Posted by I picked this up on a whim. There was an 80% off sale on audible and so I picked up an irresponsible amount of books. I started with this one because it looked like a comedy and I needed some levity towards the end of my year. It was described as akin to “the office” but if the office had evil lords instead of Michael Scott. Okay, that sounds pretty good, I’ll give it a go!
Well, it didn’t work out so hot for me. There’s 150K+ ratings on Goodreads so this is actually one of the more popular books I read during 2024. It has a pretty decent average rating too, for having that many ratings, sitting at a 3.92. I seem to be in the minority of people who didn’t enjoy this.
So, why not?
I felt like I couldn’t get a handle on who these characters were. Their own inner motivations and actions just seemed to clash over and over again. We’ve got two main characters/points of view. Sage, the lowly assistant, and The Villain, some asshole living in a mansion who kills people.
We were told The Villain is a super evil dude. He kills people who look at him wrong. He killed some dude because he didn’t like what he said. But then in the next breath we’re told that he doesn’t kill innocent people, only those who deserve it, and he had made a promise not to kill anyone from her village. Then a little while later he’s killing someone from her village, albeit I think it was an animal abuser. But then we’re told about how he went on a rampage and killed more of his staff, and the MC goes on about all the horrible things he’s done to other employees. So, like, who is this guy? Is he a misunderstood antihero or is he a fucking asshole? I honestly couldn’t tell what the author wanted me to feel about this guy.
I really don’t like Sage. That was also a big problem throughout this. I can enjoy a good anti-hero or morally grey people, or just straight up shit heads. For instance, I love Joe Abercrombie’s characters, and I can’t think of any more morally grey character than Glokta. However, Glokta has deliberate actions and knows full well he’s a fuckass who tortures people and enjoys it at points. He knows who he is and he doesn’t shy away from it. Sage has this weird uncertain relationship with morals, I don’t even know if she knows where she stands on the issues and that made for some weird reading.
Also, there’s a lot of UST, unresolved sexual tension, and The Villain always seems confused by Sage’s attraction to him. She calls him pretty and that just seemed to baffle him. He’s also a dark lord Villain who murders indiscriminately, so this whole bewildered “you think I’m pretty?” just didn’t seem to fit the character at all. She’s constantly thinking about how attractive he is and bumbling over her words in front of him and that’s typically not my jam, especially when I have no idea what to feel about the love interest.
LOL I don’t know how I made it to the end of this. I kept waiting to enjoy it since so many tens of thousands of people loved this book. It’s one of the rare instances I can say “I don’t get it.” Unfortunately, I didn’t even like the audiobook. I actually googled “is Em Eldrige AI?” The answer is no, but I was like the 100th person to ask that question, it was all over Google and Reddit, so I wasn’t alone in thinking there was something wonky with the narration. She just has a very odd cadence like she’s trying to narrate instructions for airplane seatbelt safety or something.
To each their own, though. If you’d want to read about if Dwight was a lady and in love with Michael for real, but Michael was a mass murderer, this one may be for you!