A review by twistykris
Pen Pal by J.T. Geissinger

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

4.0

Wow, this was NOT what I was expecting at all. I went into this thinking it was just going to be a smutty read with little to no plot (which is what I wanted). But this gave me SO much more. I won't go into details because I think not knowing adds the experience of reading this rollercoaster. Please do read the trigger warnings though and take the author's note seriously.

There are certain aspects that made me take away a star though (and I might change my rating after I've thought about this more):
  1. The FMC Kayla is.. kind of oblivious. And it feels really hammed up at the end of the book
    (she doesn't know who Dante Alighieri is or what Dante's Inferno is and says that because she's never heard of him/ it, it must not be that good . Then makes a dumb joke about how Dr. Suess wrote the greatest verse in history.)
    . It just rubbed me the wrong way how she was written almost as a "dumb blonde" stereotype.
  2. I don't even remember if Kayla was described at all. We get descriptions of Aiden and others, but I could not tell you what she looked like. It felt like these characters were not really fleshed out and knowing what I know now, I wish we got less sex scenes and more character-building and development.
  3. I dislike how paranoid schizophrenia was depicted and demonized. A character commits heinous acts (including physical abuse, causing a miscarriage, and murder) because they were off their meds. It felt fear-mongery, and could have been left out, with that character just being an asshole, no mental illness needed.
  4. And this is just a me-thing, but there is a TON of "primal play" in this book and Kayla is called "bunny", and it's just not my kinda smut, so at times it felt awkward- but again, that's just me!

Positives though, this book genuinely made me sob. It broke my heart, it freaked me out, it made me question EVERYTHING, it made me laugh, and there were genuinely some really sweet moments that got me kicking my feet.
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