The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore
Publication Date: September 22, 2026
Summary from Netgalley:
As the laboratory assistant to the brilliant but demanding Doctor, Igor spends his nights robbing graves, stitching together body parts, and ensuring that his master doesn’t electrocute himself (too badly).
When a mob of peasants wielding torches and pitchforks drives them out of town (again), Igor and the Doctor relocate to the isolated Ravenwald Manor to resume their experiments creating new life from dead flesh. But Igor and the Doctor are not the only ones seeking refuge within the walls of Ravenwald. The manor is already home to a vampiric Count and his highly dissatisfied bride, Cornelia—and an enigmatic witch and her feline familiar, Grimalkin, intend to use it as the site of a magical ritual.
At Igor’s suggestion, the three pairs come to an uneasy agreement to cohabitate in Ravenwald, lest they attract the suspicion of the nearby village. In the wake of this truce, Igor, Cornelia, and Grimalkin soon begin to realize that they might have more common with one another than their respective masters. When the trio discovers that they’ve been unwitting participants in a horrible plan to destroy the world as they know it, they must work together to stop their masters from bringing on armageddon . . . and stop the increasingly suspicious villagers from reaching for their pitchforks and torches.
Igor, Grim, and Cornelia must unite to cast off the chains of their masters and embrace life on their own terms in the hilarious, heartwarming, and just-scary-enough The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing.
ARC provided by Ballantine/Bantam via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This is such a fun and at times , humorous story that I really enjoyed reading. The characters were all great and were easily relatable. The story may have dragged a bit at times, but the themes and dilemmas the characters encountered are very recognizable to modern readers. This story has a lot of heart and you will find yourself rooting for the ‘monsters’.
Igor is the sole narrator of this story and I really enjoyed spending time with him. He shows tremendous growth throughout the book and it was great watching him stand up to his Master, the Doctor. Some of the descriptions of his work might make some people a bit squeamish, but you can tell that he takes pride in his work. I also adored how his friendships with Grim and Cornelia grew. It felt very organic and not at all rushed. His love for them by the end of the story was very evident in all of the decisions he made.
I adored both Grim, who is a talking cat, and Cornelia. They were both delightful and really encouraged each other. They too had issues with their superiors and struggled with standing up to them. Grim was my favorite of the three, I just loved her observations about what was going on and her dry sense of humor. Cornelia was also a fun character to watch grow over the course of the book. There were a couple of other characters that really added to the story, Spare and Laura. Laura is a love interest for Cornelia, and she was a great character. I did figure out her secret pretty early in the story, but loved the big reveal of it. Spare was just adorable and very sweet.
The story does have a very cozy feel to it, but it also deals with a lot of darker themes. It had the feel of an office comedy at times, as the Henches toil away at their Masters work, but that actually worked quite well. The world building was based on many different horror novels, like Frankenstein and Dracula, which gave the world a very familiar feel. The themes of needing to be appreciated, friendship, what it means to be a human or a monster were all well done. The beginning was a bit on the slow side and it took awhile for me to get into the story, but once you get sucked in it is quite enjoyable.
If you enjoy cozy stories of any kind, especially those with a found family, and lots of great characters, this is one you want to make sure gets on your list.
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