"How far can you go into the woods?"
The horror-thriller novel began as a single-part story posted on a popular internet forum. The captivating story, told from a first-person perspective, starts off as an innocent and simple recollection of an unexplained event in the author’s childhood. As the author recalls more anomalies that occurred in his childhood, the scattered events starts to piece together a chilling plot about obsession.
The theme of childlike innocence recurs in the book - a child letting go of a balloon with a letter attached, as part of a school project, leads to something unimaginable; a childish, adventurous exploration of a house becomes a revelation to something sinister. These are occurrences in the book that start off as actions anyone could have done in their childhood that spiralled out of control. Every single event recounted takes place in harmless locations such as the woods behind the author’s house or the movie theatre. The story seems real to the reader. As an unsuspecting child, the author had disregarded the events as insignificant in his childhood, even though he did felt something amiss. It is in the nature of a child, to not linger over strange happenings and brush them away, even though he can feel something amiss.
The narrative connects with the reader almost instantaneously, due to the fact that the author’s early recollections show that he knows as little as the readers about what is happening behind all the events. There is only an understanding of the ending when the author pieces together all the events. The suspense is built up constantly through various means of storytelling, from simple dialogue exchanges with the author’s mother to ordinary objects such as a stack of polaroids. The author’s perceived cluelessness adds depth to the story and again, connects with the reader, even more. The reader discovers more to the underlying plot just as the author is doing so too.
Penpal’s greatest quality is that it really is just a string of odd events occurring in ordinary settings that turns out to be far worse. When everything gradually falls into place, the plot is revealed and it is in no way predictable through the initial events. Penpal is a book absolutely worth the time to read, as it makes readers paranoid and uneasy. In the end, they doubt their own experiences and ask if everything is really what it is like on the surface.
Call Number: AUE
This book is part of the Task of the Month. Click for more details.
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