Sorting out the Timeline in Pen Pal | Deep Dive
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2020
- This weeks book is Pen Pal! This deep dive doesn't even touch everything I wish I could talk about, but it truly is the biggest misstep I think, so fixing this would help. But it still is a top ten scary book read of 2020 for sure! Sorting out the timeline in Pen Pal would fix so much, but it's still great.
What's your favorite story that you KNOW still has problems?
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In my opinion, Penpal does a phenomenal job of putting the reader into the perspective of the narrator. Throughout the story the narrator attempts to reconstruct the events of his childhood through his memories. As more time passes he remembers more and more but the memories are fragmented, messy and out of order. By presenting the story in the same order he remembers it, it forces you into his perspective. This not only improves the readers immersion, but also stimulates the reader into making connections in the plot the same way the narrator does with his memories. Alongside this, the "pervasive background dread constantly following the narrator" that the story imparts is the exact flavour of fear the narrator would feel. Penpal puts you into right into the driver's seat and being that immersed in the horror and the fear that it imparts is something I, a long time horror fanatic, crave.
For me, the pacing worked. When I read the story it really made it feel like you were remembering pieces of the past and it never felt fully put together until the end somehow tied it up and it all made sense.
I actually really like the reading style. Really works the story well
How do you only have 300 subscribers? Your presentation, insight, and knowledge on writing skills is incredibly well done.
I just finished Penpal and loved it but the timeline was sooo confusing so this was super helpful thank u!!
agreed!! it jumps around so much, it was really hard for me to follow
While I agree that changing the timeline could make the story even more enjoyable, I think I understand why Auerbach left it the “confusing” way, and the answer he kinda gave us in the first few pages of the book: it’s just the way memories work; you remember the big things first and what led up to it or was related to it plops up in our minds after. And it also fits him describing how a child’s memory of their life works, that it is more singular events that a coherent story - and the main character was a child for the entirety of the story.
But no matter what order you prefer or would prefer, I thing “penpal” is a very intriguing story and Auerbach’s writing style is very mesmerising.
That’s not a good enough excuse. Yes memories appear in weird orders and lead to others but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t sit down and fit them together.
He clearly knew that Balloons happened in kindergarten. He then goes on to contradict that by saying it didn’t in maps. But he knows that it did. He already remembered that it did.
Now if he made clear “I was wrong and it didn’t happen in kindergarten but the year after” that would be different.
Look you can like the story and be critical of the fact that this aspect of it is just bad writing. Even if it was an artist choice that does not protect it from criticism. And let’s be honest many artistic choices are simply not good.
I had this video pop up in recommended when I bought the book 5 days ago. And after finishing it 20 minutes ago I came back to watch it. I’m confused by some of your criticisms of things being left ambiguously in certain chapters, particularly the one with the neighbor, it’s pretty obvious that she was murdered. Even if a body was decaying for weeks, her remains would still be in one piece or at least transported in one piece if she was just old in the house and died naturally.
I do think it’s interesting though that the plot hole of Veronica’s phone randomly being missing is never mentioned considering that the narrator left the phone with her at the hospital.
As far as the timeline, telling the story in a linear format would have not worked for the story at all. The narrator is a childhood trauma survivor. He is piecing together repressed memories.
Your video reached Brazil 🙌🏼 congrats ur internacional now 🎉
i had to do a book report on this book and I didnt finish it so this summery saved me lmaooo nice video 👍
Ayy that's what we like to see 🙏 Glad I could help out
I absolutely agree with the points made about the weird pacing and timeline. I loved this story, but it was just SO hard to follow and felt more like one big annoying riddle than an actual story at times. Maps was really confusing to me, because it really felt like a filler chapter. Footsteps too, even after watching this video, I still have no idea what the purpose of footsteps was. Why does the penpal drag these little kids into the woods and leave them there? How does he do it without injuring them? What possible reason could he have for doing that? It makes zero sense to me and I feel like the story would be fine without that chapter as a whole.
I disagree with maps being filler. For me having the “penpal” pretending to the old ladies husband is horrifying as well as fleshing out the main characters