I enjoyed this short novelette, but I was left yearning for something a bit longer with a bit more meat to sink my teeth into.

It had a great premise, an interesting main character who struggles with his identity and fights against his very nature. Most importantly, it was good gory fun.

However, it is such a good idea for a story that I feel that the short length did it an injustice - it feels rushed and hurried through when so much more could have been explored.

But if you have an hour or two to kill, there are far worse things to do than read this. It's good fun.

This novella isn't for everyone.

It is very weird. The author builds an understanding of these alien creatures remarkably quickly in the short span of this book. If you're looking for something that doesn't fit into any box very well, don't mind a bit of grotesquery, and your characters viewing humans as food and/or an incubator for alien larvae, this might be a good one for you.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!!

This book was a quick read, but boy it was a rollercoaster! If you are interested in earth invasions, what means to be human, reflections of that means to be you and the importance of a name, than this book is for you!

But please keep in mind that you will find some disgusting descriptions 😂 it really is an horror book.

However there was something that did not work for me, the plot twists were unthinkable and hard to believe, the second part of the book was so different from the first that put me off a little.

Overall I had a good time and it this book will be good for bookclub discussions!

Maybe I missed something, but I don’t exactly know what this story was about. If you have a thing about bugs, this story may not be for you.

I've read some strange stories in my time, and this just moved to the top of that list. I would agree with reviewers that it was weird on so many levels.

All I understood was that it was a story about bugs in different stages of progression (or growth) impersonating humans. Mimic. Absorb. Control. It is what it reads, but the “Why” was missing.

Alien invasions, I understand, because invasions have a purpose. To take over what humans take for granted, nature retaliating against our constant abuse, or to just be rid of humans and use our bodies, which is (kind of) what this is, but there was no reasoning behind it.

Were the mirror people ensuring the survival of their race, yes —but again, for what purpose other than survival?

I didn’t care for this title, and usually I can find some portion that I like, but not in this one. I don’t typically rate this low, but this one just wasn’t for me.

From the first page you are pulled into this raw and complex introduction of Paul. A bug who wears the skin of a dead man (his skin suit) to infiltrate humankind. He isn’t alone in this, he has a variety of siblings who all do the same. And eventually, they will breed their own larvae into the corpse of a human.

I’m already very uncomfortable with insects so this just added to the unsettling feeling this novella gives you.

The plot deals with Paul’s identity crisis as a bug and as a “human”, he’s torn between the two worlds, with a hatred towards what he is, but an inability to fight off his natural urges.

I would’ve read this book in a couple of days if life didn’t get in the way. I enjoyed it a lot, I liked the characters, despite being a novella where you haven’t got the opportunity of backstory, it did still feel like each character had their own distinct personality.

I think my only critique is the abrupt ending, but with hindsight it made sense, I think I was just craving a few more pages.

It's a given to say this one is weird, but man is it weird. It was interesting to be so engrossed in this eldritch-mirror person's head as they grappled with their identity but I'm not even sure I can say if I liked it or not.

Parts of it were written in a really fun, interesting way and other parts were a bit more clunky, I felt a bit taken out of it during parts of the inner thoughts.

While I'm a bit confused about my own feelings here, I think this is a solid eldritch-horror-exploration of the self type story.

Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for the arc! My Name isn’t Paul definitley fits into the category of weird horror, which definitley is up my alley. However, I found myself more often confused than weirded out. I gave this 3/5 stars

My Name Isn’t Paul starts off weird as possible and firing on all cylinders. A short novella about an alien bug man who has taken over the body and life of Paul, a not so good husband and person. Self-hating his kind but also appreciative of the life he has created, My Name Isn’t Paul is an inventive, bizarre, and conflicting tale of self identity. I really enjoyed the strangeness of the first half and the gruesomeness of it all, but unfortunately the ending lost me a bit and didn’t quite land for me. Would love to read more from this author and will have my eye on future releases!

The premise of this novella is original and unsettling: “Mirror Persons” are alien insect-like beings who take human forms and struggle with their cyclical need to reproduce. Uxon, living as Paul, rejects his true nature and tries to cling to a human identity, but inevitably spirals into violence, loss of control, and destructive impulses.

While the concept intrigued me, the execution felt uneven. The transition from Uxon’s desperate attempt to live as human to his uncontrollable heat phase happened too abruptly, leaving little room to truly connect with his struggle or sympathize with his desire for humanity. The characters (both human and Mirror Persons) remained underdeveloped, which made it difficult to feel invested in their choices or emotions.

In the end, the story focused heavily on the reproduction cycle and less on the psychological depth I was hoping for. Personally, it didn’t resonate with me, and I found it hard to care about the characters or their fates.

i expected so much more from this, but unfortunately it didn’t deliver anything.

the whole plot revolves around trying to get the main character to fuck and have babies, cause otherwise he will die. that’s it, that’s the plot. one could argue that there is a romantic subplot to it, but it seemed to come entirely out of nowhere.

the world itself and the Mirror People could have saved the novella, as there is clearly some potential to them, but they are too underdeveloped to carry the story. i couldn’t understand how they actually look like and what they really are. they are described as insects but also looking like a dish scrubber with wings and sometimes they’re hovering above their human form but sometimes it seems like they are inside the form wearing it and i just couldn’t put that all together into one cohesive image. i also could not gather how big they’re actually meant to be as sometimes it seems 4 of them fit into a car, then suddenly they span 30 miles, then one of them fits into a car but not 2.

look, i see the vision, the premise did draw me in, but it was lacking any plot or actual substance unfortunately.

Unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. I think that the writing tried to develop on the style of an author like Douglas Adams, but the attempted witness just came off to me as corny and forced. I did DNF this one at 25%.

Such an interesting and freaky premise that I was immediately interested in reading, and pretty disappointed it didn’t work for me. I’ would definitely be interested in trying other works by this author.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm torn with this one...on the one hand, Drew Huff is clearly a talented and imaginative writer. On the other hand, I don't think this novella captured me in the way that I'd hoped it would.
I guess I was expecting more of a conversation on identity (in the sense of being trans or non-binary and not feeling like your body fits who you are), but the focus felt more on being creeped out by the monsters. Maybe that's a point in and of itself?
I enjoyed my short time with this novella even if I wanted something a little more from it. Perhaps it would have been better suited to a novel length work, but it would have needed more meat on its bones if so. Regardless, I'll be watching out for the name Drew Huff in future!

My Name Isn't Paul is a weird exploration of the horror of not feeling like a person. Drew Huff manages to describe the feeling of wrongness disconnect from others creates and how it creates a hollowness that may eat away at our sanity if not softened or sated through acceptance and understanding of our place in the universe.

I love a novella, especially one with a premise such as this. It wasn't something I had really engaged with before and I loved the original and trippy concept. It was a little bizarre and that really drew me in at first. The writing was pleasant enough and relatively simple to follow with the gorier descriptions done really well.

However, this just wasn't the title for me. The overall execution of the plot and the book just fell flat. I began to get really confused and found myself struggling to follow the plot line and this made for an unenjoyable experience with reading. The last half(ish) of the book was great, but these small moments didn't make up for it.

I'm sure this book is perfect for someone but unfortunately, that wasn't me.

A feaver dream POV of a bug. Who isn't a bug. Because his name is Paul. And he is a human. Definitely.

This was a wild yet intriguing story. The prose reflected the inner monologue of the character. Switching rapidly from thoughts, to scenery, and back to thoughts again. It was as messy as one might expect the thoughts of a cosmic bug horror to be.

I found that the writing style wasn't quite my cup of tea, unfortunately. But I still liked the overall idea and story. It's not everyday that you read a story about a bug that desperately wants to keep his human identity.

There's blood, death, horrors beyond human comprehension, and a heavy struggle about self-acceptance and identity.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review!

Thank you for Netgalley for the e-arc of this book!

I wasn’t sure what I expected when I picked up. Cosmic horror can be hit or miss for me, but this one was a hit and I read it in a single setting.

For me, it was surprisingly ‘wholesome’ as far as cosmic horrors go. You have all these eldritch horrors running around trying to blend in with people because their world was destroyed and for the most part the group we see on the page the most really seem to care about their kids. It scratched some part of my brain that I didn’t know needed scratched.

Can’t wait to read something else by this author!

This book was super weird. As someone who is trying to get more into sci-fi I feel like I am struggling to formulate my thoughts on the book as it isn’t a genre I have read a lot of. I enjoyed the conversation on what it means to be human and what it means to be different. I just feel as though the ending lacked something for me. It felt rushed and I feel like it missed the mark on the message I though the book was going for.

I enjoyed watching Paul (Uxon? haha) grapple with his humanity or lack thereof but just feel as though this story won’t stick with me. Interesting for the time being but nothing life changing. Regardless, I’m happy I got to further explore this genre with lower commitment and would be interested in the authors full length work if they have any as I feel the novella aspect may have been to it’s detriment. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc!

"I pretended to be human for the last seven years and it finally caught up to me."

A cosmic horror novella with Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe. If you have read and liked 'the Divine Flesh', you'd probably be interested and would care to learn more about the Mirror People. We get to see a bug's POV as it experiences existential crisis and mental breakdown while masquerading around as 'Paul'. Gory, gross, horrific, weird yet entertaining. Read this in one sitting.



Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Genuinely beautifully written with lyrical language, which served to heighten the emotions at the core of the story. Frightening, suspenseful and sad. The kind of beautiful horror that I love to get lost it.

I think the idea of this book was super interesting, however, the synopsis had me thinking this would be focused on the horror of everything. However, it was very focused on the horny-ness and mating of the Mirror People. I think this is a book that possibly suffers from being a novella. At times it feels info-dumpy, the events happen very quickly, and at times it feels like this would've been better with a deeper exploration of the Mirror People.

All that being said, I did enjoy the writing style! Sometimes it felt a bit juvenile, but overall I enjoyed it. I thought the gore and horror parts were very well done and I think the lore was very cool. The cover is also gorgeous. While this book wasn't my favorite, I would definitely pick up another book by this author simply because of the creatively.