Pax by Sara Pennypacker 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Sara Pennypacker

I read a paperback edition of Pax.

Genre: Children’s fiction, middle-grade fiction.

Illustrated by: Jon Klassen

Publisher: HarperCollins

Originally published: February 2nd, 2016

Pages: 288 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Synopsis by the publisher:

Pax and Peter have been inseparable ever since Peter rescued him as a kit. But one day, the unimaginable happens: Peter’s dad enlists in the military and makes him return the fox to the wild.

At his grandfather’s house, three hundred miles away from home, Peter knows he isn’t where he should be—with Pax. He strikes out on his own despite the encroaching war, spurred by love, loyalty, and grief, to be reunited with his fox.

Meanwhile Pax, steadfastly waiting for his boy, embarks on adventures and discoveries of his own.

My thoughts:

I randomly came across Pax while browsing a Norwegian bookstore and it was cover love at first sight! So much so that I decided to buy the book before I even read the synopsis. When I did read the back, I was even more sure that it would be a good match.

I love when authors write stories from the perspective of animals. Giving the animals a voice of their own adds a whole other depth to a story. I find that it’s even more enjoyable when we get to shift between the perspectives of humans and animals so that we get to experience certain events in two (or more) different ways. Pennypacker did a really good job with that throughout this book.

Pax isn’t just a story about a strong bond between a fox and a boy, but it also tells a story of grief and war. As far as I could tell, which war this story is set in isn’t mentioned, but I got the feeling it was probably World War II. Not knowing doesn’t take away from the story at all though since the focus isn’t on the war itself, but more the experiences of growing up during one.

The illustrations throughout this book are absolutely stunning! I wouldn’t have minded if there’d had been more of them, but hey, quality over quantity!
A big round of applause for Jon Klassen!

Both Peter and Pax develops quite a lot as characters during the short amount of time that we get to spend with them, and I loved being able to join them on that journey.

How about the ending?

I loved the way that it ended, even though it might not have been the ending that I was expecting or hoping for. But I thought it was the right way to end the story.

This story also had me crying a little bit, which doesn’t happen all too often these days! So extra points for having me so engaged in the story!

All that being said, I wish it would’ve been a little longer though. I felt like there was more to this story, but I also understand that even though I enjoyed it as an adult, it was written for a much younger audience so having it be 350+ pages long might not have been the right choice for this particular book.

I highly recommend Pax to readers who loved Watership Down, Charlotte’s Web, or any other story of hardship and struggle that are told through the perspectives of animals. It’s written beautifully and it tells a really heartbreaking but also heartwarming story that is just as enjoyable for adults as for kids.

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Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Stephen Chbosky

I read a hardback edition of Imaginary Friend.

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Originally published: October 1st, 2019

Pages: 720 (hardback)

Audiobook length: 24 hrs and 32 mins

Synopsis by the publisher:

IMAGINE…
Leaving your house in the middle of the night.
Knowing your mother is doing her best, but she’s just as scared as you.

IMAGINE…
Starting a new school, making friends.
Seeing how happy it makes your mother.
Hearing a voice, calling out to you.

IMAGINE…
Following the signs, into the woods.
Going missing for six days.
Remembering nothing about what happened.

IMAGINE…
Something that will change everything…
And having to save everyone you love.

My thoughts:

It’s been five years since I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and to be completely honest, even though I really enjoyed that novel, I haven’t read anything else by Chbosky.

But then all of a sudden, Imaginary Friend started to pop up in my feed and was recommended to me a few times. It sounded like something that was up my alley. I then stumbled across a signed copy while I was in London last year and so it ended up traveling back to Oslo with me (adding quite a bit of weight to my luggage).

Imaginary Friend is a chunker of a book, coming in at 720 pages! So, if you’re not reading it on a Kindle or listening to it as an audiobook, be prepared for some heavy lifting.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting going into this one, but what I didn’t expect was forgetting several times throughout the book which Stephen had written this book. Because the truth is that it felt like reading a Stephen King novel!

