The book has had moderate success and has even been optioned for a film. Dathan posted a series of stories to “nosleep” that became so popular that he expanded them, eventually self-publishing the stories as Penpal, using his Reddit name, 1000Vultures, as the name of his publishing company. Why Do I Consider This Book Odd: Because it is both excellent and terrible.Īvailability: Published by 1000Vultures, you can get a copy here:Ĭomments: If you are a Redditor and subscribe to “nosleep” then chances are you are already aware of Penpal and Dathan Auerbach. Thomas Parker on My Robert A.Type of Book: Fiction, short story collection, horror.silentdante on Tales From the Magician’s Skull #8 Now Available.John ONeill on Tales From the Magician’s Skull #8 Now Available.HOME Search Search for: Search The Silistra Quartet Get Back Issues of Black Gate Recent Comments You can pick up Penpal in print ($9.99) or as an e-book ($4.99) and learn more about the imprint 1000 Vultures (including how Auerbach came up with the name) at his website. (Seriously, how do you not know how to find somebody’s phone number?) Otherwise, it’s a creepy little novel from a rising talent who hopefully produces many more. Ordinarily, it shouldn’t matter in what specific year a story takes place, but cell phones and the Internet seems to float in and out of existence. The only problem I really had with the story was a sort of floating timeline. To be sure, this is the author’s first novel and there are some learning curve mistakes made in the narrative. And the last story, “Friends,” wraps up the cycle with a couple surprises and a revelation of what truly is the heart of the story. “Screens” is the point when the author lets some of his own influences show. “Maps” is the point when we are shown that the mystery might truly be something unknowable. “Boxes” takes the story out of being strictly psychological horror and into something more physically threatening. “Balloons” is the story that lays out the groundwork for what is to come. The first story, “Footsteps,” evokes the universal fear felt by every child at least once: the fear of being lost. Taken together, the stories come away like snapshots of one great horror, taken from different angles. The book is broken into six parts, each set in a different point in the narrator’s childhood. I just heard about a creepy little book by a new name on the horror scene and thought I’d check it out. I’d never frequented Reddit’s No Sleep page, nor did I catch the Kickstarter campaign when it was going on. Honestly, I picked up all of that after the fact. After a successful Kickstarter campaign (where he made more than ten times his initial goal), he was ready to publish the thing. Eventually, Dathan Auerbach (the author’s “civilian” name) began the process of revising those six little pieces, connecting and expanding them until he had his first novel, Penpal. It began in October 2011, when an anonymous poster on Reddit, going by the username 1000vultures, posted a creepy little short titled simply “Footsteps.” Over the following weeks, the fanbase for 1000vultures swelled as five more stories were posted.
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