The Pen Name

by David Jacob Knight

BEN MADE A BAD DEAL

Ben Little is broke, jobless, and failing at his one true passion in life: writing. He can’t even afford medical treatments for his ailing son.

When bestselling novelist Jack Fleischer takes an interest in him as a co-author, Ben thinks he has found his big break. But he quickly learns that working with Fleischer is no dream job. The bestseller is demanding, angry, and cruel.

BEN IS LOSING EVERYTHING

Since signing the contract with Fleischer’s publisher, Ben is being followed by shadowy agents. His wife is accusing him of things he doesn’t remember doing, and the contract is full of bizarre terms. Like dangerous research trips that involve binge drinking, torture, and worse. Writing has become nearly impossible, and if Ben breaches the contract, he’ll lose everything.

But Ben is not about to surrender to Fleischer. He is willing to do anything in his power to save his family, and his life.

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Thriller, Contemporary

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2013

About the author

THE CONSPIRACY
David Jacob Knight has written under many pseudonyms during his writing career, each with their own rich backstory and fake lives. He has endured great hardship with a past publisher, and this experience--along with the difficulties of maintaining multiple personas--has shaped the narrative of his first book, THE PEN NAME. You can interact with DJK on Facebook (facebook.com/DavidJacobKnight) and Twitter (twitter.com/AuthorDJK).

THE TRUTH
Jacob Kier and D.L. Snell are the writing team behind David Jacob Knight. They consider themselves ghostwriters, not because it's an accurate term for what they do, but because it sounds cooler than co-authors. Kier is the founder of Permuted Press, and Snell is a critically acclaimed author from the Pacific Northwest. Learn more at their websites, facebook.com/TheJacobKier and dlsnell.com.

Reviews

[Original Doll (Lea Martinuš) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I signed in for The Pen Name giveaway and I am so glad I won!

This is great supernatural thriller with excellently developed plot and characters, full of twists and turns and a lot of conspiracy going on.
***
“That's how they work, though. They don't try to convince you of anything. They make you doubt what you know. Make you jump to the wrong conclusions yourself.”
***
What intrigued me and made me read "just one more page before I go to sleep" was that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I. THOUGHT. I. FIGURED. IT. OUT. the story unexpectedly changed and all my theories fell into water leaving me without the clue what could happen next (and reading until the sunrise).

Fantastic page turner that will keep you up at night, a must-read for all who like thrillers and mysteries with supernatural elements.

I really can't wait for next announced book, The Phone Company, to be published.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

When will people ever learn it? If a deal seems like it's way too good to be true, that's usually what it is. Stay away from it. When Ben is asked to co-write a book with a famous author, he jumps at the opportunity immediately. Soon, he finds out that wasn't such a good idea.

This was a weird book, but not really in the good way. A lot was going on. The stalking/bullying together with a lot of mysterious (and unfortunately completely unexplained) things and more than a touch of fantasy and horror as well. It takes a wonderful conclusion to fit all these different elements together in the right way, but that's not what happened. The ending let the book down, as it didn't explain most of what happened and only left me with more questions. The last twist on the final page just left me with another sigh.

Ben is also a very annoying character. He felt like the character you love to hate, as he is portrayed as a jerk making fun of literally everyone who wants to help him, although I believe it was probably the intention you felt sorry for him, for all the bad things that are happening. He's not as freaked out as he should be considering what's happening to him and does he call the police at any point? Of course not, and all of that for perhaps 50.000 dollar. I admit, that's a lot of money, but way not enough for the things he's had to endure.

Besides this book broadcasts some of the worst German caricatures I've read in the last years. The whole company doesn't make any sense to me, but I won't disclose too much since I don't want to spoil it.

The writing was okay but the story far too long. Perhaps it was just me, but I didn't like the main character and I thought the story at times was just weird for the weirdness of it since it didn't get explained at the end at all.

I won a copy of The Pen Name in a BookLikes giveaway.

