Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

Short, but scary. That's the best way to describe this book. It's not a short story, but it's not really a long one, either. Penpal was actually started as a thread on the popular website Reddit.com as an installment of short stories by Auerbach, a Reddit user. With the help of friends and a publishing company, he turned it into a book.

Penpal follows a young man who, as a young boy, comes into contact with a stranger, who quickly becomes a stalker that follows him throughout childhood. While it's short, the story is extremely creepy and almost made it hard for me to sleep!

This review, will be short, because there's only a few things I have to say. The major critique I have of this book is that the sentence structure and wording is very askew at times, and it seems as though the author could've spent more time arranging sentences, dialogue, etc. more carefully. Some parts of the book do not flow well at all, and it is also confusing at times because the story is told in a strange order, one chapter coming before the next chapter, but after the chapter after that? Confusing, I know. That's another problem I had with the entire structure of the work. It was a jumble.

The character development was almost nonexistent. The author spent a lot of time introducing characters, but never really giving them any significance in the overall plot line. I can think of three characters off the top of my head that were mentioned once and never heard of again. The development of the antagonist was the only highlight in the way of character development--he did a good, albeit obscure, job of making you terrified of that creepy stalking person that can really exist.

The highlight of the work was the absolute reality of it--while it had my skin crawling with the creepiness of the stalking, the whole situation is plausible, and could really happen to anyone. I think he did well by using that element, because knowing something could really occur is a lot scarier than say zombies or aliens. There is no monster with four heads, no ghost that kills, no strange creature from out of this world that takes over earth--there is just the average Joe, the strange, unidentifiable stalker that embodies people in the real world.

All in all, if you want to be scared witless, then this is the book for you. A suspenseful horror, it will make you lock your doors at night and check under your bed. (And no, I'm not giving hints that the stalker hides under your bed... that's just TOO creepy, am I right?!)

I recommend 6/10.