This book is filled with interesting characters, and quite a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. And even though there’s much focus on the “monsters” and mystery of this imaginary friend that Christopher encounters, what really gives this story depth is the people and the horrors and evil that lives in them. This is what makes it feel like an early King novel. At one point I was almost certain that it must’ve been a prank of the Stephens, and at the end, Stephen King would jump out and reveal himself as the one with pen in hand.

I get the frustration that many readers might feel if they jumped into this novel with their utter love for the writing in Perks of Being a Wallflower, and what they got was a haunting horror story with a completely different writing style. But my horror-loving heart absolutely loved it and found it to be a pleasant surprise.

I (like so many others) struggled a bit with Christopher’s age. He’s supposed to be 7-8 years old, but he reads like a character of 10-12 years. Some of it does make sense though when you know what it is that Christopher goes through in this story. There are many ways of forcing kids to grow up too fast.

It is rare that I read books of this size and don’t find myself bored at any moment. Imaginary Friend definitely grabbed my attention and kept it from beginning to end. That being said, it still felt like the book could have been 100 pages shorter. Some parts of it felt just a tiny bit repetitive and unnecessary. That, and the vast amount of biblical references was the thing that made it into a 4.5 rating instead of a 5.

If you love your Stephen King novels, and you like to get lost in horror stories, I would definitely recommend giving Imaginary Friend a go! It’s dark, twisted, mysterious and haunting!

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I Fell in Love With a Couple of Indie Movies!

After I had two of my wisdom teeth removed a little over a week ago, I had a couple of days where I just didn’t have the energy to do much other than lie on the couch and watch Netflix.

It’s been a while since I’ve explored the indie movie selection on Netflix, even though I love stumbling across quirky, weird films that stand out. This time though, I stumbled across two that I loved, and I thought I’d share them with you!

Unicorn Store (2017)

Unicorns, lots of colors, and a dash of magic in the world of a grown up?!
I was sold by the idea as soon as I came across it, and jumped right in!

I absolutely loved Brie Larson and her character in this movie. It’s so filled with color and magic, and a quite a lot of anxiety and fear about the whole concept of growing up and making the right choices as an adult.

I can definitely relate!

The Incredible
Jessica James (2017)

Woman struggling as an artist and as a single woman… Well, that sounds familiar! Press play!

Jessica Williams plays the character Jessica James so well, and I just loved how funny and strong of a female lead she is! Not every movie about being single has to have a damsel in distress feel to it, even if they are showing the hard parts about getting over someone and trying to move on.

We need more strong leads as Jessica who are outspoken, confident, and not afraid to be sex positive!

So, there you have it! Just a couple of movie recommendations for you!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen any of these two movies, and what you thought of them😁And/or if you have some good recommendations for quirky movies then let me know!

The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, a Run by Nagabe 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Nagabe

I read a paperback edition of The Girl from the Other Side

Genre: Manga, Graphic novel

Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment, LLC

Originally published: March 10th, 2016

Pages: 180 (paperback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

In a land far away, there were two kingdoms: the Outside, where twisted beasts roamed that could curse with a touch, and the Inside, where humans lived in safety and peace. The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairytale begins.

This is a story of two people–one human, one inhuman–who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.

My thoughts:

In my current exploration of Manga, I came across The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil. What drew me to it was the covers. There was just something about the art style that I instantly fell in love with. And it also gave off a very fairytale, but yet dark and eerie vibe. 

As soon as I picked it up, my expectations were already pretty high, even though I’d heard nothing about it before suddenly stumbling across the series. 

It turned out that The Girl from the Other Side was everything I had hoped it would be, and even more. 

The story has a wonderful balance between being dark and sweet. There’s a lightheartedness that shines through the eeriness, and that’s one of the things that made me fall absolutely in love with it. 

The worldbuilding is very interesting, the artwork is beautiful, and the characters are so interesting. Especially this creature from the Other Side. 

