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A review by justinkhchen
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
3.0
3 stars
Great ideas muddled by a flawed execution, Penpal works better if one's aware of its origin (a short story went viral on Reddit, which the author then expanded with new materials and self-published through a successful crowdfunding). However, I wasn't cognizant of this background at the time, and picked this up based on Booktube recommendation, as well as its high GR rating. As a novel standing on its own merit, I was left a little baffled by its acclaims.
Dathan Auerbach has constructed an excellent narrative structure expanding the 'universe' of these short stories; the nonlinear storytelling does an excellent job at keeping readers on their toes, as any throwaway detail in one story could become crucial in the next—this constant sense of uncertainty really immerses readers in the same sense of dread that was felt by the characters. Dathan Auerbach also manged to conjure up quite a few chilling, gory imagery that will forever ingrained in my mind.
Unfortunately the highs are counterbalanced by the lows; at times, the writing can be wordy and desperately needing editing, and one can tell these 'chapters' aren't written with assembling into a novel in mind, as the same sequence of events keep being reused and elaborated at length (I was skimming all section regarding exploring the woods by the end). The age / behavior discrepancy for some of the characters is also alarmingly jarring, to the point I had to ignore the novel's insistence regarding them being kindergartners, and re-imagined them as 3rd-4th graders.
I don't know... I think without the context of this being a 'discovered gem' among Reddit posts, Penpal as a published novel (that costs money) is quite average and unpolished, even with moments of potent creativity—not the modern classic I assumed I was getting myself into.
Great ideas muddled by a flawed execution, Penpal works better if one's aware of its origin (a short story went viral on Reddit, which the author then expanded with new materials and self-published through a successful crowdfunding). However, I wasn't cognizant of this background at the time, and picked this up based on Booktube recommendation, as well as its high GR rating. As a novel standing on its own merit, I was left a little baffled by its acclaims.
Dathan Auerbach has constructed an excellent narrative structure expanding the 'universe' of these short stories; the nonlinear storytelling does an excellent job at keeping readers on their toes, as any throwaway detail in one story could become crucial in the next—this constant sense of uncertainty really immerses readers in the same sense of dread that was felt by the characters. Dathan Auerbach also manged to conjure up quite a few chilling, gory imagery that will forever ingrained in my mind.
Unfortunately the highs are counterbalanced by the lows; at times, the writing can be wordy and desperately needing editing, and one can tell these 'chapters' aren't written with assembling into a novel in mind, as the same sequence of events keep being reused and elaborated at length (I was skimming all section regarding exploring the woods by the end). The age / behavior discrepancy for some of the characters is also alarmingly jarring, to the point I had to ignore the novel's insistence regarding them being kindergartners, and re-imagined them as 3rd-4th graders.
I don't know... I think without the context of this being a 'discovered gem' among Reddit posts, Penpal as a published novel (that costs money) is quite average and unpolished, even with moments of potent creativity—not the modern classic I assumed I was getting myself into.