Mister Malus Reviews: Built for Two

This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.

Built for Two

Author: DJay32
Status: Finished
Fear(s): The Archangel, the Blind Man; the Empty City (?); Several Fears mentioned in passing

Plot:

A bit of a mind-screwy plot (which you find out more towards the end), but it follows a teacher/professor during the holidays/throughout January. He’s a bit of a loner because his wife and parents have died, but he seems to have some sort of specter that hangs about him. After listening to DJay’s commentary on Built for Two, I now know what it is and I think it’s pretty good, though I’m not sure how one could see in-universe that explanation.

The story really starts to pick up when the protagonist returns to work after Christmas and talks to his class about “Boxing-Day”, wherein one of his students give an alternate take on the Christmas tale. As you might have guessed, it turns out to be disturbing and unsettles the rest of the class. The student disappears a few days later and it has an effect on the teacher, leading to one event after the other.

The main theme of the plot seems to be paradoxes, and they’re examined in-depth within the blog. One of the characters – another professor, actually – gives several presentations on stuff like this, which I found very intriguing. In fact, all of his seminars are very interesting to read about, especially the one about the Hands and the Pieces. I also love the mindscrew of an ending the audience gets.

The Fears… Well. They could have been portrayed better. They acted too… human, I guess. There wasn’t anything uncanny about them, nothing to really make them… terrifying. I guess a better way to put this is that it didn’t feel like the protagonist was in any danger from the Fears, aside from the one assault that was caused by the Wooden Girl. The Empty City was the one that came closest to it, and even then it didn’t seem as frightening as it could have been.

Characters:

The main protagonist is pretty uninteresting… at first. His writing is, well, good. It’s nice to read. But he’s pretty boring for quite a while. Occasionally he’ll say some things that catch your notice (“I want to live in the ultimate paradox”, anyone?), but up until the second half of the blog does he start to become better. I think the most interesting thing about him is that we learn that the other professor, Julian Dupire (I hope I’m spelling that right), is either a future version of him or they’re parallels. That… Well. That was just really cool.

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If you like a good dose of mindscrew complete with some fascinating concepts and takes on the “Game” that the Fears MIGHT play, check out this blog. Fair warning, though: You will likely be confused at the very end, and if you aren’t, well, you cheated.