This was a great collection of horror short stories. I really enjoyed the diverse settings and types of characters presented throughout Purgatory. The variety of approaches taken in each story, from character dialogue to inner monologue to storytelling gave me different ways to follow along and kept me switching perspectives.

The use of internal stories within many of the main stories was a great way to create a more complicated plot in a short period of time. There was an array of themes presented and I was glad to get a variety including but not limited to possession, demons/devil, ghosts, fears, and extreme human behavior.

To me each story had different strengths; some stories like Evergreen Road, Purgatory, and Prized Possession excelled at mood and environment which are really crucial to a good horror story. Tic Toc and Don’t Bug Me were more of a suspenseful build. Mind Games and Ritter House were fascinating to me because of the character analysis that takes place and that we get to read the inner dialogues. The Crate was just a weird story with an awesome taste of dark humor. For the most part the writing style shaped a fitting sense of eeriness, eccentricity, and shock value.

I was hoping for a little more mystery in some of the stories. While often times I enjoy horror because you already see it coming and characters do things anyway; sometimes I like to be scared or shocked because I had no idea what was coming. Since I am more of an occasional horror reader I was surprised that the stories seemed a little predictable. In the shorter stories this didn’t bother me because you can only do so much in 10 or 20 pages; plot, characters, suspense, and an ending is all there is time for if you want to do it well. But with some of the longer stories like Floor Four and Strangers I would have liked a few more twists and turns along the way or even just one twist right at the end.

It was a great opportunity to win this book through Goodreads First Reads because it gave me the chance to read a new author and pick up a genre I don’t read often enough. It was a reminder of all the reasons I really like reading both horror and short stories, especially together. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it.