I was first drawn to this book by the title, and that awesome cover. I'm a sucker for sci-fi horror, and My Name Isn't Paul didn't disappoint. It felt like an LSD-induced fever dream from start to finish. So unique, so clever, and really bloody fun!

this book sounded so good and interesting and unique but it didn’t hold up for me. i struggled throughout and never felt gripped. which is such a shame :(

A novella with alien horror that was the perfect amount to squemish and dark. Our MC was really interesting to follow from the perspective of as they are a non human. This story was really engaging and I liked it till the end. Highly recommend to all horror lovers and sci-fi readers looking for something darker or horror adjacent. Fans of Overgrowth by Mira Grant will also like this one.

My Name Isn’t Paul starts with a promising, eerie concept - a shape-shifting entity masquerading as a traveling salesman, struggling to hold onto a stolen human identity. The premise is undeniably unique, blending cosmic horror with an internal psychological drama. Unfortunately, the execution doesn’t quite live up to the potential.

However, the author does succeed in capturing the alien melancholy of being something monstrous yet yearning to be human. There’s a poetic sadness to Paul’s journey that lingers.

Ultimately, this is a novel with big ideas and a unique voice but one that didn’t fully come together for me in the end.

Paul is having an identity crisis, they are an wasp-like alien inside a dead man's body, taking over Paul's life after an accident. I really enjoyed the brief glimpse of lore behind the alien/mirror people, and their descriptions. I really wish we could delve more into the mirror people's past, but we get a lot from what this novella could afford. I look forward into discovering more of Drew Huff's work based on this first read!

What a fun little sci-fi novella! Definitely a "read in a day" book. What initially drew me to this book, is that the synopsis immediately drew me in, reminding me of a Supernatural/Buffy episode. It seemed silly and it definitely was at times. The fact that he decides to mimic a mangled corpse is hilarious in itself.
However, there are underlying messages that can be found in this pertaining to the meaning of life, self hatred, and the overall notion of holding onto something that was never really yours to begin with.
I personally rate a 3/5, the gore was great/descriptions were good. I did find my mind wandering a little bit through out. I would recommend to others to give it a shot. It was a unique premise and definitely different from what I normally read.

Paul isn't actually Paul. He's a bug named Uxon who's inhabitantìng Paul Cattaneo's former "skin suit." Paul is a self-hating bug. He wants to be human and forget that he's a bug. However, he goes into "heat" and can not fight against his nature.

This novella had an amazing premise, but the actual execution and writing style were not super engaging to me. I liked being inside Paul's head, but I have to admit that things were a bit confusing. I feel like maybe just a bit more time really developing the world building of the bugs may have helped things a bit. Seeing things from Axa's POV did help , but since Paul is going through such an extensital crisis, it was hard to know what was going on in his. The bloody parts of this book were really well done and probably the best part. It also was pretty fast-paced, which was nice. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to Drew Huff for the E-ARC!

3.25!!

I really enjoyed reading the conflict of trying to be someone else, trying to grip onto that humanity but then the horrors that happen when that grip isn't strong enough and slips, I loved it! Rooting for them and hope that they get through it all in the end, especially when it's a horror and you witness them doing things and losing that hope for them but that slither of hope still remains. I did get a little confused at points but the gore was great!!

Really glad to have given this a read and can't wait to read more from Drew!

This was for sure a cosmic horror, but also such a grotesque descriptive story. I felt nauseous A LOT. This story won’t be for everybody. It’s only 70 pages and the author managed to get plenty plot in. I have mixed feelings, I both enjoyed and strugg.

Really takes would you still love me if I was a bug to a whole new level.

Drew Huff’s done it again with another gore filled wild ride into questions about the nature of humanity and nature versus what we want to be. I really enjoyed Paul’s journey from self loathing bug boy to full eldritch horror. My only critique is that I wish it was longer, I could read a whole book about the mirror people and how they interact with the world.

Thanks to Net galley for an arc~

This was certainly a weird one. I was really looking forward to this because it has such an interesting plot but I don’t feel like it really came to fruition - at least not how I wanted it to.
I enjoyed the gore and the campiness and the descriptions of the bugs taking over their humans skins.

