Forfeit: An Anthology of Short Stories

by Rustin Petrae

Forfeit is an anthology that features eight original short stories from author Rustin Petrae (Histories of Purga Novels & The Bane Pack Novels). The theme of this collection is the word forfeit. In each story, a character is has to forfeit something important to them. Their minds. Their ideals. Their innocence. Their lives. Sometimes they are forced to give up them up. Sometimes, they do so willingly.

The Phoenix's Gift: A man is forced to watch as his daughter lays in a hospital bed, dying. But then a stranger comes along and offers a gift.
The Chained Man: The fate of a man just trying to live his life seems like chains that he can’t escape.
The Lonely Death: With no memory , no name, no history, no anything, the only thing that a man can cling to is the job he’s called to do.
Watching From Afar: Ripped from his life, a man is turned into a rampaging monster against his will. Now, he has to fight what was done to him so he can regain his humanity.
The Tunnel: A woman suddenly finds herself stuck in a tunnel with no seeming end to it. With nothing to do but press on, she walks forward.
Burn Zone: Two detectives must unravel the mysterious fires plaguing their city before more people get hurt. For a guy that can see ghosts and another that can semi-read minds, you think it wouldn't be that hard.
Cat's Paw: The past and present merge in this supernatural thriller where a young boy has to confront the harsh and terrifying reality that a murderer is killing kids in his neighborhood.
White Rose: An agoraphobic braves the outside world on a bus full of strangers but it's not long before they start. The death songs. Soon after, there's a wreck and the death songs end...along with the lives of those making them. They all die...except one. Now he has to find out why. Why this girl? Why did she survive when no one else does after their song ends?

Enjoy these stories, including a remastered and newly edited version of Rustin Petrae's first published work, Cat's Paw.

269 pages, ebook

First published December 29, 2017

About the author

Rustin Petrae is the author of the Histories of Purga Novels, the Bane Pack Novels, Hybrid Earth, and Forfeit. He is also a graphic designer and recent BFA graduate from The Ohio State University. Currently, he lives in Ohio but was actually born in San Antonio, TX. However, he spent most of his childhood and early adulthood overseas in Japan and Korea. The experiences gained from living in Japan (Misawa Air Force Base) and Korea (Yongsan Army Base and Osan Air Force Base) helped shape his writing. Living among other cultures did a lot to expand his worldview. He started writing very early on but was interested in becoming an author even back in elementary school. In fact, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up as part of a school project, he said he wanted to be either a cartoonist or an author. While he still draws here and there, he spends most of his time working to hone both his writing and graphic design skills. He's written several stories, flash fictions, a few novellas, and five novels. He also creates his own cover art and promotional materials.

To get up to date news on Rustin's projects, freebies, and more, check out his official website at: rustinpetrae.com.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book name : Forfeit: An Anthology of Short Stories

Author : Rustin Petrae

Rustin Petrae’s Forfeit is yet another classic of his writings.

Blurb/Theme :
Forfeit is an anthology that features eight original short stories from author Rustin Petrae (Histories of Purga Novels & The Bane Pack Novels). The theme of this collection is the word forfeit. In each story, a character has to forfeit something important to them. Their minds. Their ideals. Their innocence. Their lives. Sometimes they are forced to give up them up. Sometimes, they do so willingly.

About:
I do judge a book by it's cover and the cover is so beautiful and apt connecting the short stories. The title is just perfect as thats the central theme.

This anthology has 8 short stories:
The Phoenix's Gift
The Chained Man
The Lonely Death
Watching From Afar
The Tunnel
Burn Zone
Cat's Paw
White Rose

I loved the Phoenix’s Gift and The Lonely Death a lot. I read and re-read these short stories nearly 5 times. The words are so beautifully crafted and the events are described so flawlessly. The flow of thoughts in the words is so connective.

The most loved sentence was from The Lonely Death – “ I had to guide and protect the dying from a lonely death. Its what I was made to do”

Watching From Afar - I felt had every element of it to be developed into a full-fledged Sci-Fi Novel. Its amazing! Loved the idea of a genetic key that was coded to the women’s DNA.

The Tunnel gave me a surge in adrenaline and the ending note- “ I was alive” made me smile and made me relatable to the character.

The Burn Zone had characters who can see ghosts and can read minds. It was a lethal combination which was awesome for the story plot.

I enjoyed reading this anthology and I wish Rustin Petrae all the very best for his future authorship works.

My rating is
Narration:5/5
Story plot:5/5
Cover:5/5

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many short story anthologies, but this one was truly quite unique. I love Petrae's imaginative writing! Some of the stories were really unusual, even bizarre. Some were scary, shocking, and even horrifying. We have eight stories in this book. My absolute favorite was The Phoenix's Gift, a touching story. I also really enjoyed The Lonely Death and The White Rose. That's not to say the others weren't good for they are. But they were the ones really shocking and sometimes terrifying to me. For a collection of fresh and unusual short stories that are entertaining, check this one out. You'll be glad that you did. I look forward to reading more of Rustin's books!

[Nico H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I begin, I'd like to make it clear that while this, my Goodreads review, is a 3-star ranking, I will be upping it to 5-stars when I crosspost to any commerce sites. I am only keeping my Goodreads review at 3 stars out of my personal like of this book so that I do not receive recommendations based on it, whereas on commerce sites I will give it 5 as it is technically sound and most readers would probably enjoy it.

Let's begin, then. As an overall assessment of the Anthology, I would say that it's good. The writing is technically sound with very few errors; Primarily, any errors in the grammar consist of using the wrong form of a word. Principle where it should be Principal, Loosing where it should be Losing. Not an especially distracting mistake. The stories too, have compelling plots and some interesting twists. The characters are predictable and archetypal, but that's not always a bad thing when they service a good story. Now, I'll go through each story individually.

