Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
Read by Keval Shah
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Summary from Goodreads:
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. Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.
Confession:
“Of course there must be good wizards somewhere, otherwise no one would say ‘Dark Wizards,” they’d just say ’Wizards.’”
What a fun and amusing story this was! I loved the main character, Gav, and all of the side characters, even the evil ones! The story itself was quite fun as well, full of fantasy tropes that are subtly made fun of, and some nice twists and turns as well. There were times that I was laughing out loud, but mostly I just had a smile on my face as I was listening to this wonderful debut.
Keval Shah does a great job with the narration of this book. His deep voice, which somehow became deeper when Gav was speaking, was perfect for the character and the story. He also did a great job with the many side characters voices, especially the goblins. Some of the voices just blended perfectly with the characters. I would definitely pick up another book narrated by Mr Shah.
“Gav watched him scurry off. His anger had run out, and so had a little of the self-loathing. Like there had only been room for so much emotion in his body, and worrying about someone else had forced some of it out. Huh.”
Gave is such a great character. He wakes up with no memories of who or where he is. He does put most things together pretty quickly, but he still stumbles around a bit in the first few chapters. Once he figures out that he was once the Dread Lord Gavrax, he determines that maybe he doesn’t want to be evil anymore. He then embarks on a campaign to change his ways, but is stymied by many things, including his own impulses. I loved Gav almost from the start of the story, but he continued to be such a dear that I found myself really rooting for him to find his true self.
“Garlic is known for its unfathomable magical powers.”
Lots of side characters that were awesome in this story. I really liked all of them and would love to name them all, but will limit myself to just a few. I liked Princess Eliasha, who was also struggling a bit with who she wanted to be verses who her family wanted. But she still held Gav responsible for his current and past actions. She wouldn’t let him just excuse his past. I also loved almost all of the goblins in Gav’s employ, but I really enjoyed the cook and her cooking was hilarious. The mayor of the nearby town was also a great character and took all of the things that Gav threw at her in stride and just carried on. All of the evil wizards were also great and I loved hating them.
The plot is straight forward and stuck to most of the fantasy tropes we are all familiar with. But at the same time you could tell that the author was poking fun at them and that made it all the more fun. I just loved the killer moat squid bit! But behind all of the fun there was a deeper meaning of finding your true self and owning it. As well as making amends for things you have done in the past. I think Gav made a good start on all of these, as did the princess. The pacing was pretty fast, but I do think that chapters could have been broken up a bit more, but that is just me not being a fan of long chapters. I also just absolutely loved the ending and thought it was perfect.
If you are looking for a light fun fantasy that skewers all of the tropes this is a book I highly recommend. It is chock full of characters you will adore and has a great message of finding who you truly are. I am already looking forward to the next book by this author.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 