Penpal

Didn't like this one at all. I'm not even sure what genre it is, thriller? Maybe kinda? It's just a sad story with no real takeaway.

This book did have some good spooky bits, which is what I was looking for, but overall I'm left feeling more bummed out than anything. Not because of the quality of the book but because of the content; I'm not a big fan of any true crime-type of media, and nothing that happened in this story was really that far outside of being possible. Nothing outright supernatural or unexplainable, just an unsettling stalking situation. Which I understand can be scary in its own way, but the ending in particular felt like something that the author might've taken inspiration from a real-life incident, which is kind of a downer to think about.

Also not really a fan of child protagonists in any media, even if adults are the target audience. This story is presented as a grown man reminiscing on strange memories of his childhood and piecing them together with new context he receives as an adult, but the majority of the prose centers around his experiences in kindergarten and first grade. Personally I find the "neighborhood kids confront something scary" angle as tiring, and always have.

The bones of this story were good, but honestly I wish the whole thing would've been told sequentially from the mom's perspective instead of her son's; her involvement and choices were arguably more interesting and important to what happened.