Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

4 reviews

torihbu's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

while some may find the nonchronological flow of this book confusing, i found that it contributed to the novel being incredibly suspenseful. a few questions remain unanswered, but i personally enjoy when a book leaves me with something to think about after i finish it. a chilling example of the horrors of reality and how hard it can be to accept and understand that humans can be just as terrifying as monsters or ghost.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Stalking, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Abandonment

lugosi147's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is deeply deeply scary and tense at times and so deeply deeply tragic in others.  The author has a knack for crafting horror and pathos into an incredibly paced narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

one boy’s friendship damns his friend’s entire family

dexlud's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Okay I’m giving this a 5 star just because of how purely amazed I am at how much this book purely terrified me. Auerbach definitely has a way with words. Even if the writing itself was just above basic, the way my emotions were toyed with throughout this book was actually insane. I wish I could read this book for the first time because what the fuck. Started reading at 3am, both recommend and do not recommend reading this at such an hour. Definitely recommend this book, has a little bit of body horror too at points and overall is just a gorgeous book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror and Gore

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

ksuazo94's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Abandonment