September Book Competition - Historical Fiction

September marks the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn. Since Halloween is in October, I challenged my friends to get me into a spooky mood with a historical fiction novel (with the caveat that it was spooky).

The Ground Rules

To help keep things mostly apples-to-apples, I selected a theme each month. Then, Leslie and Noah each submit a book to me for reading. Neither knows what the other shared with me. Then, over the course of a month, I read the books and choose a winner for the best book that month.

August 2022: Mystery/Thriller

Leslie submitted Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. Noah submitted Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il by Michael Malice as his selection.

Dear Reader by Michael Malice

Dear Reader was not what I expected. I thought it would be irreverent, even a bit cheeky, as it’s a fictitious “biography” of Kim Jung Il of North Korea. There were certainly moments of laughter, but by all accounts, it’s disturbing. Dear Reader shares an “us vs. them” propaganda mentality that appears to be pervasive under Kim’s dictatorship. The most disturbing part of this book is how easily I can see something similar coming from certain far-right Republicans in the future.

4/5 Stars

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

Leslie told me in advance that the basis of Penpal started as a Reddit thread and, due to popularity, eventually made it into novel form. I didn’t expect the world’s greatest writing from Penpal, and I didn’t get it. That’s okay. The story started strong and is quite spooky/disturbing. It fell off in the second half of the book for me. I didn’t have an issue with the timeline jumps, but I did struggle to follow the jumps throughout the book and piece together how things fit. I’m a natural puzzle-solver, and this puzzle missed some pieces for me.

3/5 Stars

Two Will Enter, One Will Win

I classify both of these books as disturbing and spooky in their own way. There were both likes and dislikes in both of these novels, but for September, there was a clear winner - Noah!

Here’s a recap of point totals:

January: Noah | February: Tie | March: Leslie

April: Leslie | May: Leslie | June: Noah

July: Noah | August: Leslie | September: Noah

All tied up! Noah and Leslie are both at five points. We are going into the last three months of 2022 and I can’t wait to see how this will play out. October’s book selection is Sci-Fi!