[T.R. Horne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading The Pen Name for the most part. I had a few snags along the way that threw me out of the book or had me rolling my eyes like "Really?!" but I got through it. So here's my opinion on this novel in pro/con form:

PROS - This novel has a lot of action towards the end that will make you flip the pages so fast that you don't realize you've read 50 pages while on lunch break. There are great descriptions throughout the book so it's very easy to visualize what is happening. The ending was a nice twist as well.

CONS - The main character, Ben, is so WEAK. I personally do not like weak, timid main characters because it bores me tremendously. I also do not like when writers try to make characters do something so far-fetched that we as readers would never believe someone would rationalize or do those things. It makes it hard to stay in the story because the "believability" of it diminishes. Also, the plot was interesting but not well explained at the end of the book. I am still unclear how some of the things happened which left me feeling under-whelmed at the end. Also, a strong purpose is always a good reason to the insane and I think the story of "medical bills" was not a strong enough reason to endure some of the things Ben endured (especially when he had a job).

Overall, I enjoyed the book towards the end. The beginning was brutal because I didn't like the main character but when the action started I was feeling good about the book. Towards the end, when things weren't explained, I fell off the bandwagon again.

(Also posted on Raging Book Reviews blog www.ragingbookreviews.wordpress.com)

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

About twice a year I pick up a book that I'm pretty sure I will like, usually one most others seem to like, that in the end I just can't get to the place where I like it. I won this as a Goodreads first reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Perhaps it was just my mood, but unfortunately I just didn't connect with this one. My main issues were general believability, repetitive references (Stephen King, the accent of the GPS narrator, the gloved hand of the agent, etc.), and just an overall lack of the "gripping" drama that other reviewers seem to find within. Just wasn't for me, but obviously your taste may differ.

[Dora · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a staggeringly bizarre book to read, and for once I don't mean that in a good way. If you've ever wanted to read a book whose plot points felt like they were chosen by drawing sci-fi and horror mad libs out of a hat, well, here you go. The problem with writing surreal horror, which this is, is that you have to have your cast react accordingly to it or it loses credibility, and nobody in The Pen Name seems more than mildly surprised by some of the most outlandish and ridiculous twists that come along. Ben himself cools off and accepts an apology (and an accusation that he imagined it all) no less than three times after being hijacked and having his life endangered in the most ridiculous way possible over and over and over. He doesn't call the police. He doesn't tell his wife. He just brushes it off and moves on after getting mildly huffy about it. Hell, he wakes up covered in blood from a monster nosebleed on multiple occasions and isn't even concerned by it until a few hundred pages later.

He doesn't so much as bat an eye or spare a thought for some of the seriously strange stuff that happens in the latter half of the book. One of the first unsettling things to happen is that he walks in on the literary agent assigned to him taunting his crippled young child to tears and taking a photo of it, and just says not to do it again while the agent grins the whole time. I mean, I'm not a parent, but isn't that the point at which you're allowed to kill someone?

And the problem is, for the most part, everything goes unexplained. None of that strange stuff is expanded on or given any sort of reason as to why it might be happen, so it feels like half of the things you see (the pigs, the salt lick, the jars of urine, the cathedral, the voice on the phone, etc etc etc etc) are just shoved in there because, well, they're weird I guess. Some uncertainty and nebulousness is good and even to be expected in a horror novel, but at the end of the book you know little more about the how and the why than you did at the beginning, and considering how heavily laden this book was with over-the-top scenes and supernatural circumstances, that's unforgivable. Especially after the big dun dun DUN moment at the end of the book that shows everything Ben has done is basically for nothing.

But arguably the biggest annoyance I had with this book is that the author is a huge Stephen King fan, and I know this because the name is dropped and his worked referenced over and over and over throughout the book to the point where it becomes annoying. The cop in the novel Ben is writing is named after the cop in Stephen King's The Regulators/Desperation. Ben chooses Thaddeus Beaumont as an alias at one point, and then has a chat with his friend about what a great reference that is. Ben thinks about how much Stephen King writes, compares his process to Stephen King, talks about Stephen King books... heck, he and his friend even use a joke ("M-O-O-N that spells ___" as written in The Stand) that appears in a Stephen King novel repeatedly, and then talk about that for a while. It's okay to be a fan of someone's work. It's not okay to like a writer. But that should not bleed so far into your own work that it reads like something you wrote crouched outside their window.