But there’s also a sadness to the story. This little girl who is left behind in the village, desperately hoping, and impatiently waiting for her aunt to come back is heartbreaking, but also a wonderful example of the naivety most children have. 

The Girl from the Other Side is also incredibly atmospheric and easy as a reader to fall into the story and fly through it in one sitting. 

To me, this story was the perfect start to a series, and I can’t wait to continue on with it. I already have vol. 2 and 3 on its way to me.

Highly recommend!

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Mila 18 by Leon Uris 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Leon Uris

I listened to an audiobook edition of Mila 18 on Audible.

Genre: Historical fiction, WWII fiction.

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Originally published: 1961 by Doubleday

Pages: 563 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 22 hrs and 58 mins

Narrated by: David deVries

Synopsis by the publisher:

It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy – and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris’s blazing novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling story of one of the most heroic struggles of modern times.

My thoughts:

Mila 18 is one of those books that my dad has recommended to me over and over again. I’ve had it on my shelf for what feels like forever, but for some reason, I just never got around to reading it. But on the hunt for some new audiobooks on Audible it came up as a recommended book there as well (not surprising since I have listened and read my share of books about World War 2), so I decided it was time to finally read/listen to it. 

It took me a little while to get all the characters in order, but as soon as I did, I was very invested in their stories. 

Mila 18 is a slow burner, but the flame burns bright through the whole book. The audiobook is almost 22 hours long, but during these hours I never felt bored. 

The story of the Warsaw ghetto tells how war and despair bring out the very best in people, and the absolute worst. 

We follow struggling marriages, young couples in love, a resistance coming to life, German officers and families just trying to survive.

It is a heartbreaking story as much as it is one that makes you want to go utterly mad with anger. One of the things that always made WWII stories so fascinating to me, was trying to get into the minds of the people who drove the war forward and trying to understand how someone could be so cruel and act so cruel. But I have to say that for the most part, the more I read, the less I feel like I understand. I still can’t fathom how the Nazis could justify their acts, and I don’t think I ever will. 

But no matter how difficult it is to try to understand why people sometimes do the things that they do, books like Mila 18, and so many others, are so important. We need to remember. We have to remember. 

This book tells a story of immense bravery, love, and endurance. We get to follow the people in the ghetto as well as outside of it and see how they process the war and how it changes the city that they call home, as well as the people around them. 

The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto is a symbol of freedom. 

It is a powerful story, an important story, but not one for the faint of heart. It had me feeling angry, unwell and moved to tears. 

If you like historical fiction and especially historical fiction set during WWII, then I would definitely recommend Mila 18.

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The Return of King Lillian by Suzie Plakson 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Suzie Plakson

I read a digital edition of The Return of King Lillian that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Literary fiction, fairy tale, fantasy.

Publisher: Pilmsthistle & Co.

Originally published: November 1st, 2012 (as a shorter novella)

Pages: 390 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Synopsis by the publisher:

A new hero’s journey for dreamers of all ages…

When Lillian, the one-and-only heir to the throne, is cast out of her kingdom by malevolent forces, she accidentally wanders into the Forest of Forgetfullness, where she is rescued by wolves and raised by an eccentric old wise woman. When she comes of age, Lillian is called by Destiny to return Home, but when she steps out of the Forest, she has no memory of who she is or from whence she hails. Undaunted, the spirited, self-reliant young woman sets off into the unknown, determined to rediscover her long-lost self and to reclaim her stolen birthright. Most of the tale is told by Lillian herself as she chronicles her extraordinary adventures.

My thoughts:

Going into this story I was expecting it to be an entertaining fast read meant for children. I was not prepared for the adventure that I set out on.

First off, I want to just mention the brilliant idea of having Lillian mentioned as a girl-king instead of a queen! That was the thing that caught my attention in the first place and made me curious for more.

The Return of King Lillian is a brilliant fairytale that reminded me a lot of stories like “The Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Gulliver’s Travels”. The whole story is written as if we’re reading Lillian’s diary. This made the reading experience very unique and personal, as if Lillian and I were sitting in front of a fireplace while she told me her whole story.

