Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Penpal

Utterly heart broken. Tense, and emotional. Auerbach gives you the pieces of the puzzle to put together yourself, each one more horrifying than the last. The final picture is harrowing. What a read.

Content Warnings

amandalove2bme's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Content Warnings

marslotus's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Dathan Auerbach has such a masterful handle on suspense and mystery, I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of this read. I remember first listening to this years ago, back when it was a creepypasta YouTubers made into online audioreads and I'm so happy to return to it as an adult knowing it's just as creepy and engaging as I found it was when I was a kid. Even in moments where you can guess ahead of the narration what the horrifying reveal of each chapter will be, it still feels so earned and equally as terrifying. My only complaint is that it's not longer!

Content Warnings

eltcic's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Beautiful read, finished it in two sessions. I had a blurry memory of the story from hearing a translated audio version of it in my preteens, and I found it just as enthralling as an adult. The writing in some passages is simply breathtaking. The language isn’t too florid, but the author manages to render everything so vividly by skillfully picking the vocab. The pacing is perfect as well. I had a nightmare and jumped up awake after reading the first half - and then proceeded to read the second half. The way the protagonist thinks at different ages was so spot-on that it gave me flashbacks of my younger self, and I also found it very tasteful that the

potential child SA

was simply implied, unlike the rest of the gore.
Only complaint:
How obvious the foreshadowing is at times, e. g.

the way the similarity between Josh and the narrator was pointed out was very movie-like and made it obvious that Josh was about to get hurt

.
I’m conflicted about

the amount of stuff the antagonist got away with without even being spotted, and the ease with which he always found everyone and everything

. I‘m on the fence on whether it makes the book better by making him appear like a larger than life threat, some sort of archetype to represent every

pedophile

almost, or it goes too far and ruins the magic by making the story unrealistic.

Content Warnings