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.

Horror novella about an insect like creature living as a human named Paul. This book was gory, but also humorous and surprisingly heart--warming. Uxon is the creature that is currently occupying the Paul suit. Paul was a middle aged vacuum salesman who wasn't a very good person when he was in a car accident and found by Uxon who needed a human to occupy. Paul has a wife named Melanie who knows who/what he really is and doesn't mind as long as she doesn't have to think about it too much. The story begins when Uxon is attending a family reunion of the group of larvae he was born with and he finds out information about going into heat which will make more of these insect-like babies. Uxon has a lot of self loathing and doesn't want to reproduce. Reproducing also means killing the host which doesn't sit well with this character. While he is not human, issues of low self-esteem and not feeling you belong in the world are very human emotions.

As the story progresses, Uxon does in fact go into heat and it causes him to act in rash ways as he travels the country, selling vacuums and attempting to have insect sex without reproducing. I found the story less interesting as it went on because it became repetitious and more about mating than Uxon/Paul trying to find his way in the world. There wasn't a lot of world building but I enjoyed this as a novella/short story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

DNF'd at 54%
Yeah, no, this was my own fault. Although I'm pretty sure many people would enjoy it, I'm not one of them.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

My Name Isn’t Paul has a fascinating premise—a shape-shifting alien called a Mirror Person takes the identity of a dead salesman and tries to live as human. The story follows “Paul” as he begins to lose control during his species’ breeding season and goes on a chaotic road trip across the country, confronting his true nature and something even more monstrous than himself.

There’s no doubt the book is original. It blends cosmic horror with themes of identity, grief, and alienation in a way that’s ambitious and strange. The writing has some powerful moments, especially when Paul wrestles with emotions he doesn’t fully understand.

That said, I found the story hard to connect with. The plot often felt meandering, and Paul’s emotional turmoil, while central to the book, became repetitive. The pacing dragged in places, and the horror elements didn’t always land—they were more unsettling than scary or impactful.

Overall, My Name Isn’t Paul is unique and thought-provoking, but for me, it didn’t fully come together. I appreciated the ideas more than the execution.

I enjoyed the concept of this story a lot. It's an easy, fast read and the very beginning of the book hooked me in. The characters, or "mirror people" were my favorite part, and probably the strongest part of this book. I thought Paul was pretty funny a few times, which I do love to see in horror books when it works. It felt almost campy but managed to keep the horror elements alive. For me, this works perfectly as a novella but even so, I do wish we could have learned more about these characters.

As for weak points, it did feel repetitive in some spots. Mostly the beginning. I felt like I was being told the same things about the "mirror people" over and over. It got rather annoying but it was manageable! I did also get a bit confused at some points in the story on what exactly was happening but I'm assuming it may have also been intentional. Again, it was pretty manageable.

Overall, I enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s a quick read and keeps you entertained. At some points I found the dialogue a bit difficult to follow, and I had to focus on figuring out who was talking, but that’s maybe just because I’m not used to this writing style. I would definitely read something else by Drew in the future.

This was pretty disappointing and I had to hold off on reviewing it for a bit because I'm not really sure how to go about it. This was like if someone wrote down the entire outline for their novel in a wild frenzy and then handed it to me expecting me to judge it as a final product. I really don't know what I'm looking at here or what I'm supposed to be reviewing.

I absolutely adore weird horror and this started as an easy 4 for me during the first few chapters, then quickly fell apart. I liked the writing on the sentence level, but this was overall kind of just a mess. The way the mirror people were described and the way their abilities/breeding functioned didn't work for me at all and the author seemed to be going out of their way to be intentionally convoluted and nonsensical.

This was a nothingburger about bug people made of filaments who also inhabit dead human-suits having rabid sex in heat and spawning weird brillo-babies. It should not be physically possible for that concept to be a nothingburger.

The concepts presented were theoretically really cool, themes of losing humanity are always interesting to me, but I just could not care about the story, the characters, none of it. While I usually love books that are essentially just a character having a mental breakdown, which this one is, the worldbuilding was too abstract and confusing, and it just got frustrating. I also think this was way too short and the characters too poorly drawn for the author to get away with using so many similar names. I get that it's on purpose, but it made it that much harder to connect with this.

I will say that even though I didn't like this, I did feel compelled to finish it and I didn't hate the writing. I was torn between 1 and 2 stars for that reason, but I just really didn't care for this overall, unfortunately. More of the cute but mildly terrifying brillo-babies and less of everything else, please!

I don’t even know where to start. Alien bugs that can copy humans sounds cool, but somehow this book managed to make it feel… dumb. I could tell it wanted to be deep and thought-provoking, but all I got was confusion and secondhand embarrassment. The metaphor (if there even was one) didn’t land, and by the end I was just wondering what the point was. If you’re into aimless, pseudo-reflective sci-fi that takes itself too seriously, maybe this is for you. But for me? Yeah, no. Pass.

My Name Isn't Paul is a short, sharp punch of weird fiction that has some great questions about identity and loss, wrapped up in a cosmic horror apparation of weirdness that I continue to love since reading The Divine Flesh (LOVE).

The main character, Paul (except, spoiler, he’s very much not Paul), is a sentient colony of interstellar organisms wearing a human identity like a hoodie he found on the floor. He’s been living as a guy named Paul for years, blending into society, doing a pretty decent job at pretending to be normal. But when the real Paul’s past starts catching up, the façade begins to crack — and so does the sense of self he’s built. That’s where things start to get creepy, sad, and strangely relatable.

Despite the cosmic weirdness, the emotional throughline hits hard. You’re watching this being struggle to hold onto a life that maybe was never his to begin with. And somehow, I rooted for him anyway. It must be tough being a bug trying to be a travelling vacuum salesman.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eArc in return for an honest review.

Space bugs' fucking, that would be the short summary.

Years of pretending of being a human changes the brain chemistry of an alien, which leads to an identity crisis when nature calls; shit goes ballistic – would be a bit longer description.

Drew Huff writes something so bizarre, fleshy and un-human I can only respect that. It is not a pleasant read, it's very meta and philosophical, while staying in sci-fi genre despite the body-oriented narration. But simultaneously it is weirdly charismatic. I appreciate experimental approach, and definitely will consider discovering more of Huff's works.

This is a quick and unsettling read about Paul (not Paul) and his siblings who are bugs that mimic people, things get weird (as if they weren’t already) when changes in his body (bodies?) force him to truly look at himself and who he really is.

It could be quite repetitive in parts but I feel that seemed in line with Paul’s spiralling and deterioration. Underneath the body horror and sci fi elements is an exploration of self hatred, family, and empathy vs natural instinct.