The thing that truly blew me away with this book was the beautiful way it is written. Sometimes it read like the fairytales I remember my parents reading for me when I was a kid, other times, it’s felt like I was reading a whimsical poem.

Lillian is such a wholesome, pure and naive character because of her time isolated in the Forest of Forgetfulness. But she’s also a strong character, and a lot of the challenges she meets throughout her journey can easily be linked to the problems that we meet out here in the real world. She takes them on with a positive and free-minded spirit, and the character development of Lillian is just a pure joy to witness as the pages go by.

Plakson has written a story that can be enjoyed by both kids as well as adults, with colorful characters, adventure, wisdom, and a good dose of wit and humor.

The Return of King Lillian is not a book that I speed read (as I often find myself doing with fairytales), but it was savored and enjoyed over time as the masterpiece that it is!

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛

Reedsy Discovery

Sleeping Together by Kitty Cook 📚 BOOK REVIEW

I read a Kindle edition of Sleeping Together that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. Sleeping Together is the first novel in the Perfect Drug series.

Genre: Science fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Publisher: Brass Anvil Books

Originally published: March 6th, 2019

Pages: 310 (paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:

Vanessa Brown is having nightmares: about babies. Ever since her husband, Pete, mentioned he wanted to start a family, Ness has been trying to convince herself she’s stoked to spawn despite her inability to keep a cactus alive–and a decade-old secret she doesn’t like to remember. So when she catches her slacker-cool coworker, Altan Young, stealing sleeping medication from the pharmaceutical company they both work for, she decides to try the pilfered pills to finally find some rest.

But side effects of Morpheum include headaches, nausea, and possible mind melding–a fact Ness and Altan stumble upon when they share the same freaky sex dream. (Awkward.) Now these two colleagues are joined at the brain by night, experiencing dozens of fantastic sleep-staged adventures courtesy of a little imagination and a whole lot of drugs.

With the stress of being caught between the men of her literal and figurative dreams (not to mention her nightmare of a boss), Ness starts to enjoy snoozing more than being conscious–and the company of her work husband more than her real one. If she doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee soon, her dreamy escape could become a dirt nap in this feisty debut novel about the dark side of dreams’ coming true.

My thoughts:

What first caught my attention with this one was the beautiful cover. Yes, I am an absolute sucker for a pretty cover. Well done on the beautiful cover design! And then I read the synopsis of the book, and I was immediately intrigued. A story about a drug that makes it possible for two people to meet and connect in their dreams. Interesting premise!

The whole story starts off with Vanessa’s baby/pregnancy nightmare, and I thought that was a good way to have that character’s anxiety and uncertainty come across to the reader. Vanessa’s dilemma of being in a relationship where the love is strong, but they want different things is oh so relatable to many.

I loved the fact that Altan is an Asian character. Yay for diversity! And the relationship and dialogue between him and Vanessa were one of the key elements to this story that made it so enjoyable to me. There was humor that had me giggling, sex (not very graphic) that made it slightly steamy, a horrible boss that made I want to jump into the book and punch the guy’s face, mental health issues that are important to address, romance that wasn’t too cheesy, and a pageturner of a plotline that had me up later than I should have been.

Kitty Cook has written the dream state of the characters so well that it all comes very easily to life as I was reading.

The characters are relatable and we do get to know both Vanessa and Altan quite well throughout this story. I didn’t find myself completely obsessed with them, but I was very invested in their story and with the mystery of how the Morpheum drug was actually working, and how it would impact the people using it.

Sleeping Together is an incredibly creative, intriguing and interesting story that touches on some sensitive subjects and has a slight element of science fiction to it that I really liked. I feel like I still have a lot of questions, and that these characters still have a lot more story to tell, so finding out that this is the first book in a series was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Highly recommend if you want to read a different kind of romance. And now, the waiting for book two begins.