It doesn't help that the cast is either unlikable or forgettable. Ben himself is, to be frank, a huge jerk who spends a lot of time thinking unpleasant things about the people who help him. He thinks about how he used to like the coffee shop barista, an extremely friendly, warm, and genuine person who remembers his order and gives him free coffees, back in high school, but he "dodged a bullet" because... because she has a bad tan and works in a coffee shop, apparently. Wow, you're a prince, Ben. There's also a scene later in the book where Ben is saved by the people hanging around outside the motel he's hiding out at, and by way of thanks he thinks about how gross and creepy and poor they are. This sort of thing happens a lot, and I was left wondering why, exactly, I was supposed to be rooting for this whiny, spineless, mean-spirited, selfish human being.

The basic narration is decently written, but this book is just too bloated with randomness and doesn't have much (if any) resolution or explanation to really care about. The narrative is barely cohesive, too many plot points are abandoned of half-heartedly brushed off, none of the characters are well developed, and the ending renders all of it moot. It's frustrating because The Pen Name was a good idea, it just tried to juggle too much, and wound up being utterly forgettable as a result. Unless you're Stephen King, in which case you might want to make sure your doors are locked.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen King once wrote that “Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear." In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "Why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end. I am Alan Wake. I am a writer.

This is the opening quote of the Alan Wake video game. The Pen Name shares a great deal in common with said work. Both are acknowledged tributes to Stephen King's writing, both are about writers writing manuscripts for "questionable" publishers, and both involve the writer gradually losing their sanity.

The premise of the novel is Ben Little is a self-published author filled with the sort of dreams and aspirations many writers have when they first start the business. They believe they will be successful and have creative control. What follows is, at first, a wish-fulfillment fantasy of unparalleled unlikelihood. A New York Times bestselling author wants to collaborate with him and gives him an advance of $15,000 for their work together. It's ludicrous but works with the dream logic that follows--chronicling Ben's descent into a horrific writing-themed Wonderland of improbable events.

I won't spoil what happens next but author David Jacob Knight has obviously had bad experiences with publishers in the past. There's enough truth in the text to give the thing a kind of eerie plausibility right until the very end. The fact Ben Little isn't a completely reliable narrator, even to himself, lends the story a believability necessary for good horror.

Horror stories don't have to be realistic but you do have to make sense and this certainly does once you get past the (deliberately) impossible opening offer our hero is made. I cringed and bit my nails more at the realistic abuses Ben Little suffered versus the more surreal ones. Horror fans should note this work is definitely supernatural but relatively light on special effects. It falls squarely into the Magical Realism genre with serious questions as to whether Ben is experiencing anything mystical at all. This helps keep the book grounded and one never knows whether our hero is dealing with the supernatural or a product of the protagonist's overactive imagination.

The confusion between the real and unreal is to be expected in books starring authors but David Jacob Knight nails this mixture. Indeed, the entire book can be as a journey through the penumbra of the imagination and material.

The book is at its best dealing with Ben Little, Jack Fleischer, the Agent, and Burke. Anything which deals with the publishing industry and the writing process is gold. I'm less enamored with the author's depiction of Ben Little's family life. We're meant to sympathize with his wife's concerns with our hero's situation but she instead comes across as shrewish. I will say, however, I loved Ben's son who is just the right mix of adorable and disturbing. You know, as little boys should be. The cast is relatively small and this helps create a claustrophobic sense of our heroes' condition.

The book is slightly flawed. The author's loving nods to Stephen King are a little too blatant and distract from the narrative--reminding us this is a work of fiction. Likewise, the character of Robert Coffey (His name being a Green Mile homage) is a little convenient. Still, I can't say these problems detracted too much from the narrative. I also liked the subtle digs made at Tom Clancy using Robert as a stand-in.

