Phrogger – Candace Nola

2 stars

Phrogger has an interesting concept: A man, broken by trauma, makes his victims play a game. They win, and he walks away. They lose, and the player and their family pay with their lives.

It took me a lot longer to read this than I was anticipating since it’s so short. I just couldn’t get into it beyond thinking the plot itself was unique. I didn’t connect with the characters to care much about them one way or another, and I kind of lost my concept for how much time was passing over the course of the story.

Parts of the writing got extremely repetitive. The killer was a very smelly individual, VERY smelly. A point which is reiterated over and over and over again. Eventually, it became more of a game to see how long it took to mention the smell again rather than genuine interest in the story itself.

Phrogger is a unique take on a serial killer story; it just didn’t keep me invested like I wanted it to.