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Samantha Shannon

I read a paperback version of The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Genre: Epic fantasy, Fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Originally published: February 26th, 2019

Pages: 848 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 25 Hours 52 Minutes

Blurb by the publisher:

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door. 

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tane has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

My thoughts:

This is an epic fantasy where EPIC is the right word for sure!

I love me a good chunker of a book from time to time, although I do find them a bit intimidating. I love the “The Bone Season” series by Samantha Shannon, and I’m excited about the next book to come in that series. I wasn’t aware that she had published another book until the cover started popping up quite often on my Instagram feed. And what a pretty book it is! Well done Ivan Belikov (illustrator) and David Mann (design) for the gorgeous cover. And I also have to mention that I really liked seeing a fantasy novel that didn’t have the word throne in it, just saying!

Although I kept noticing this beauty on social media, I had no idea that it was an 800+ pages book. That I found out while book browsing at Outland (my favorite bookstore in Oslo), and all of the sudden it was like it was yelling out my name from the shelf that it was standing on. It begged me to take it home, so I did. I had to small of a purse with me (and refusing to use a plastic bag) I ended up carrying the chunker under my arm all the way home. After I started reading it I’m pretty sure I’ve built some solid arm muscle just by bringing this book along with me everywhere.

It’s been a while since I’ve decided to invest time in such an epic fantasy story, but when it was blurbed as “the feminist successor to Lord of the Rings” and “deserves as much attention as Game of Thrones”, I was more than a little intrigued.

The Priory of the Orange Tree would turn out to surprise me more than I ever expected.

For an 800+ book, it’s pretty impressive that the story grabbed me and never let go for a second. I found myself very invested in a very diverse cast of characters. We had characters of different colors and sexuality represented throughout this story, and it was done in a way that made it feel very natural, as it should always be!

I absolutely loved seeing different sexualities in the main characters, and not just the smaller roles. We need more of that, and Shannon has done an amazing job with showing us how easily it can be done in a genre where it isn’t done nearly as often as it should.

We follow a good amount of characters, but all of them have a very distinct voice and personality which makes it easy to know which character we’re following at any given moment. I also really liked that we got to see the viewpoints of some of the male characters in this story even though the focus is very much on the female ones.

It is a perfect mix of different voices and personalities without being confusing and overwhelming.

And my oh my, there are some really strong female characters in this book that I just fell in love with. Ead and Tané are definitely my personal favorites!

The fact that the dragons had voices too, just gave them so much more depth. It made them into characters in the story, more than just monsters or creatures.

The plotline of this story has a lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming, and that’s what made it into a book that keeps you wanting to read just one more chapter, and then one more. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that’s kept me up at night because I couldn’t wait to find out what’s going to happen to the characters, but The Priory of the Orange Tree definitely had me reading way past my bedtime.

I will say that the history and differences of the East and the West were a bit cluttered and confusing at the very beginning of the story, but as I got further into the story all those single threads were woven together into a colorful and complex carpet. It’s got such a well thought out backstory painted into a rich world that Shannon has come to life on the pages.

I’m in awe with this story, and I would highly recommend it to any fantasy lover out there.

Is it a standalone novel? Yes, but Samantha Shannon has hinted to the possibility of more books by saying that “this world has more stories to tell”, and I’m all here for it!

I believe that The Priory of the Orange Tree is a gamechanger in the epic fantasy genre, and it’s one that we needed more than we were even aware of.

It was well worth dragging “a brick” with me every day, and in many ways, I wasn’t ready for it to end when it did.

Thank you Samantha, for taking me as a reader on this epic feminist fantasy journey! I loved it, every step of the way❤️

 Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛

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The Humans by Matt Haig 📚 BOOK REVIEW

I read a paperback version of The Humans.

Matt Haig

Genre: Science fiction, Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd.

Originally published: May 9th, 2013

Pages: 320 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 8 Hours 10 Minutes

Blurb by the publisher:

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. OR IS THERE? 

