3.75 stars! This was a really interesting take on alien body horror and existentialism! I had no idea what to expect and found myself (surprisingly) pleasantly swept along. I found it to be well paced and imagining a lot of aspects trippy but also somewhat cinematic. It was just a shame it wasn't longer because I wanted to know a lot more about the Mirror People lore and frankly even Paul's background before the story starts and his adjustment to his new form and really get into the depth of how he came to hate himself/his species so much.

⭐ ARC REVIEW
Title: My Name Isn't Paul
Author: Drew Huff
Release Date: November 18th, 2025
Publisher: Self-Published
Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Cosmic Horror

Thank you NetGalley and Drew Huff for an advanced read copy of this book!

Summary: “Not Paul” has been Paul for 7 years now. After finding a corpse in the woods to mimic, he sets off in a world of humans to mirror. His true form is more like an eldritch bug, wearing the skin of a human to avoid suspicion, known as Mirror People. Like many species, the reason for existence is to procreate, but unfortunately, Mirror People have a short life cycle. After their "heat" and procreation, their cycle ends, and Paul is happy and comfortable in his life. He is in a race against the clock to still enjoy his life as Paul "Not Paul".

✅ What I Loved:
-The descriptions of these alien like bugs mimicking humans was so fun and fascinating. It made my imagination run wild and it was really a fun time!
-The communication system between Mirror People and how they could force feelings and emotions onto others was intriguing, but sometimes, I was getting lost in the sauce. It could be a little bit hard to follow, but nonetheless a cool concept.
-The originality of this read was amazing. I have read nothing like this before and makes me think I should explore more of the cosmic horror subgenre!

I truly said "wtf" so many times, but in the best way. It was gory, bloody, spine tingling and exciting. To imagine Mirror People walking among us and for us to not know, was super creepy and well played! A fun quick novella for those who love a little creepy in their reading!

This book was SO weird — and not in the way I usually love. Think Black Mirror meets a body horror film… but with bugs. Yes, bugs. It’s that peculiar.

We follow Paul, a "mirror person bug" (whatever that means), who’s desperate to ignore his bug instincts but he’s about to hit his reproduction phase. The concept was definitely unique, but I spent most of the time confused. The bug names all sounded too similar, which made it hard to keep track of who was who, and the writing style took me a long time to adjust to — if I ever really did.

Usually I thrive on unhinged, experimental books. But this one lost me somewhere in the swarm. I'm sure this will be the perfect kind of strange for someone, but I just couldn’t connect with it.

Hmmmmm. This was interesting and unique, for sure. Very gory and overwritten in some parts, and under explained in others. I enjoyed the idea of it, if that makes sense. It was a bold plot and story, I wish the execution was better.

“I have a living thing inside me that aches to be born.”

(I’d like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for accepting my request to read this arc in exchange for an honest review ♡)

So, this was insane… When I saw this book’s interesting, quirky summary on Netgalley, I was instantly intrigued and itching to have the chance to read it. However, when it says that it’s “like nothing you’ve ever read before”, it really, truly means it.

This is the kind of novella that makes you sit down and wonder just what in the world inspired its creation because even though I read through to the end, I still have no idea where one would even begin to write this kind of fever-dream experience. It’s unbelievably trippy and, yeah, a little gross at times, but it’s also refreshing and completely unique in its originality and style.

Despite my love for its weirdness and the uncomfortable horror that repeatedly makes an appearance, the spiralling of Paul was definitely what caught my attention throughout. Seeing him struggle and completely fall to his instincts, just to regain his mask of humanity, all just to lose it again, was very, very interesting to read. Huff’s writing style also added to this unnerving struggle of instinct vs sense by adding an element of depth and texture to Paul’s growing, impending insanity and his growing submission to his baser instincts. All of this, consequently, really added to the overall horror that Paul was facing and just added enough to really capture my attention.