One specific part that really bothered me was the talk of a man with Down Syndrome. I felt that was in really poor taste and did not add to the story at all.

I mostly enjoyed the writing style so I will look out for other books from this author, but this one wasn’t it for me.

My Name Isn’t Paul is a disturbing novella that delivers a potent punch for horror enthusiasts. Drew Huff’s strong central concept—an alien entity grappling with identity and inevitability within a human shell—makes it stand out. While its brevity limits depth, it’s a visceral and compelling snapshot of cosmic dread and metaphysical transformation.

If you’re drawn to dark, fast-paced, body-horror tales that probe identity, this is a sharp, smart pick.

I genuinely have no idea what I just read, but I think I liked it? My Name Isn't Paul was maybe one of the strangest books I've ever read.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I have just finished this Novella and I'm scratching my head. It was a bit like a fever dream, I think it was good, I don't think I would re-read it.

The story follows Paul, whose name isn't Paul, that is the name of the human skin he is wearing. His real name is Uxon, and he is a bug. The story follows Uxon and friends/siblings as Uxon comes into heat which happens every 7 to 10 years, where they need to mate and create babies and have no feelings for humans what so ever.

The story reads as psychedelic, jumps around from thought process to experience to another POV.

This was definitely a weird book. it’s a short cosmic horror novella that also somehow reminded me of American Psycho but rather than the main character being vain, he hates himself for being a bug. The first part of the story was very reflective then it went bat sh*t crazy for the second half. I felt uncomfortable at parts, but I think that could’ve been the point.

This was unsettling and weird, but I enjoyed the ride. I kept imagining the Mirror People as silverfish on steroids.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

A visceral, thought-provoking descent into identity and annihilation.

My Name Isn’t Paul by Drew Huff is a sharp, unsettling cosmic horror novella that follows a colony creature—Paul—as they wrestle with the human identity they’ve adopted and the terrifying biological cycle they cannot escape. Blending body horror with existential dread, Huff explores what it means to be an individual when your very nature is collective and your fate is destruction.

The story unfolds in two parts: a tense, introspective first half where Paul flees from others like them, and a brutal, unflinching climax as they spiral toward a violent, inevitable end. Despite its brevity, the worldbuilding is rich with eerie detail, and Huff's writing shines in both the psychological and the grotesque.

Fast-paced, unnerving, and deeply original—this is a bold, unforgettable read that lingers like a shadow.

What a wild ride. This book was weird, and I was here for it. I really enjoyed part one getting to know Paul and his existential dread. He's trying to be more human and hates being a bug. Things really took a turn when he falls into heat and starts becoming the thing he's been dreading.

I got a little lost in the middle, I was very distracted by the visuals of the bugs inside/outside their meat suits and what they look like. But enjoyed the end and the wrap up. Perfect length and would recommend to anyone looking for a wild, weird, out there story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

2.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC.

This one wasn't for me. Had this been a full book and not a novella, I would have DNFd.

I thought it was a great concept and had the bones of a good plot, but even in its novella form it felt way too dragged out. It could have benefited from being edited down to a short story.

Some of the lore around the Mirror People was interesting but ultimately went nowhere. I didn't care for the characters or what was happening to them.

The writing style was something I really didn't enjoy - I feel like there would be much more sophisticated ways to display the frenetic energy of Paul and what was happening. It read like an initial brain dump of words on a page.

There were inconsistencies with plot and character details throughout which were irritating. The POV shift in the middle felt unnecessary, as being taken out of Paul's first-person narrative into a third-person narrative of Axa didn't give any insight into what either character was feeling.

My first ARC, how exciting! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher 😁

I was really excited about this, I liked the overall premise and that it was a novella. I think the whole mirror people concept is cool and the exploration of the self-hatred that the main character faces. Also the descriptions of the aliens and the more gorey moments were really fun. However, I did feel like this book suffered from being a novella. Too much information was given and the pacing was too fast for anything to really have an impact. It also felt like a lot of the same information kept getting stated as a way to move the story forward, but the book is tiny so it's not like any of the information was being forgotten.

I guess Drew Huff has another book with a similar concept of alien taking the form of humans, but I don't think I'll be picking it up.