Book Review: Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Doubleday (August 7, 2018)
Length: 400 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Is there anything more heart-wrenching than a tale about a child gone missing? For protagonist Ben, there is no deeper anguish. Five years ago, his little brother Eric disappeared from a grocery store while Ben was supposed to be taking care of him. A moment of distraction was all it took. One second, the three-year-old was there, and the next, he was gone. Search teams scoured the area and the police also looked into all suspects that could have taken the little boy, but nothing ever came of any of the investigations. Soon, Eric’s photo joined the dozens of other children on the missing persons bulletin board, where their faces gaze back faded and forgotten.
But Ben has never stopped looking. He is now twenty, and the years since Eric’s disappearance have not been kind to him or his family. His stepmother has retreated into herself and his dad’s job is no longer enough to pay the bills. Ben desperately needs work, but in a cruel twist of fate, the only place that would hire him is the very supermarket where Eric went missing. Working the nightshift as a stock person, Ben quickly learns the ropes from his new buddies Marty and Frank, and as hard as it is being back in a place with so many painful memories, for a while there, things didn’t actually seem so bad.
Unfortunately, that calm doesn’t last. After a couple weeks, Ben can’t shake the feeling that something is very wrong with the store, the people there, and the entire town. A disturbing find in the lost-and-found bin suddenly reignites his search for Eric, leading to another flurry of printed flyers and house-to-house calls. There’s no one left that Ben feels he can rely upon or trust—not his parents, not his colleagues, and most definitely not the police detective James Duchaine, the man who was put in charge of Eric’s case.
I was kind of torn on my feels for this book. For days, I wavered between rating it 3 or 4 stars before settling on something in the middle. There were certain things I really liked about it, but there were also areas that I felt were weak or fell short of my expectations.
First, the positives: there were moments in Bad Man that were truly terrifying. You don’t even have to look too far beyond reality to find the horror either; hundreds of kids go missing each year, and I can’t even imagine what an awful, desperate, and helpless ordeal it is for the parents and loved ones. This novel opens on the worst day of Ben’s life—the day he lost his beloved little brother. As a mother of a three-year-old, reading this entire sequence made my skin cold and my stomach feel hollow. Ben’s panic and guilt tore at my heart. His pain and fear became mine, and I felt like crying.
For better or worse though, I didn’t find the rest of the book to be so harrowing or intense, though the story still contained its fair share of emotionally traumatizing moments. In many ways, Bad Man is more mystery than horror. Dathan Auerbach handles suspense well, keeping the reader guessing even when not a lot is happening on the page. Most of his characters are there as suspects, their secrets revealed to us slowly as their backstories are told in dribs and drabs. Ben himself is an enigma that we are warned not to fully trust. Grief touches people in different ways, and the uncertainties surrounding our protagonist’s memories is a source of much tension and conflict.
Unfortunately, this compelling atmosphere was not always present. There were times when the author dropped the ball, particularly in sections where the plot meandered and dragged. Certain threads were also picked up but never carried through and I wasn’t always sure if these were supposed to be red herrings or just Auerbach trying out different twists that he didn’t quite know how to pull off. Because this is his debut novel, I’m sort of leaning towards the latter. There are definitely pacing issues, and I didn’t think the novel as a whole had to be so long. The rambling, convoluted jumble that was the ending probably could have used some polish too, for I got the sense that the author might have forgotten to tie up a few loose ends.
Overall, I liked Bad Man, but as a horror/mystery novel, there were things that could have been done better. Author Dathan Auerbach has already found much success with Penpal, a series of interconnected short stories posted to Reddit, but I think he’s probably discovered that a full-length novel requires a whole different level and process of planning and writing. If this debut is any indication though, I believe he’s on the right track, and I look forward to see what he does next.
The BiblioSanctum 
Sounds like it wasn’t too bad considering it’s a debut. I think suspense can be a hard thing to pull off sometimes too. Great review!
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it really is, and it’s all about getting the pacing just right!
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I have a copy of this so maybe if I just go into it thinking it’s a mystery and not horror, I won’t be disappointed.
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Yeah, if you go in with that expectation, you should have no problems!
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I’m looking forward to this, I’m always interested when a self published author gets picked up by a traditional publisher, so there must be a reason for it!
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Yep, and the way it happened for him is so interesting too!
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A 3 & 1/2 stars rating for a debut novel sounds promising, even though there seem to be a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out – probably with some experience the author will learn where to tighten his narrative and where to clean the… clutter. The premise for this story sounds interesting, in a harrowing way – and I can’t help feeling some deep disquiet looking at that lone shopping cart on the cover….
Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Yeah, I think all that you listed is something that will come with time and more experience. I’m sure Auberbach is on his way to great things!
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Aww right, horror, maybe in October 😉
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More of a mystery than a straight-up chiller, but it’ll work too 🙂
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I’ve been thinking about reading this one, glad to hear it does atmosphere and emotional intensity well … even if it lags at times
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Yes, a shame that it does lag a little at times, but when the story gets on a roll, it gets very good!
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Excellent review (as always)! I know we’ve already talked about our similar feelings for this book, but one thing you said in particular stuck out to me:
“Certain threads were also picked up but never carried through and I wasn’t always sure if these were supposed to be red herrings or just Auerbach trying out different twists that he didn’t quite know how to pull off.”
This is so true! I still am not sure whether or not these were really “intentional”.
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Right?! I kept thinking about those threads for a long time after I finished reading. So many unanswered questions, and plot points that kind of went nowhere.
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Speaking of those open ends, can I ask you, did you feel like the symbol he kept seeing everywhere made sense at the end? I mean, I understand where it originated from, but I still don’t get WHY it kept showing up on things. Like… was the purpose just to creep him out/scare him off?
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Yeah, that question was driving me nuts too. Because I think it was X doing that (X being the person who was responsible for it all, just keeping it vague and spoiler free in case anyone reads the comments!) But for what reason, I don’t know. You’d think X wouldn’t want to put Ben in on their trail, right? So why would X be leaving him clues everywhere? It made no sense, lol. And then there were those CCTV recordings that seemed like they should be a bigger deal, but wasn’t. And that “school” we never go to find out more about. Like, just so many details like that that were built up and then abandoned or never spoken of again!
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Right! Ugh, yes, nodding my head to all of this lol. Like the school – I wanted to see that SO badly! It sounded like such a cool, creepy setting and then… kaput.
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I’m going to be picking this one up – I like he sound of certain aspects but I’ve read another review I think that mentioned the pacing affects the tension. Perhaps it’s a good thing though, maybe you wouldn’t want to read the entire book feeling so wound up – and it’s always good to have the heads up so I can adjust my expectations – more mystery/less horror with a few red herrings.
Lynn 😀
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Awesome! Honestly, despite my criticisms, I enjoyed this book and I think you’ll have a good time with it.
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Aww shucks, it’s a shame to hear this one didn’t fully stick for you. I was reading the synopsis and was already feeling creeped out and emotionally invested, but the meandering pacing and unresolved plot threads will dilute that suspense. Excellent review though!
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Haha, yeah, it’s a shame about some of the pacing. Still, it wasn’t my intention for my criticisms to sound that harsh; I did like the book a lot, but it could have been sooo much better had the story been tightened up a little 😀
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That’s fair! Maybe I’ll check it out when I feel like reading something a bit darker!
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Great review and fair judgements made Mogsy.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
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Thank you and I appreciate your comment! 😀
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I’m not quite sure what to make of this yet!
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Yeah, a lot of reviewers were left on the fence about this one, and now having read it, I can kind of understand why 🙂
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