From the sickening gloating of the frat boys to the terror of the family as they are attacked, the viewpoints of the characters are well constructed and combined to give a fairly powerful feel for what is going on. Its not so much a scary horror novel, as more sickening over what people can do to one another, and in some ways removing the supernatural from this could have made it a stronger story. But I did read it through from start to finish waiting to see what would befall each character and wasn’t disappointed by the flurries of action that occurred.

If you are looking for a sample of Willow Rose’s work, then this might be worth a read to see if you like the style. Hopefully her longer stories can be allowed to build up their own suspense and terror and will not be so reliant on cliché. Alternatively, this book makes a great drinking game as you tick off each and every trope turning from page to page.