A first-year college student, thinking someone is stalking her, moves from her dorm to an apartment where she meets an enigmatic entity in the eerie new adult LGBTQ novel, Cold Spots by M. Meyers. As a freshman in the first semester of college, Riley Donovan is beginning to feel overwhelmed by the overall experience. Some of her personal items have gone missing, and when she hears footsteps following her on the dark path back from a late-night class, she turns and sees something slinking among the shadows. Frightened, Riley races back to her dorm. The Safety Committee can't do much for her, even when she receives a note from her stalker. Concerned for her well-being, her mother allows her to rent an apartment off-campus for the rest of the semester. However, when she enters her new residence, she is met by a cold chill and poltergeist activity. With a stalker following her and a ghost living with her, what will Riley do? Will she ever have an ordinary life again?

Cold Spots by M. Meyers is a chilling new adult novel depicting the effects stress has on a student's mental health. Filled with suspense, it is a spine-tingling story that kept me on edge until I reached the final page. It is an intense novel with compelling characters, a dramatic plot, and a spooky storyline. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a suspenseful story with a touch of drama, a hint of the paranormal, and a dose of reality. Containing intimate scenes and LGBTQ lifestyles, the book is more suitable for a mature reader.

“Something is exacerbating this anxiety in you. You’ve always had it, but it’s been manageable up until now. Now, there are stressors that challenge your control over yourself and your life.” In Cold Spots by M. Meyers, Riley Donovan is silently overwhelmed by her college life. She's also being watched and followed, a notion that she confirmed during a walk back to her dorm after a late lab one night. The experience haunts her and prompts her to move out of campus to an apartment of her own. She continues to deal with her studies and her relationships with her family, boyfriend, friends, and several new people the best that she can. Little does she know that someone else will appear and add a different type of complexity in her life, whether she’s ready or not.

M. Meyers's Cold Spots is a slow burn of a character-driven story. Yet, the moderate pace of the plot can be apocryphal, juxtaposed with the protagonist's inner turmoil in struggling for a sense of control in every aspect of her life. The narrative is self-reflective and nuanced as mental health and sexuality are explored. She's somehow stuck in diametric directions; live her life and face her fear or withdraw and be safe. Riley's dissociation from the real world is understandably tempting as an environment that can give her tranquility, reassurance, and comfort is there waiting for her. The paranormal element certainly adds an interesting facet to the story as a subtle metaphor of anxiety and coping mechanisms. Intriguing and compelling in its own right, Cold Spots highlights the struggles of mental health of young adults amid the rubble of life expectations.