Please Rate Your Satisfaction and Other Unsettling Stories

by Stephanie Anne

Have you ever wondered about the benefits of staring directly into the sun? Have you ever wondered if your boss was replaced by an alien? And have you ever wondered why should you never give sharp objects to robots? Wonder no more! Please Rate Your Satisfaction is the sci-fi short story collection that will satisfy your cravings for aliens, robots, and mad scientists. Written by a literary mad scientist whose work has affectionately been described as "disturbing", this collection strives to make you uncomfortable. But don't worry - if you need a break, there's a couple of robotic Shakespearean sonnets to cleanse your palette before your next journey into the darkest parts of outer space and the human mind. And remember, when you've finished reading, please rate your satisfaction.

66 pages, Paperback

Published July 29, 2021

About the author

Hi, my name is Stephanie Anne!

I’m an oddball extraordinaire, and I love all things strange and monstrous. Specializing in disturbing and domestic horror, I enjoy making people uncomfortable.

My stories may not be scary in the “jumpscare” sense, but after reading one of my books you’ll never look at certain every-day things the same way again. If you like unsettling tales of torment and trauma, you're in for a treat.

My writing assistants are Minerva, Finn, Bubs, and Janey. Unfortunately, these free-spirited felines like to sleep on the job. That is, when they aren’t stepping on my keyboard and adding extra words to my books.

Stay Spooky!

Reviews

[Thea N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting fun and creepy short stories , my fave was the Plastic Man

[Hannah Poon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooof!! Packs a punch! Love it!

These are pretty short short stories. Horror and suspense isn’t normally my preferred genre. I’m absolutely delighted I stepped outside my little reading box into something new. This was an amazing read! I think Abducted was my favourite.

[Trevor LaForce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Stephanie is a friend, but I purchased the anthology myself.

This is a strong first outing for an emerging author and there are some great sci-fi concepts in here. The title story in particular, Please Rate your Satisfaction, is worth the price of admission all by itself. I am not a big horror fan in that I don't love things that creep me out just for the sake of being creeped out, but in most of the stories here there's a lot more to mine out of it.

My main critique is that not all the stories feel like they hold together as part of an anthology, and not every one is as strong as each other. That's true for any anthology, really. There's a version of this anthology that might be a couple of entries shorter which feels a little bit tighter and more focused - with Please Rate Your Satisfaction being as strong as it is, having a bit of a tighter thematic & tonal focus towards the kind of stuff explored in that story might have worked for me, personally, a bit better.

Despite that, I really enjoyed my time with the whole anthology and took something away from every story. I would have paid the cover price for just the title story, it's so good, but I am so glad I got all the rest of it!

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rate this collection 4.25 stars. My favourites from this sci fi collection were Helena and Sorry To Interrupt, the former due to the uneasiness and uncanny feeling it evoked, the latter due to the mystery and the fear of what you cannot see. Sorry To Interrupt was vaguely reminiscent of Midnight from Doctor Who, with an unknown threat endangering human lives and not knowing what you can do to stop it. 

Plastic Man was really inventive, I'm sure there's been some literature discussing plastic pollution and how much it could potentially harm humans but I've not come across much environmental horror so this definitely piqued my interest. This story was accompanied by a rhyming scheme comparable to something from Dr. Seuss and really helped amplify the children's story-telling. 

I also enjoyed everything's fine, a story about household robots suffering from a malfunction/virus and the threat of an attack as a result of this

Everything’s fine - 4.25 stars
Abduction - 4.25 stars
Some body - 4 stars
Plastic Man - 4.25 stars
Glory to The Chosen Few - 4.25 stars
Helena - 4.5 stars
For Catharine & For Eugene - 4 stars
Sorry to interrupt - 4.5 stars
Sun Spots - 4 stars
Please Rate Your Satisfaction - 4 stars

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick, punchy little stories that definitely creeped me out. Do not read before bed.

[Erin Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Abduction” still haunts me to this day. It was by far my fav short story, super unsettling, and well written