The book has a premise very reminiscent of mid-2000s creepypastas, and so I was anticipating more of the horror elements to shine through. However, the horror isn’t explored as much as it could, and the characters aren’t fleshed out in such a way that a lack of horror wouldn’t be a big deal.

I do really love the fake internet post tie-ins, those made the world feel very real and still grounded, but the explanations for what the horror is/how it works wasn’t executed all that well.

After listening to the acknowledgments, I feel the story would’ve benefited more if the parallels to religious abuse were tied closer to the story itself. I remember several obscure Christian children’s programming from decades ago, and it would’ve been cool to have both a horror story and somewhat of a real world reflection meshed together like that. Having the children’s show instead be secular in the story made it a little tougher to see all the elements fitting together.

Not a bad story, but also not entirely fulfilling. I do like that there’s somewhat of a bittersweet ending.