Fans of "The Dark Half", "Bag of Bones", and other writer-hero works by Stephen King will probably enjoy this book more than others. It references the author without being derivative. While I wouldn't put the writing duo at his level, this book was definitely enjoyable and scary. I managed to finish it in an afternoon and think most readers will find it an easy and worthwhile read.

You won't be disappointed.

9/10

[Kathy Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The creative mind is only truly happy when it’s tortured” – so says the enigmatic “agent” in David Jacob Knight’s horror thriller, THE PEN NAME. The plot revolves around aspiring writer Ben Little, who believes luck is finally in his corner when he lands a dream job, co-writing a novel with bestselling horror novelist Jack Fleischer. But from the moment Ben signs the contract (a contract hundreds of pages long that he is prevented from actually reading), his life becomes a nightmare that quickly spirals out of control. Who is Fleischer’s nameless agent, and what is really behind the German publishing company called Das Verlag? And when Ben begins to feel himself unable to distinguish between reality and dreams, is he losing his mind or does his contract with Das Verlag have something to do with it?

THE PEN NAME is a novel in the same vein as Bentley Little’s classics (THE STORE, THE ACADEMY, THE RESORT, etc.) – it’s obvious that Ben Little’s name is a nod to Bentley Little. As in Little’s novels, the horror in THE PEN NAME comes from an unlikely source – in this case, it’s a publishing company. In Little’s THE STORE, a gigantic big box store (think WalMart) moves into town, bringing with it an unexpected horror. Here, Ben Little at first believes that his contract with Das Verlag (and his $15,000 advance) is both a life-saver and a career-maker. He’ll finally be able to pay for his son’s leg surgery (the boy was born with a club foot), and his wife Alice can finally be proud of him for getting one of his books published. But there’s something insidious about Das Verlag (which means “The Publisher” in German). The contract Ben signed seems to have sold his soul to this creepy corporate entity. And when he discovers that Das Verlag is equal parts meat processing plant and book publisher, creepy becomes downright horrific (the description of the pig grinding machine is particularly grotesque, as are the many uses for blood pudding).

As in Bentley Little’s novels, a huge part of THE PEN NAME is satiric as Knight takes jabs at the entire publishing industry (and huge corporations in particular). He’s also having a little fun with the horror genre – when he reveals that Fleischer’s birth name was Stefan Koenig, it’s not hard to see where he’s going (after all, Koenig is one letter a way from the German word for King). To make the levels of satire even more convoluted, David Jacob Knight is really one of many pen names for writers Jacob Kier and D. L. Snell – at least that’s what a blurb at the end of the novel claims. I’m not sure how much of that I can believe, however, especially after finishing this novel. As the team asserts, David Jacob Knight “has endured great hardship with a past publisher, and this experience—along with the difficulties of maintaining multiple personas—has shaped the narrative of” THE PEN NAME. Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, it’s a good story.

Fans of Bentley Little (and I count myself among them) will love this book. It is genuinely terrifying in ways that all of us can identify with. We’ve all dealt with annoyingly frustrating corporations, we’ve all signed contracts we didn’t understand, and we’ve all found ourselves wondering if the things that are happening to us are more dream than reality. What Knight does here is take that to its ultimate and horrifying conclusion – Das Verlag is demonic, Fleischer is insane, and the “agent” is a monster in a three-piece suit. And Ben Little (the “everyman”) is lost in a nightmare from which he may never wake up. This is a solid horror novel with a gripping and powerful ending. Knight is every bit as good as Bentley Little. Read it with the lights on!

[Please note: I was provided a copy of this novel for review; the opinions expressed here are my own.]

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books like this

Like the Phone Company, this was another great read by Mr. Knight. This book also kept me on the edge of my seat. Please write more. Recommended to my fellow book worms.

[R. Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing, unique, tightly plotted supernatural thriller. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

[Adam Light · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had high hopes after finishing this author's other novel THE PHONE COMPANY, and I was not disappointed. This one is even better. Highly recommended.

