A review by eltcic
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

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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