1. The Phoenix's Gift: This story kicked off the anthology and gave me a good feeling about what was to come. It tells of a man forfeiting his life so that his precious daughter may live. A touching story with a bittersweet end.

2. The Chained Man: I did not like this story at first. The main conflict is set up through a tarot reading, but it seems as if the author did not research tarot before writing about it. In tarot, a death card does not mean death, generally. A death card pulled "upright" signifies a positive change, while a death card pulled "reversed" means an unwanted change, which could indeed be a death. In addition, there is no "Chained Man" card in tarot. If this was meant to be a story-related addition to the tarot deck, then that needed to be made clearer, as it just read as a misremembering of the Hanged Man card which does exist as a major arcana. Moving forward, however, this story has a genius twist that really punches you in the gut, which redeemed it for me.

3. The Lonely Death: Did not especially stand out to me. Though I did find myself wondering why the memoryless entity was a man, especially when it came up that he had to hitchhike in order to fulfill his mission. A man with his son in the backseat is probably more likely to pick up an unthreatening, small woman. As the main character is just an entity with one purpose, shouldn't its physical form also change to help it fulfill that purpose best in each incarnation?

4. Watching From Afar: The fourth story in this Anthology and the fourth to feature someone forfeiting something for their child or in relation to their child. Now half the stories have had the focal point a son, and half a daughter. Though unlike the previous three, at least this one broke the mold of the parents of said child being married. In fact, the mother became an antagonist, though in a way the father himself did too. Milo was easily manipulated into committing several separate mass murders, which can't just be Tessa's fault. She probably knew he had that darkness within him and just pointed it in the right direction. In any case, I did enjoy this story, and it was very inventive. Also very long. This is one of the three stories I feel the author was especially keen on writing. A good dystopian sci-fi bit of fiction.

5. The Tunnel: The only story from a woman's perspective. First person narration, and despite seeming to be a professional who wears pantsuits, her narration included the term "btw". It kind of rubbed me the wrong way. The story itself was nothing special either.

6. Burn Zone: Another one of the three the author seemed fond of writing. A very compelling mix of fantasy and detective work, I quite enjoyed this story. Although I would have enjoyed it more, had Justice and Austin been an item rather than Justice practically falling in love at first sight with a doctor (As much as I ended up enjoying Caroline's personality). As you can tell, it was about this time that I was getting tired of every single one of these short stories having nothing but heterosexual relationships. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the mystery and wanted to see Lenny go down. The ending is so haunting and dreadful, too, that I would love to see a sequel to this one.

7. Cat's Paw: Now this one was good. I honestly really enjoyed this one, the third that the author seemed especially keen on. A fulfilled power fantasy by a twelve year old (As far as I could tell; he called Vicki "his age" and she was 12, and an eighth grader was the oldest of his friend group) against the child rapist/murderer he'd escaped from three years prior? That's satisfying even without all of the intrigue and buildup this story provides. This is the one story out of this anthology that I would actually tell my friends to read, because it's going to stick with me and it was very well done. My only complaint with this story was that with the main character 12, and his friend he nicknamed "Hulk" being only 11, and "Twice his size, but all of that was muscle" is quite a bit strange. That's way too buff for an 11 year old kid. That doesn't happen. Strong 11 year olds don't look strong, people do not become "all muscle" until after puberty. That was distracting, but all in all I'd reread this story eventually. A gem among good short stories, this one was great.

8. White Rose: I spent a few pages disappointed. Up until a paramedic called our main character "Sir" I thought he was a woman. His attraction to Casey Ames, had that been true, would have been the first non-heterosexual relationship in the collection. However, my disappointment disappeared when I discovered the reason he was drawn to her was because she was "the one that got away" in his real life. "The one that got away..." From being murdered by him, that is. His punishment is gruesome, but well-deserved.

[Sue Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always keen to try different authors. This collection of short stories came to my attention through good reads which I am grateful for.

The style of writing is very descriptive which draws the reader into the tale and the various characters . That said, I felt a number of the stories left enough openings for your mind to draw its own conclusions. In fact, one of the stories left my mind working overtime and I awoke in the small hours with thoughts about the story racing through it. Whilst a little annoying at the time, I would take this as a sign that it was a good tale. I will not say which one, as I would be interested to hear if anyone else had the same issue.

With at least 2 of the stories I felt there was scope for them to be stand alone books. If this were ever to happen, I would be very keen to read them as the majority of the storylines appealed to me. I have dropped one star as a couple of the stories seemed padded out for effect, but of course, this is just my view.

Overall, I have been impressed with collection. I shall now look out for other works by this talented author

[Jason Makansi · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are stories to ponder. They are written in surgically precise prose. If magical realism is a "thing," I might describe these as mystical or philosophical realism. The big questions of life simmer just below the tension among the characters. Although many of the sentences come across as simple and rudimentary, almost like sentences we were taught to read and write in elementary school, they tend to lead the reader to very complex places.

I enjoyed what I read.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once in a while you get to read an anthology that fits into a variety of genres and takes you on a journey. Forfeit is the type of book that has a common thread throughout and it makes you think a little once it's all done. The theme here is forfeit, and in each story you find yourself asking what would you would if you found yourself in the exact same situation. That's true talent, and Rustin has a knack for creating characters that you can connect with, and won't soon forget even after you've finished the book.

This is one that I enjoyed a lot, and each story is well written and carries on the theme well. In some anthologies like this, you sometimes find a few stories that either drag, or just make the reader lose interest. Not the case here. This is a talented author that knows how to keep the momentum going with each story and I look forward to reading more from this guy.

[Christopher Meglin]

Excellent stories! I also narrated the entire book and Audible and iB0oks have this on sale with me, Christopher Meglin as its narrator. Thank you