Penpal

I initially read about this book on reddit. I often turn to the sub category on book recommendations to choose which book I will read next. Penpal popped up on a few lists but I didn't immediately run out to get it because there were so many other choices that I planned on checking out first. Then while perusing amazon it popped up in their suggested books and I thought why not give it a shot. I was not disappointed. This book was truly frightening yet beautifully written. Dathan Auerbach has a gift for suspense/horror writing. He is the first author since Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects, Gone Girl) that left me feeling like damn that was messed up. I read it front to back in a few hours and was completely engrossed the entire time. This is one of those books that keeps you hanging on every word, compelling you to read one more sentence, one more paragraph, one more page. As if its saying 'don't you dare put me down, you're going to want to hear what happens next.' That being said, I don't typically read horror novels because they have a tendency to be to predictable or overly graphic. They are never really scary because they are recycling the same cliche ideas over and over. Penpal is different. There is a genuinely sweet story of two young friends and their adolescent adventures but underneath is this slow burning anxiety of something truly terrifying going on that the reader can't quite put a finger on. There were so many times where the narrator was going on in detail about something seemingly mundane then BAM! something really unsettling would happen and all I could do is shout at the author "just tell me what all this means! I need to know whats going really going on." At points it had me so unnerved that the creaks in my house and the wind rattling at my windows would cause me to jump and I would have to remind myself that this is just a book and this isn't really happening to me. I was almost dissatisfied with the end of the book because I didn't want it to be the end. I anxiously await Dathan's next book and will promptly be putting him on my watch list of authors. I can't wait to tell my friends who are avid readers about this book.

While watching bookworms on Reels on Instagram earlier this week, someone posted a few books that were their favorite psychological thriller/horror books. One of the last shown was this book, Penpal. I had never heard of this book. My curiosity peaked and I plugged the title in Amazon books. The description for this story was very brief. The reviews were what caught my attention. I am not a Reddit person nor had I ever heard of Creepypasta before. Turns out this was a community in which individuals post creepy/scary stories. Right up my alley. This author evidently wrote a chapter or two and developed this story along with a cult following. He then made it into a book - similar to some writers on Wattpad - and self published back in 2012. That was enough interest for me to buy the book via Kindle and dive in. Now granted the genre of this book is under Horror. I really didn’t know what to expect with that description. I’m a huge psychological thriller fan not so much horror (I usually associate that word with “gore” which is a subject I’m definitely not interested in reading about). To my surprise it begins as such a sweet and innocent memory reflection about a boy’s childhood and his best friend Josh. I absolutely fell in love with with the innocence of the way they met and bonded, of all their special adventures and how big their imaginations were. It’s so refreshing to see life through the eyes of a child before the years when life begins to change and as a result so does the innocence. It was relatable as my youngest daughter- who is now a teen - was very similar to these two boys. She played ninjas with the boys in nursery school and wore a tutu over her pants. 🤣 I seriously wanted to hug and protect both of these incredible kids. I loved the timeline of when the story took place. It was never stated in the book; however, being a person who was born in the ‘70’s and grew up in a semi rural neighborhood & community in the ‘80’s, this was spot on. Feral parenting was a real thing, I’m living proof. My mother never knew where we were and didn’t care. Kids were meant to be outdoors all day during summer break. Come home for lunch and then back out for the afternoon shift of exploring, playing games, and playing with friends. It’s stories like these why helicopter parenting came into play. There are and were, terrible people in the world just looking to snatch up and steal the innocence of a child and forever ruin their lives. There was some plot holes and things that didn’t add up or make sense in this story. I even read it twice to see if I somehow missed the information I was seeking. For example the main characters name . It is never mentioned by one character in the book. Nor his mom’s name. Very odd. This story makes you believe that it’s not a work of fiction. Yet some things are too strange to be real life. I have some questions though: Why Josh? Was he in the vehicle that night at the theater? Why did the main characters mother never warn Josh’s parents about what was going on?? Where was Josh kept? Was the man the one who was in the hospital bed next to Veronica? It’s all so heartbreaking. 💔

I’m absolutely in love with this book, it was SO freaking good and I need everything the author has every written ASAP! It’s so deliciously creepy and I was instantly hooked from the first page and couldn’t devour it fast enough. It kept me up way past my bedtime because I kept telling myself just one more chapter and then once I went to bed, I couldn’t help but hear those footsteps and was instantly uneasy. This book just digs its claws into you and doesn’t let go. I was thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it, a true sign of a phenomenal story! I loved how the ending was a bit open ended, it really allowed my imagination to run wild with possibilities and made all that much more creepy!

Je ne jugerai ici que l'aspect du produit. Je n'ai pas encore entrepris la lecture de ce livre (j'en termine un autre, je n'aime pas avoir deux livres en parallèle). Premièrement, le livre est fidèle à la description donnée par Amazon (illustration de la couverture etc). Avec sa couverture souple mais robuste, le livre semble de bonne facture. Le papier est un peu plus épais que la 'normale' avec une police d'écriture agréable et plutôt aérée. On tourne entre 230 et 240 page d'un format se situant entre le livre de poche et le livre classique (plein/grand format). Opinion personnelle : je trouve ce type de format de livre agréable à lire, bien facile à prendre en main, pas aussi petit que le poche ni aussi grand que le classique ; ceci est plus facile à manier pour moi surtout avec une couverture souple. Bonne lecture pour les personnes qui tenteront l'aventure !

Hab die Geschichte schon auf Reddit gelesen aber ich fand sie einfach so großartig, dass ich das Buch unbedingt haben wollte! Horror genau nach meinem Geschmack! Ohne zuviel verraten zu wollen; Es geht um einen Jungen Mann der seine Kindheit aufarbeitet und dabei fest stellt,dass etwas sehr düsteres vorging, dass er als Kind schlichtweg nicht als so gefährlich wahrgenommen hat, wie der Leser es schon nach kurzer Zeit tut. Nach und nach lichtet sich der Schleier und man erkennt das gesamte Ausmaß des Horrors. Großartig, als Leser muss man sich sehr damit auseinander setzen und versuchen, die Puzzelteile zusammen zu setzen, das hat mir dabei am meisten Spaß gemacht! Erwähnenswert wäre noch, dass das Buch original auf Englisch ist aber es ist sehr verständlich geschrieben, ich hatte keinerlei Probleme der Geschichte zu folgen.

I hade a very hard time to finish this book 📖 I almost DNF it. But then I get past the first chapter and I was hooked 🪝 The book is about a man that are writing his memoirs. He is writing about things that happened in his childhood and get some help from his mother 👩🏼 The more he writes, the more he realises that his mother has protected him from things that happened during his childhood. Once you get into it it is an amazing book 📖 well written and mesmerising. You think that you know how it will end and then the twist hits and everything is up ⬆️ side down ⬇️

Ottimo