Personally, I’ve always found the premise of “human mimics/mimicry” a really fascinating concept to explore, so to see it be utilised for this kind of wacky, dark idea was extremely interesting to read and think about. Ultimately, it was a fun read that had me pausing consistently throughout, mostly just so I could take in the absolute craziness of this novel and the direction it was heading towards.

I do have to say, though, that there were a few times when I felt a little lost and confused. I think that the execution, specifically towards the latter half of the novella, fell a little short of what the concept/idea needed, leading it to not make much of an ultimate impact on me. So while not perfect, it’s definitely a fun, short, little read that’s ideal for people who are interested in bizarre existential dread mixed with eldritch horror, and bug-human parenting dilemmas!

This book had such an interesting premise but wasn't greatly executed. If this had been a full length novel with everything fleshed out, this would've been an amazing book. As is, it was so chaotic that I couldn't follow along or keep interest.

“My name isn’t Paul” is a horror sci-fi novella who tackles subjects as such as self-acceptance and philosophical views on love and what embracing oneself means.
I really liked the characters and where the story was going. I would have liked to read more about the concept of love, “Paul” is approaching some philosophical point that i thought very interesting and on-point with the novella’s subject. the beginning was a bit confusing but still addictive, i wanted to know what would happen to “Paul” and the others. I loved the ending of the novella and I wouldn’t be opposed to read more about them or this world!

this was fun and visceral and silly, but struggled with some pacing issues. sometimes i wasn't sure how much time had passed, and i ended up feeling a little displaced in the story. but i did really love the kill scenes in this and the gory details of the mirror people's appearances!

It wasn't my cup of tea, the writing style felt chaotic. Producing more angst than anything else. It is a unique and interesting story.

i’ve never heard of this author before but i thought i’d give this book a try since it sounded fascinating. unfortunately, it wasn’t for me.

the characters were a bit obnoxious to me and it was hard for me to personally care about them. the way they communicated with each other just didn’t work for me.
the various names that were so similar to each other also confused me a lot.

the writing style wasn’t the best in my opinion. the more i read the more it was becoming disengaging. it didn’t serve me anything, didn’t make me feel any type of way if that makes sense. it didn’t make me care for the story.

this book did start out weird and fascinating at first before it got monotonic and the way it all worked reminded me of a book called someone you can build a nest in by john wiswell. i don’t think i’ve ever read a book about mimicking people though.
it also reminded me of tokyo ghoul anime in the way that the character couldn’t eat human food without it being disgusting.
however, this book was basically all about mating lmao. it was getting boring and i wasn’t really enjoying this “fucking” as they put it and making babies.

unfortunately i can’t recommend this one. the cover is really pretty though!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me an eArc in exchange for my honest thoughts. My name isn't paul follows Paul or not Paul, a mirror person trying to ingrain himself in his human identity and the charade he keeps up while denying his true being. This novella reads like a bloody/filamenty? fever dream, but i was here for it. I can't say that I knew what was going on some of the time but it was a good time none the less. At the heart of it, it was kind of a sad story trying to fight what you are and avoid generational trauma.

2.5 ⭐️ I was kindly provided a copy of this eARC by Netgalley.

My Name Isn't Paul follows (not) Paul as he navigates his existence as a mirror-person in the human world. He's been successfully living among humans, mimicking their behaviour, for the past seven years. That is, until his instincts started taking over..

Unfortunately, this is a case of a wonderful cover but a slightly disappointing content. I wanted to love this so bad, the premise is so unique and interesting, but I just found myself confused and wishing to get to the end. On one hand, I'm glad it was quite a short story, but on the other, I think it would benefit from expanding into a novel and exploring the concepts more. The idea has so much potential! It felt a little rushed, however, and I would love to read and learn a bit more about some of the author's ideas. I wanted to learn so much more about the mirror-people! I didn't really enjoy the writing style, but that's on me. I did, however, enjoy the description of Paul's mental deterioration. His inner fight between wanting to be human and his instincts was portrayed quite well.

In conclusion, I love the idea, it has so much potential to be great, but there is a lot of room for improvement with the execution.

Fun, sci fi horror type novella.