[Elaine Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character , a writer, had to be the dumbest writer in history. Must read with a very open mind, lots of stretching to be done.

[Matthew Engels · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

Sometimes Kindle unlimited is hit or miss but in this case this is a fantastic suspense/horror novel. Awesome first book.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Little is a struggling author whose writing career is going nowhere. The copies of his first book, which he ordered for the convention he’s attending, didn’t show up. Add on to that the fact that he hasn’t worked a day job since being laid off by the phone company several months back makes for a very depressing situation for him and his family. But Ben’s luck is about to change. A famous author who is also at the show happens by his table and chats with him and later, after Ben returns home with his wife, a publishing agent with an intriguing offer knocks on his door. The famous author from the convention wants to work with Ben on a novel, but to do so he has to sign a very long and complex contract with no time to review it. He’ll get a $5,000 advance and another $10,000 upon completion of the work, but he either agrees immediately or the deal is off. Nervous but knowing that this could be life changing-the debts have piled up and his son needs special care for some physical ailments he has-he signs the contract.
From that point forward, Ben is under the gun to write his chapters after being emailed outlines from the other author. The plan is to finish the book within a month, even though Ben’s first book took him years to complete. It seems a daunting task, but one that could be life changing for him and his family. Part of the contract he signed but didn’t read states that the agent for the other author will be taking him on different research expeditions to give him a better feel for what he is supposed to write about. But these trips entail some rather grim journeys that have Ben wondering what is really going on with his co-author and the strange German publishing company behind the contract he’s signed. There is blood, violence, and blackouts that leave Ben wondering what is happening to him during and after these surreal field trips. At the same time, his mind seems to be unraveling as he digs deeper into the mystery behind his publisher, his co-author, and even some of the other authors who have been ghost writers for the publisher.
The Pen Name could be categorized as a supernatural thriller or a flat out horror, dependent on your perspective. Regardless, it is a taut, mysterious story filled with scenes of slowly mounting dread intermingled with abrupt, jarring, and disturbing action sequences. There are dark, supernatural forces at work but at the same time there is a taste of conspiracy that feels more like big brother than the work of the devil or some other malignant being. Part of what makes what is happening to Ben so disturbing is the fact that while he feels like a puppet on the publisher’s evil strings, their efforts to push him into creating his most compelling writing through their terror tactics does just that. Ben’s life is eroding before his eyes, his mind deteriorating, but he is doing the best writing of his career. And as the noose tightens around his neck, he realizes that he must finish the story he has begun, both the one on the page and the one he is living through, no matter what the consequences.
The Pen Name is an easy to read tale that keeps you intrigued throughout. The story, and Ben’s mind, unravel slowly, and leaves the reader puzzling over what is real and what is imagined. There is plenty to second guess and puzzle over concerning Das Verlag, the publishing house whose main exploit seems to be running livestock slaughter houses…especially the slaughter of pigs. Of course, not all mysteries are revealed, though there are some nice twists in the end, but I guess if I had any sort of complaint it would be to have better understood what Das Verlag was all about…or at least a little bit more. Even so, this is a well spun tale and an enjoyable horror/thriller well worth checking out.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE PEN NAME is an interesting, thrilling and horrifying take on writing with a co-author. Ben Little is a struggling nice-guy author with a loving wife, a beautiful son with a club foot and lousy insurance and no money for corrective surgery. Out of the blue (or is it the black?), an offer arrives for Ben to collaborate with a world famous author on a new thriller. There is $5,000 up front and a promise of another $10,000 at the finish line to do most of the heavy lifting on the new novel by famed author, Jack Fleischer. Despite the fact that a rather strange agent of Fleischer's arrives with an envelope containing $5,000 in cash and a 100 page contract that he insists needs to be signed immediately with no time for review, Ben signs anyway. Things go rapidly from bad to worse to impossible to not-on-this planet. MIddle of the night abductions, grand theft auto, getting ruffied in a strip joint, a murder or two and some epic nosebleeds later, Ben begins to realize that he is in way deeper than he could possibly have imagined was possible.

