Penpal

Title: Penpal

Author: Dathan Auerbach

Genre: Horror

Pages: 238 Pages

Synopsis:

How much do you remember about your childhood?

In Penpal, a man investigates the seemingly unrelated bizarre, tragic, and horrific occurrences of his childhood in an attempt to finally understand them. Beginning with only fragments of his earliest years, you’ll follow the narrator as he discovers that these strange and horrible events are actually part of a single terrifying story that has shaped the entirety of his life and the lives of those around him. If you’ve ever stayed in the woods just a little too long after dark, if you’ve ever had the feeling that someone or something was trying to hurt you, if you remember the first friend you ever made and how strong that bond was, then Penpal is a story that you won’t soon forget, despite how you might try.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

Penpal is a short horror book about a man trying to remember his childhood past. The interesting thing is that this book was based off a series of posts posted to Reddit.

There were definitely a few things I like about this book. It does capture the memories and the nostalgia of childhood. As exploring and going off on adventures was a thing most children did when they were really young. I feel like Childhood Innocence was a major theme in this novel. There was, definitely quite a few creepy and scary scenes in this novel. The book definitely succeeded in creating an unsettling atmosphere. The book did a good job connecting all of the stories together. I also just like how this was a very quick read.

I do have a few issues though. The book kind of felt like an extremely long Reddit post, and I get this was based off of Reddit. However, I just don’t feel like an extremely long Reddit post just doesn’t translate well to book form. For the record, I do use Reddit all the time! Secondly, I was frustrated by the Mother’s evasion and failure to communicate information to our main character just ridiculous. Why wouldn’t you warn your son about the possible danger?

All in all, Penpal is an okay Horror Novel that does have it’s creepy and scary moments. If you want to have a quick Horror read, Penpal is a decent choice to read.

Rating: