Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

21 reviews

g_xandra's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Blood, and Stalking

Minor: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail

lugosi147's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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

madfromonline's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

scumlow's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Car accident

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

itsjustgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Dementia and Trafficking

Minor: Vomit

star_charter152's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Violence, Grief, Stalking, and Car accident

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Dementia, and Kidnapping

eltcic's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Pedophilia and Kidnapping

fresh_guy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

It's formatting isn't perfect because its formatted for reddit, but it's only noticable in the narration itself. many of the stories repeat facts that were mentioned in other stories.

I'm likely bias because I grew up with TheNoSleep Podcast and this is just the "stalker episode book" from the first season, but I genuinely think this is good micro-horror (even if it is twelve years old).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Stalking

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Rape and Blood

The gore is only on one or two pages but Auerbach goes into EXCRUCIATING detail on those one or two pages. The rape isn't expressly mentioned, but

it is slightly implied at the end

.

pkatrinaanne's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder