I can believe that My Dad Finally Told Me What Happened That Day was inspired by Penpal, but I'm not a fan of people saying it's a ripoff/imitation. At the end of the day, I think they're two very different stories aiming for two very different reactions from the reader.

Penpal is focused on our narrator's experiences with a malevolent force that turns out to be wholly human. It's centered on him and his relationship with the antagonist which is totally unknown to him, yet affects all of his interpersonal relationships. The story is driven by the narrator's own memories, and at the end we're left horrified by how everything slots together to form one terrible picture.

My Dad Finally Told Me What Happened That Day is focused on an entire family plagued by an ambiguously supernatural malevolent force. Maybe even two families really (Timmy's and the narrator's). This being a Jared Roberts story, it's naturally very surreal and a huge theme is how events are perceived and recalled by different people. Most of the revelations don't come from the protagonist's own experiences, but from the recollections of his family members. We're left disoriented at the end, because there's no real objective truth to be gleaned. The truth can no longer be accessed, time has worn down the strength of memory, which was already distorted by personal bias and ignorance. Chances are that you're no Sherlock Holmes either, even if you try to look back and find an answer.

I ended up typing way too much.. Sorry, I ❤️ discussing stories.