The writing is crisp and taut, and filled with the stuff of very scary nightmares from which one cannot awake. How is this happening? What is happening? And how can Ben get out of it before losing everything?

**********************POTENTIAL MINI-SPOILER*******************************

I think the author does himself and his readers a disservice by subtitling this "A supernatural thriller". That it is a thriller is obvious. That it will turn out to be supernatural is far less clear until one is 75% or so through the novel. But it is a supernatural thriller, albeit not your average devil or demon infested one. It's more original and less catholic than that.

*********************END SPOILER************************************************

There are a number (a great number) of nods to Stephen King ranging from the name of the co-author (Stefan Keonig) and the name of the protagonist in the novel being written (Collie Entragian - a character in King's "Desperation" and "The Regulators") to several explicit references to King and his works. Perhaps a few too many. This is not Stephen King. But it is well written and tight, and of the sort of fiction that King might have explored if he had not already written a few novels about novelists.

The Pen Name is a very good read.

Recommended.

J.M. Tepper

ps. I'm happy to see that the authors took my advice and removed the "A Supernatural Thriller" subtitle.

[Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pen Name was a book that I was extremely excited to read as it was my first giveaway book that I had won and I had a really nice little chat with the author after winning the contest.

The book opens strongly with a struggling young author getting the chance of a lifetime to co-author a book with an established talent in the field, however, things quickly begin turning sour for Ben Little as the other author's agent begins to strong arm him into doing things he would never otherwise do.

Things quickly spiral out of control for Ben as his health deteriorates and his memory becomes shaky.

Things become pretty fluid for a while as the story could go in so many directions and only locks down what it actually is in the final few chapters.




**SPOILERS BELOW**




After a very sharp and gripping opening, Pen Name begins loose some steam. The plot continue to interest, however, too early I felt my sole question being what the twist in the book would be.

There were so many loose threads begging to be pulled, that would lead the reader on their own connect-the-dots in their head that the possibilities were endless.

The story begins to focus and get back to business when Coffee gets back into the main thread of the book. He made you wish that he was a bigger character in the novel.

However, as the book begins to come to a close, although the writing is more focused, the number of dangling possibilities, unanswered jumps in plot, and disappointing answers left me wishing for more.

I felt that a couple of better transitions and a little more back story and connective tissue to the company and the soul/body jumping could have made for a shocking and extremely fulfilling ending.

As it was, the story was still extremely interesting and well worth the read, but left me wishing for a little more from the final product.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But if life had taught him one thing, it was that you mastered the absurd by laughing in its face. All evil was, inevitably, absurd.”

First Impression: I read Pavlov’s Dogs by D.L. Snell previously, so I was excited to see what this team had to offer in a thriller.

Characters: Distinct and recognizably human, the Littles and DasVerlag employees stand out in a genre of overplayed detectives and spies. Their thoughts and actions are very realistic.

World Building: Scenes of psychosis, or maybe truth? Delve into a world where nothing is as it seems, and keeps you guessing to the very end. Some disturbing slaughterhouse moments, but nothing really explicitly violent happens. Although definitely for adults, I appreciate the lack of sex scenes!

Writing Style: I enjoy stories that make you forget what’s real and what’s imagined - that’s exactly what The Pen Name demonstrates. Intense action scenes get your heart pumping, and the suspense is lip-biting. There’s even a reference to Misery if you can find it.

What I Enjoyed: The relationships between the main character and his family, as well as between him and the agents, are all so wonderfully raw. I was concerned this would turn into a blood bath…no pun intended. However, I didn’t walk away scared – just paranoid! That really is what a good thriller provides: a health sense of paranoia.

Overall Rating: 5 stars for an eerie supernatural tale. Bravo!

