Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

61 reviews

marslotus's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Dathan Auerbach has such a masterful handle on suspense and mystery, I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of this read. I remember first listening to this years ago, back when it was a creepypasta YouTubers made into online audioreads and I'm so happy to return to it as an adult knowing it's just as creepy and engaging as I found it was when I was a kid. Even in moments where you can guess ahead of the narration what the horrifying reveal of each chapter will be, it still feels so earned and equally as terrifying. My only complaint is that it's not longer!

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lotstannard's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0


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eltcic's review

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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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hailey_horror's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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pkatrinaanne's review against another edition

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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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courtneymiranda's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.25


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ladylizabee's review

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dark mysterious 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

3.0

Easy to read but not as spooky as I wished. It does read as a long Reddit post so be aware of that. 

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nagisasigh's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

this book broke my heart, but it was also gripping and well written.

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kaylasbewks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Wow. The first half of this book was phenomenal from the writing to the characters. I really appreciated the fact that the MC's mother made reasonable & safe choices rather than the idiotic ones you usually see in horror media -  I actually liked the way her character was written the whole way through. The atmosphere and writing at the beginning was amazing, I was genuinely creeped out for the first 50-75% of the book but unfortunately towards the end,
(as the MC grew up)
, it began to fall flat for me.

I do believe that the ending itself was well done, it was consistent and logical.. and I was extremely close to crying, but the build up fell too far into the typical horror cliches for me. Overall, I'm glad I read this book because of the first 50-75%... wow.

Rated using the CAWPILE system. :3

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ksuazo94's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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