My Name Isn’t Paul is a horror tour de force.

Detailing the Mirror People, they are bugs from another dimension that take over dead folks.

This sounds like I shouldn’t be able to have any empathy with them. I’m not a bug, and as far as I know, I’m not dead.

How was I able to empathise with them, their desires, the things they don’t want? I wasn’t expecting it, but it happened, and I felt alongside Axa and Uxon.

Drew Huff has surprised me here, and I’ll look out for more work by them!

What a weird little tale.

I greatly enjoyed the idea of the Mirror People. For being a novella, it was full of warmth, depth and humanity - more humanity than I expected from a bunch of bugs. The ending was satisfying, I liked the pace of the novel. Yes, it is short! It was the perfect book to pick up between some longer books. I really enjoyed Paul and Axa and the dynamic between all the mirror people. The imagery and word usage was great.

Thank you Drew Huff and Netgalley for an ARC of this, all opinions are left honestly.

⭐⭐⭐
💀

I love anything cosmic horror, and "My Name Isn't Paul" definitely scratched that itch for me. It's not perfect, but it's an enjoyable quick read for fans of the genre. It's got unimaginable cosmic beings, pretty gnarly body horror scenes, and a bizarre plot that's just as bizarre as the cosmic being it's describing. The writing style reminds me a lot of Kassandra Khaw's "Hammers On Bone" series, and I actually really liked it. It's written in this kind of jarring way, kind of like it's mimicking the thoughts of a fleeting insect, and I really see this as a strong tool in the narrative. The plot is crazy, and sometimes a little hard to swallow, but that's cosmic horror, and I was willing to ride that rollercoaster. The side characters is what kind of lost me in the novella - they don't really serve too much plot wise but are needed to move it forward. I really wanted to see more dynamic between Paul and his human wife, as I thought that would be a cool narrative to explore, but it's pretty short, so there's a lot of questions at the end of it. Overall, I still really enjoyed this quick, very gross and quirky cosmic horror novella.

Thank you to NetGalley and Drew Huff for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Drew Huff once again makes me have an immense amount of empathy for a cosmic horror that I have no business relating to. The cover is very eye catching and I cant wait to have it as a shelf trophy.

Remember Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka, where a man turns into bug, in this mind-boggling debut by Drew Huff, a bug turns into a man. Perfect for the readers of Parasyte and House of Hollow.
My name isn't Paul is spiral of gore, terrifying self hatred and existential crisis of parasitic bug who wears the skin of a man named Paul. Paul is the name of the man, the protagonist pretends to be, the host to the bug "Uxon". But the heat period is coming and the fake "Paul" needs to find meat parent for his children, a brutal process which the protagonist hates for it's "fight-for-survival" bug world.
I really enjoyed this story, for its plot, for its characters. I liked how the author penned the protagonist and his internal conflict of being a bug and a man, i found myself comparing it to Ken Kaneki from the manga Tokyo Ghoul, especially the part where he found himself unable to be truly a man or bug, he found himself to be imposter to either worlds. The story just spirals out in the middle, you don't really know where its going, but the ending could have been better. I found the writing style captivating and indulging.

This was incredibly weird. Not my thing at all. The writing was also very off-putting. I didn't care about the characters at all. It was very unnecessarily graphic - and graphic stuff doesn't faze me usually.

A short story about parasitic body snatching wasps and one that yearns to be a regular human. “Paul” has become so accustomed to his insect life that he has forsaken everything he once was. However, the wasps undergo a metamorphosis at a certain age, transforming into murderous sex machines to produce more baby body snatchers. Paul must either confront the heat or embrace his true self.

The writing felt somewhat clunky, but it made sense when you consider that you’re reading through the mind and eyes of an insect. It was challenging to visualize certain aspects of the wasps, particularly their filaments and how they fill up a room or even a 20-mile radius.

Despite being labeled as a horror book, it didn’t evoke any genuine fear in me. I found myself wishing it would end because I felt it wasn’t tailored to my preferences. It leaned more towards comedy than true unsettling horror.