The mirror people are wasp type creatures from another dimension and are imaginiatively written. Its a much a horror for them to be in the wrong dimension as it is for humanity that they exist.

I enjoyed it on the whole, read it in just over an hour because its very short. This was dissapointing, which in a weird way the author should take as a compliment as I'd have happily read a 300 or 400 page book on this concept with more fleshing out on the lives of Paul and his fellow mirror people.

Wow...I recently read Bunny and if I thought that was weird, this is weird on a whole another level! My Name Isn't Paul is a cosmic horror novella about a guy named Paul, whose name isn't actually Paul, and happens to be an eldritch insect-like abomination that can use a dead human body as a skinsuit and wander around humanity without being seen. On top of that, Paul hates his existence and is constantly pretending to be human, even with his own kind. However, these creatures, also called Mirror People, go in to heat every 7 to 10 years. And while they are in heat, they cannot feel human empathy and will do anything to keep their babies. So when Paul goes into heat unexpectedly, he has no choice but to think about the way he sees himself and whether or not he wants to procreate for his species.

This is such an intriguing concept. To have an eldritch being have such hate for themselves and then have to look at that hate and realize that it doesn't have to be that way. It was so different to read and sort of analyze, like a short character study. Then you also get to see other characters that are of the same species realize that negative emotions aren't necessarily bad and that they're actually valid. Because these creatures are able to feel emotions and transfer emotions to each other, seeing them numb out negative emotions or push them away at first then later see the validation of them is so interesting! Truly, the Mirror People are so cool to follow. And despite it being a novella, I feel like it touched all its bases. It didn't go on for too long yet it was able to shape the characters well.

It's not a perfect five-star for me though. I thought the beginning had a bit of a rocky start. The text felt a little blocky and the dialogue was incongruent. It didn't feel like a natural conversation between characters and I don't know if that was on purpose or not. But when you get halfway through part one, the story goes from 1 to 100 real fast.

I would definitely encourage people to read the trigger warnings because even I, one who doesn't usually get triggered, did get triggered at some point. It's my own fault. There is on page animal death and I did not realize how that would affect me. I still really enjoyed this. I probably enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. My Name Isn't Paul comes out November 18th 2025.

Behind the gruesome, bizarre things happening here, we can find many metaphors about the meaning of life and the self-hatred people carry for just being, but my mind was too focused on imagining gigantic ants mimicking human bodies to give them the proper attention.

Thanks to Drew Huff and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.



p.s.: this cover is gorgeous!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this book! I think that this was such an interesting concept for a book. Once I got about 3/4 of the way through, I lost interest. Very cool concept though. It just ended up not being my cup of tea.

Wild!

If there was an option for a one-word review, that would be mine. I reformated my whole Kobo to read this (thanks to Netgalley's switch from ACSM files) and while I don't think it was quite worth all that hassle, this was still a strange delight to read. If you're into cosmic horror, surrealist narratives, or eccentric plotlines, this novella is for you. Once it's accurately added to Fable, I will be shelving it on my "this book FUNKY" list.

A big thank you to Drew Huff and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review 💚

This one was weird AF and I had a lot of fun with it. It's not the scary kind of horror, it's the unsettling kind of horror and had the added bonus of being existential at the same time.

If you enjoy weird little novellas and following along a mirror person on a specific journey that may or may not contain human guts, this one's for you 💚

Paul isn't human; he is an alienoid wasp creature that goes rogue when he comes into heat.

It's definitely a weird book, if that is something that's up your alley. It has an interesting premise and effectively conveys everything it needs to in the 100 pages.

It's a fun read if you want to switch off. I'll probably go and read the author's other works as I did enjoy this overall. It's not a life-changing read but it sits at roughly around 3/5.

Paul isn’t really Paul, he’s a wasp like “filament” creature who’s wearing Paul’s skin. I was really interested in the premise of this book but felt confused throughout most of the book. I’m not sure if that was the point or if that’s just how it ended up working out. Unfortunately this fell a little flat for me