For Fans Of: The Bone Collector, Shutter Island, and Stephen King’s Storm of the Century

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn't really sure what a "supernatural thriller" would be like when I started this book...I think part of me ignored the supernatural note and I started reading it as a thriller. The book definitely held my attention, was written well and had good, believable characters. I started to get the supernatural bit when I got further into the book, and I might add I liked it. A unique take on a book genre, but doesn't have anything to do with vampires or werewolves type supernatural. I always enjoy a good thriller, but I liked the craziness of this one. For most of the book I kept thinking is this real, just like the character Ben Little, I started to believe he was imagining it or dreaming up the "research trips" with Fleischer's agent. The book had me questioning myself too. I liked that about it.

It was a bit weird though having the publisher, Das Verlag be a pig slaughterhouse and a publisher out in the middle of nowhere. Kind of odd, but it didn't bother me too much as so much of the book tied together at the end. The one thing I wished had been explained more was the brain damage Ben Little had started to have and that it related to similar damage that Coffey had as well. Didn't quite understand how they literally affected his brain, but maybe that all played into the supernatural theme too.

Overall a great read that I would recommend as well. I enjoyed it and couldn't put it down towards the end. It kept me reading and wondering what was going to happen.

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a serious page-turner. Well, I read it on the Kindle app, so I guess it was a serious touch-and-swipe-to-the-lefter, but that just sounds stupid.

In "The Pen Name," struggling author Ben Little is offered a chance to co-write a novel with a famous bestselling author, Jack Fleischer. This deal comes from a shady agent and a contract hundreds of pages long that Ben is not allowed to read, but signs anyway. Then bad things start happening.

I spent the first quarter of the book thinking. "Okay, so he sold his soul to the devil. That much is pretty clear. If that's the big 'Twilight Zone' twist in 300 pages, I'ma be pissed."

But soon the book turns bizarre, sometimes gruesome, occasionally funny, but always suspenseful. Some chapters had me so wound up that I found myself breaking a sweat reading them. David Jacob Knight* knows how to ratchet up the tension and leave it there.

I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I will say that my early prediction wasn't entirely accurate. At least it was inaccurate enough for me to be surprised and satisfied. Things get seriously weird. In a good way.

I eagerly await Knight's next book! Or as Jack Fleischer would say, "next book!!!!!!!!"

* Not real. Whatever.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

» A copy of this book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review «

Holy crap. That was a really good book. It grabbed me right away with its prologue. And honestly, it did not slow down after that. Crazy crap was happening throughout the whole thing without a break and I couldn't put it down because I just *had* to know what happened next. How it was going to end.

About half way through the book, I got worried. The story was building up so much anxiety and anticipation from me. I couldn't wait to find out how it ended, but was worried I'd be disappointed. I was definitely not. I loved the twists in the end. Especially the very last one!

It was seriously, such a fun read. My only complaints are: 1) the page count seems to be off. It says 400 pages, but I swear it was more than that, and 2) there was just one scene that was too drawn out for me - the cathedral scene, and I found myself skimming it because I wanted to get to the next part of the story.

Other than that, I really loved it ☺

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always a little incredulous when it comes to joint ventures by successful solo authors. I am naturally wondering if their disparate styles will work well together, or if the book will get ridiculous, as is so often the case with works like this.

Thankfully, "The Pen Name," by "David Jacob Knight," is a cohesive, fast-paced, exciting novel that I really enjoyed a lot. I need not go into the plot here, but suffice to say, I enjoyed just how surreal the settings and plot developments became as the story progressed. The character Ben Little is a likable and sympathetic protagonist, and it becomes quite difficult at times to see him go through the hell he does while working under novel-length contract of a mysterious writer who may or may not actually exist.

Lots of twists, lots of turns, and lots of fun. Despite any of my own personal associations to either of the two authors here, I try to read everything as objectively as possible, and I can honestly say that "The Pen Name" is an excellent collaboration. Highly recommended.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

*free ebook copy received from author in exchange for an honest review*

What can I say? The Pen Name blew me away. With all the twists and subtle details the author continued to keep me guessing. I kept going back and forth between thinking it was a Faustian tale and it was a newer version of Identity. The ending certainly pleased me, especially the little twist at the end of the epilogue.

