Dreadful

By: Caitlin Rozakis

Narrated by: Keval Shah

A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards, and a garlic festival-all at once.

It's bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard's workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It's a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is . . . you.

Gav isn't really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.

But as he realizes that nothing-from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess-is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he'll have to answer the hardest question of all-who does he want to be?

A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.

©2024 Rebecca Rozakis (P)2024 Tantor

The goblins!

I really enjoyed this! This is kind of what I wanted how to become the dark lord and die trying to be. A humorous fantasy. The premise was intriguing and this is a use of the amnesia trope that is actually good. A man wakes up in a dark lords castle and he has no memory of who he is or why there is a princess in the dungeon, only to find out that he is the dark lord but has no idea why or what happened. He tries to fake it till he makes it, but things get complicated when he realizes he’s a part of a plot with multiple dark wizards.

This was so fun! It was funny, light hearted at times, dark at times, there was magic, mayhem, a garlic festival, and character development. Gav has a crisis of finding out who he is again after losing his memories and has to decide what to do and who he wants to be now. The goblin henchmen were surprisingly wholesome and I cared about them. I loved how they became a part of the story. I think the writing and perspective was interesting and thought provoking.

I will read her next book!

Redemption

An unforgettable story. Clever and witty. The characters are lovable and likable. The performance was great. I didn’t want it to end.

Fun, unique

Good, maybe shy of great, but an original take and entertaining. Nice voice performance fleshes it out well.

Hilarious

Delightful, very funny, great readers, great story line and a unique, creative story. Definitely worth a listen.

Felt long

This was enjoyable enough but it felt long which made it not as enjoyable near the end.