Penpal

Was the narrator’s mother justified in her decision to withhold the truth from her son and Josh’s family in order to preserve a sense of normalcy? Defend your answer by discussing the story from her perspective, using textual evidence.

How does Dathan Auerbach use ambiguity to heighten the terror surrounding the pen pal? Does it make the novel better to never really know who the pen pal is or what he wanted with the narrator? Why or why not?

Discuss the use of setting to heighten the novel’s mood and themes. How does Auerbach use the specificity of the town’s history and development to build readers’ awareness of his overall thesis? Include textual evidence.

Evaluate Auerbach’s characterization of Josh. How much do you know about Josh apart from his relationship to the narrator? How does the development of his character impact your emotional reaction to his fate at the novel’s end?

Compare how Auerbach depicts the perspective of children to other horror novelists who have used children’s perspectives, like Stephen King or Stephen Graham Jones. What are some of the stylistic techniques Auerbach uses to convince readers of this perspective choice? Do you believe his approach to the perspective he presents? Why or why not?

How might the novel serve as social critique on the moral integrity of small cities and towns throughout the rural US? Does this critique continue to function when viewed through the lens of social class, or could it be read as being inherently classist? Defend your answer.

How does this novel exemplify “creepypasta” literature? Does it still qualify as creepypasta as a novel rather than in digital form? Use your answer to reflect on the roles of textual form and material experience in the wider experience of literature.

Discuss the ways that the novel depicts grief. What does it say about the relationship between memory and grief? How might the novel serve as an ode to Josh, apart from an investigation into the narrator’s traumatic past?