A review by therivingtonreader
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

4.0

I am not sure I would agree with this being considered "extreme horror," as I've seen it described in many places, but I did really enjoy this and there were a good amount of suspenseful and creepy scenes.

Penpal took a little bit of time on my part to sit and think after finishing it to really understand the gravity of what happened.

Reading it at face value is one thing, but when you really sit and think about how the narrator must have felt after learning that it should have been him and not Josh.. uuuggghh. Thinking about how Josh was kidnapped and must have been in the car, dressed to look like the narrator, when Veronica was hit.. it's both heartbreaking and scary. 

Some of the story felt a little long-winded with the details, but when it was revealed that Veronica had actually died and the narrator was texting with the stalker, I got full-body goosebumps 😳