After an ‘incident’ one wet Friday night where he is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling quite himself. Food sickens him. Clothes confound him. Even his loving wife and teenage son are repulsive to him. He feels lost amongst an alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he’s a dog. 

Who is he really? And what could make someone change their mind about the human race . . . ? 

My thoughts:

The first time I got to enjoy Matt Haig’s writing was when I found How to Stop Time at an airport while traveling, and that one was told so brilliantly that I knew that Matt Haig would potentially be another author to add to my favorites list. But before he could end up on that list, I had to find out if it was just the one book that I enjoyed, or if it was his writing and storytelling that would captivate me more than once.

So, when I saw The Humans while I was on another trip (maybe Matt’s books and I are destined to be travel buddies?), I had to give it a go.

The Humans is one of those books that got my attention not just because of the author, but also because it just sounded magically quirky and just up my alley. What can I say? I love weird books!

Little did I know just how weird and wonderful it would turn out to be, and what a special place in my reader’s heart it would find.

In the very beginning of the story, we find out that Andrew Martin’s body has been occupied by an alien (so not really a spoiler), and what I thought would be a big mystery of why Martin had changed, was more a wonderful story of an alien trying to navigate itself on earth.

The best thing about this story is definitely how the alien experience and reacts to the utterly weird things that we humans do. I laughed out loud and almost felt a little embarrassed when recognizing some of the human actions for just how weird they are.

There were so many moments where I thought to myself: “Yep. We do that and it’s so stupid!”.

Matt Haig touches on a lot of the ways we humans seem to be unable to change, how we can be way too self-destructive, but also the wonderful little things that make us the weird humans that we are.

This is the true magic of The Humans and what made it such a unique and wonderful read.

There are other elements to the plotline that makes this story a quick and exciting read. The alien’s mission is definitely one that makes it into a pageturner.

So, the big question is: did Matt Haig make it to the favorite authors list?

Absolutely!!

If you’re looking for a different kind of science fiction read, I would highly recommend The Humans.

 Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach 📚 BOOK REVIEW

I read a Kindle edition of Penpal.

Dathan Auerbach

Genre: Horror

Publisher: 1000vultures

Originally published: June, 2012

Pages: 252 (paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:

In an attempt to make sense of his own mysterious and unsettling childhood memories, a man begins to reconstruct his past. As the games and adventures of his youth become engulfed by a larger story, he finds that it forms a tapestry of unbelievable horror that he never could have expected. Each chapter completes a different piece of the puzzle for both you and the narrator, and by the end of it all, you will wish that you could forget what he never knew. 

My thoughts:

Penpal is a book that I’ve seen pop up from time to time as a recommended horror novel, and I downloaded it to my kindle years ago, and then I kind of forgot about it. Then when I was traveling to Bucharest, I packed my Kindle with me, and I was scrolling through my library. There it was, and I was intrigued once again.

We meet our protagonist (who remains nameless throughout the book) when he’s grown up and is looking back on certain mysterious and creepy events that happened to him, his family and friends while growing up.

Every chapter of this book really does feel like a puzzle piece that slowly but surely makes a complete and horrific picture.

We get the sense of the protagonist being stalked very early on in the book, but it’s not until the final pieces of the puzzle is put into place that the reader is actually able to paint the whole picture, and understand just how creepy and sad this story actually is.

I found Penpal to be horror perfection for my taste, and I really liked the fact that the protagonist remains unnamed throughout the whole story. It kind of adds to the mystery of it all.

The voice of the character portraits the mind of a young boy as well as an adult man looking back on his life. It’s an interesting concept to look at events like the ones in this story through the eyes of a child. One that the world has yet to be tainted by all the evil that is happening in the world.

Auerbach has built up a great story with a good pace that instantly grabbed a hold of me as a reader and took me on a journey of stalker creepiness where I thought I had an idea of what was going on, but it was hard to know for sure.

It’s hard to say much more about this story without spoiling it, so I won’t.

I loved this story, and I highly recommend it to the horror lovers out there who haven’t read it yet!

 Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