The ending left a lot to be desired, but that’s understandable given its brevity. Overall, I don’t believe this story resonated with me, but if you’re a fan of horror comedies, you might enjoy it.

Thank you to Drew Huff & NetGalley for the opportunity to review this.

Identity and loss are two big themes in this short tale of sentient organisms that mimic human life. Paul, but not Paul has been living as a human for about 7 years when things really begin to become unhinged (my favorite). I highly enjoyed this tale of what it means to be and to live. Even though this tale was short, it was poignant.

This one is not for me. I didn't appreciate the humor. It was a little too "weird" for me. I also had a few personal issues with some statements made in the dialog.

for a book that’s 120 pages and it took me a month to finish, it was quite the length to get through. it was very picturesque & lots of images. i tend to like graphic in different context and in this one it didn’t seem in my preference.

Thank you to Netgalley and Drew Huff for allowing me the opportunity to read this incredible and abstract sci-fi novella ARC.

My name isn't Paul is set to be released in November this year and follows Paul- although, he isn't Paul. Not Paul is not human, but a Mirror Person; creatures that mimic, absorb and control corpses, assuming their identity.

Mirror people go through a mating cycle every 7 years, and Not Paul wants to avoid his at all costs. But the longer he puts it off, the more inhuman and dangerous he becomes.

This novella was somewhat unhinged, I loved it. The author has a talent for putting the reader into the mind of a cosmic horror. I ended up buying another novella by them called "Landlocked in Foreign Skin" after getting a chapter of it and seeing Drew's talent is across their writing.

(3.5 ⭐ --> 4 rounded off)

*My Name Isn’t Paul* is one of those stories that sneaks up on you—with equal parts warmth, heartbreak, and a voice that feels both raw and reflective. Drew Huff writes with an honesty that cuts cleanly through the noise, creating a protagonist who doesn’t just ask questions about identity and belonging—but wrestles with them in real time, with all the messiness that implies.

The prose is deceptively simple, carrying deep emotional undercurrents beneath its straightforward surface. There’s a quiet intensity in the way this story unfolds—through carefully placed moments, genuine character interactions, and a narrative that never tries too hard, yet still hits hard.

What stood out most to me was how deeply personal the experience felt—almost like reading someone’s unfiltered journal, but with just the right amount of crafted storytelling. The themes of identity, societal expectation, and personal freedom are handled with grace and complexity.

While I rarely hand out high ratings easily, this one came close to perfect. The only reason for the slight nudge down is purely personal preference—I tend to reserve 5 stars for books that leave me emotionally wrecked or transformed. This one left me contemplative and moved, in the best possible way.

Highly recommended for readers who love character-driven coming-of-age stories, especially those that explore queerness, self-perception, and the tender ache of trying to find your place in a world that rarely fits.

so this was really weird, and i'm not sure if it was weird in a good way or just weird in a weird way. i actually quite liked the themes of identity and humanity it touched upon and i wish we would've gotten more of that. instead the focus was mostly on bug people being horny, which got a bit old at some point. i was also super confused about many things, especially regarding the lore around these alien beings. that being said, this was definitely a unique (and mostly intriguing) reading experience, and i would certainly check out more work from this author!

Great idea, terrible execution
- I never really understood what the 'mirror people' looked like in their true form. They were described as bug-like with wings but also like steel wool brillo pads???? No idea
- the writing was disorganized, lacked depth, and had a bizarre sentence structure that made it hard to follow
- at no point did I feel like the author knew where we were going
- all the climactic scenes lacked the necessary tension that would make them compelling. similar for the more brutal, gore scenes. those were just breezed over in a neglectful way

This is one of the few times I'd say a book would be better as a movie

*3.75 Stars*

This is just some bugs fuckin’ and being fuckin’ weird as Paul (He isn’t paul) would say.

