I am very happy to report that with this anthology I have finally found some stories by Eric LaRocca I really, truly enjoyed. While some of his other work unfortunately fell flat, I found myself really enjoying most stories here, being drawn into the creeping dread and horror of (almost) all of them.
My favorites three were Bodies are for burning (a story following a woman with intrusive thoughts that leave her terrified she'll harm people around her, very haunting), The Strange Thing We Become (a story about a relationship that changes after one parter is diagnosed as chronically ill, told through online postings, I really liked this one, especially the grief and complicated feelings) and You're not supposed to be here (A story of a family outing to the park gone horribly, horribly wrong, so terrifying and messed up, I loved it!). I also enjoyed the other stories, but these were my absolute favorites.
All in all this short story collection focusses on relationships, familial and romatic and sometimes the blending of both, the horror of losing that relationship, of harming somebody due to their (misplaced) trust in that relationship and the way these relationships can be leveraged against you. I think it was particularly this very intimate concept of that made this short story collection into a hit for me and if you want to read some interesting horror check this anthology out.