Rami Ungar The Writer

How many of you follow booktubers?

If you don’t know what those are, they’re YouTubers who mostly review books. There’s a whole bunch of them devoted to horror. I’ve been following one for a while now. Pax Panic. She was funny, she was enthusiastic, she loved horror and you could tell that, even though her channel was small, it would grow.

I say “was” because she passed earlier this year. Some time ago, she announced she had cancer and was undergoing treatment. I, and the rest of her following, rallied around her, offered her our support. I think there might have been a fundraiser for medical costs, but I’m not sure. Anyway, she went through treatment, and we hoped that was the end of it. But we soon learned that the treatment didn’t take, and she posted that she only had a few months to live.

Obviously, we were upset. We kept watching her and supporting her.

And then a few months ago, her husband posted that she’d passed. And just writing it, I’m feeling a little teary. I don’t get teary-eyed often, but I feel like crying just typing this. She was an amazing person, and it fucking sucks that she had to die so young.

Anyway, her husband said that she recorded a bunch of videos prior to her treatment and death, and that he would be uploading them in her memory. Which I and her other followers appreciated.

And today, a video was uploaded to her channel, a video with reviews of multiple books. One of the books was The Pure World Comes. My Gothic horror novel.

I’ve posted the video below. If you want to watch just her review, it’s from 3:12 to 5:52.

Followers of Fear, I was not expecting this. I sent her a review copy of The Pure World Comes a while ago, and she left a review on Goodreads, and I thought that was that. I never expected that she would include it in a video, let alone one after her death. And she delivered it full of such love for the story and for the concept and how I played with both the Gothic elements and the Victorian elements and the scientific elements.

I appreciate all my reviews (except for ones like the one from a troll who wanted to make fun of me over something in my biography). But this one had me shook emotionally. It was so sweet and unexpected and it really hit me emotionally. These videos always make me feel a little sad, because Pax is no longer with us, but this one…it just amplified both my sadness and my gratitude. Hands down, one of the best reviews I’ve ever received for one of my stories.

Pax, wherever you are, thank you. This meant so much to me. I miss you, and I hope that right now, you’re reading all the scary stories you can dream of.

If you’re at all interested, I highly recommend checking out Pax’s channel and her other videos. She left a lot of material and there’s probably going to be more in the weeks and months to come. It’ll be heartbreaking, but it’ll be worth watching.

And if you’re at all interested in checking out The Pure World Comes after watching Pax’s review, I’ll include links before. For those unfamiliar, it’s a Gothic horror story about a maid in Victorian England who goes to work for a mad scientist. As Pax said, it’s got Gothic with Frankenstein mixed into it.

And if you like what you read, please leave a review online. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and it helps me and other readers as well.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m still kind of shook, but I’m taking it in stride. I’ll also be heading to bed soon. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

The Pure World Comes: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Audible, Chirp, BingeBooks, LIbro.Fm, Storytel, Palace Marketplace, Hoopla, Vivlio, Smashwords, Thalia, Scribd, Spotify