The characters were perfectly developed. Each seemed real to me, even with their stupidity of signing a contract as thick as a novel without actually reading it. I wanted to strangle them just for that, which in hindsight makes me realize how quickly the author got his readers to consider the characters as real people. I could not put the book down.

I would eagerly recommend The Pen Name to any fan of psychological thrillers as well as fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I believe they would love the book.

[Sushma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben was a self published writer who struggled even to pay the bills.He was desperate to find a stable source of income so he would afford treatment for his son and ease the burden from his wife who supported his writing career. That's when a agent of best-seller author Jack Fleischer approached him with a deal of co-writing a book. Though he was excited, was also sceptical as he was not given enough time to read the contract,but decided to accept it any ways due to his desperate situation. As he started writing the book, the best-seller's agent kept arriving unannounced and took him to "research trips" which Ben found unnecessary and dangerous.He finally decided to confront his publisher about the contract he never read but soon realised signing it was a the biggest blunder of his life.
The story is page-turner and thrilling,I thought plot is going to about scam but loved the supernatural element in the story.

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Read in exchange for review.

If I were to summarize The Pen Name, these are the three points I would hit upon: it contains writing about writing (loved it--took screencaps of my favorite lines), fun with contracts (Latin loopholes?) and general WTF-ery (like R.L. Stine/Sara Shepard level spiraling-out-of-control craziness).

Picking up The Pen Name will send you on a ride. I found it to be a fairly interactive experience, involving at least one actual jaw-drop, having to stop myself from yelling at the characters because they were making questionable decisions and some if-I-were-in-their-shoes pondering.

[Anietta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pen Name is one of those novels where a maximum of 5 stars doesn't seem sufficient. Lightning-paced and cleverly-structured, the writing style reels you in and simply doesn't let go. The characters' personalities were memorable and felt so real I easily became invested in their fates. The plot twists were filled to the brim with terrifying suspense, utterly addictive, even on the final page I longed for more.

I was gifted The Pen Name in exchange for an honest review. Thank you again to the author for giving me the opportunity to read this novel.

[T.B. Markinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real rating 3.5 stars

I really enjoyed the first half of this book and for pages and pages I couldn't put it down. But then as I neared the end, the plot became so far-fetched it was hard to believe. Not that I have to believe everything in a story, however a few times I was thinking, "What is even going on?" And I couldn't figure out why the author went down certain paths in the story. Why so over the top? It is imaginative, I give the story that.

I was given a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

[David Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Phone Company I was hooked. After reading The Pen Name I am addicted.

Now I need to read stuff from Jacob Kier and D.L. Snell to see who is responsible for this...probably both of them.

[Kristin Maceroni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Try as I may to get through this poorly written work, I just could not finish it. The pacing is off, the main character is not empathetic, and the dialogue is awkward. I really liked the premise, but the execution is poor. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that it is co-authored. I couldn't tell if the author(s) wanted this to be a version of 'Fight Club' or the next Stephen King novel. Regardless, it fell incredibly short.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the most boring, confusing and unorganized book I have ever tried to read. Just a few issues are; Characters - Ben, was all over the place in the book never got the reason why him. The agent, was he 1, 2 or 3 people? Then the whole pig thing, I just did not get it.The scene transitions were so bad I never knew if it was reality or dream or made up by Ben. I was never so glad to finish a book.

[Kinsey Breland .: avid_midnight_reader :. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was intense, amazing, frustrating, and hard to read at times. On several occasions I had to put the book down, it was getting to aggravating to read. So much emotion and pain was in this book, but that’s what made it so good. This author made you truly feel for the main character and hope that everything would turn out okay for him in the end. This is now one of my favorite books of all time.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book freaked me out. It was creepy and so bizarre. The author keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time, to the point that you question your own reality. I do not ever want to write a book after reading what this guy went through. Excellent book. Do not read this at night or by yourself.