This was strange
Like incredibly
And gross
And disgusting
And yeah
There’s a lot of vivid descriptions of eating humans and raw meat (which isn’t technically canabilism in this story but still feels like it) and it made my stomach quench. Does that mean I didn’t enjoy it?
No.
The first half of this story I was not on board with. It felt dull and really boring for a story about a literal human eating bug monster from another dimension but the second half picked up so much that it made it worth it. This is a very stream of conscious story as the wall between our narrator and his body, Paul begin to crumble.
It’s hard to describe this book without spoilers, as it’s only ~120 pages long, but the gist is that this bug creature took Paul Cattaneo’s body and basically has been living as human for 7 years. This is not an anomaly however, as there is a species of bug creatures like him living in the world. These creatures however go into breeding every seven years and create new eggs/larvae/bug kids?? Our narrator refuses this, as he is Paul, he will not succumb to these urges.
Then he has a mental breakdown
And the story goes on from there.
Overall, this was a really intense read. It was horrific, gory and overall entertaining which I appreciate. The writing style felt a little jarring in the first half but was smoother as the novella went on. Overall I reccomend this book to those who normally enjoy this genre and I think it’s overall well written.

Remember kids,
Its just fuckin’ bugs

This was my first ever #Netgalley ARC, and it was a quick and easy read-- and frankly, hard to put down once you got started on it.

A bunch of bugs who call themselves 'Mirror People' who puppet human bodies meet at the anniversary of the death of the host of their larvae. So many years ago, they devoured a dead man from the inside out, and then flew off into the world, found dead bodies to take over the lives of, and went off to live their lives trying to refrain from feeding on living humanity. However, one of them has a big announcement: he went into heat, and he's got his babies coming out of their pupa state now, not too far away.

One of the bugs has a problem, though. He's got some problems with self-hatred. With anger. With sex. Sex is both procreational and recreational for these creatures -- however, when they go into season, they care only for one thing: fucking. They lose their empathic mirroring and become tiny little sociopaths that want to fuck eat and repeat. They stop caring about whether or not humans suffer and die, and our protagonist, whose name is not Paul, absolutely doesn't want to go into his cycle because he's terrified. His 'sibling' warns him, however, that he'll be due to enter soon -- it's going to be within the next three years...

So of course, that 'heat' arrives very fast and hard. Everything goes wrong very, very quickly. It's empathic mirroring bugs that puppet dead people who go into a feral state to breed. OF course things go wrong very quickly. There is murder, and fear, and something at the heart of it al that isn't Paul, but... something else. It's up to his 'siblings' to try and help him, terrified of what he might set off.

As it stands this was a wild ride through aliens among us-- and aliens that are not human in the slightest unless they're wearing the bodies of our dead. The description of them of flying, waspy brillo pads just one step out of our dimension keeps you very rooted in the fact that these things are not and were never human, and only only empathically mirroring them.

My only major complaints are twofold. The term 'fuckin' bug', which gets used nearly. every. page. I know this is because of the self-hatred some of these little wasps carry, but... it got stale, fast. There needed to be something else. ANYTHING else, that they could slip it. But they didn't. Also, if you pay attention one of the twists is a bit telegraphed, but when I saw it pop back up I was like, "Oh, yeah, [name] and [thing of name], i thought so."

Anyway, My Name Is Not Paul is still solid and very enjoyable read that totally owned my lunch hour, but has some kinks that take it down from 'wow' to 'good and enjoyable.'

The tagline of the book pulled me in immediately so I decided to give this novella a shot. It was SO weird in such a GOOD way.
I really enjoyed the gory scenes and Paul as an MC. His identity crisis was super weird and entertaining. The other POV didn’t work as well for me and I somehow feel this could’ve been made shorter to keep the pace up a bit more.

This was like the written version of a Tubi original movie. Even the writer seemed bored halfway through. It either needed to be a short story or a longer book so I could get attached to the characters. At the end I just felt "meh" about everything.

I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did. It’s billed as a story about feeling stuck but is too short to explore that feeling in any meaningful way. If you’re really into Sci-Fi that might be enough to carry you through this one, but it wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an aARC of this book, I am writing this review of my own choice.

This was way out of my comfort zone when it comes to reading but I could not put it down. I was confused for the majority but the writing pulls you in and refuses to let you leave. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how it affected every individual character. I really don't know how to review this type of story without giving things away but just read it and enjoy the ride.