These days I’m on a Kevin Hearne reading spree (see my reviews of A Plague of Giants and The Squirrel on the Train) so I dove into Kill the Farm Boy, discovering to my delight that Hearne’s co-author, Delilah S. Dawson, is none other than another of my recent favorites, as Lila Bowen author of the excellent “The Shadow” series. Delight rapidly gave way to hilarity as this story unfolded, tackling one fantasy trope after another, turning them on their heads and planting petunias between their toes.

The titular farm boy is Worstley, younger brother of Bestley, who had been stabbed in the heart by Lord Ergot (if you don’t know what ergot is, pause now and look it up) for being too handsome. When a malicious pixie named Staph (aureus?) casts a spell to change Worstley into the Chosen One (and gives Gustave the goat the ability to speak, which he does in smart-ass style), it does not set well with The Dark Lord Toby (whose most powerful spell causes baked goods to rain from the sky). Opposing The Dark Lord Toby’s nefarious, yeastly plans are Fia, a 7-foot tall barbarian warrior, and her sweetheart, Argabella, a woman enchanted to be a half-rabbit, who incidentally is the world’s worst bard:

She … sang an improvised song of obfuscation:
We are not food
No sir Mister Monster
We taste super bad
Oh gods we are not food
Really really really

You gotta believe me

It’s hard to beat that.

The silliness isn’t restricted to spooks of characters from pose, verse, and film (although familiarity with J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, Grimm’s fairytales, Conan the Barbarian, and Norse mythology, to name a few, enhances the humor).

I found that I couldn’t read too many chapters at a sitting, but the play of tropes, not to mention the puns, kept me coming back for another fun visit to the Lands of Pell.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.

Kill The Farm Boy is a wonderful adult fairy tale filled with witticisms and themes sure to spur the imagination. No baby language here, the dialog and depth of the writing and use of words may have you heading to the dictionary a time or two.

Poor Worstley, is a lowly farm boy with a non-existent future until a ragged looking pixie named Staph visits him in the barnyard to tell him he is the Chosen One. To prove her powers, she zaps his goat, Gus, sending him into convulsions before he recovers and begins to talk. Then she sends the stunned Worstley, and his goat, off on the adventure of their lives to save the world. What transpires from there is a fun and remarkable adventure that only an imaginable pair of writers could concoct.

Some reviewers have compared this book to others they have read. I believe this tale of magic deserves to stand on its own based upon my complete enjoyment of the writing and wit.

My first foray into fantasy was when I read The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander in elementary school. I ate it up and soon read all the stories that followed about Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper. And on I went to other authors in the genre, and their knights, dragons, and magic. This love of the many fantasy tropes is what brought me to read a great parody of all those tropes, Dawson and Hearne's Kill the Farm Boy.

I won't say much about the plot or the characters... Only that there's a quest and a couple curses and some cross-kingdomly conflicts. There's a talking goat, a not-so-stealthy rogue, an agoraphobic wizard, a plastic-surgery-addicted witch, a "chosen one" and many other amusing characters filling our favorite roles.  The crew traipse through a witch's palace, a goblin market, an elf's bedroom, a giant's kitchen, and many other dark wooded "demesne" of creatures of the night, morning, afternoon, and all the other times of day.

Full of witch wit, ghost gags, and wizard wisecracks, the novel slays in its discussions, arguments, and light conversations debating important topics like cheese, forks in the road, and the nature of orb magic. Even though the narrative tends to the episodic, the fun word play, physical comedy, and constant allusions to the main kings and queens of the genre kept me reading. 

Overall, Kill the Farm Boy is a whimsical yarn, a jesting jape... A fun read that plays homage to the best of Piers Anthony and Terry Prachett. I recommend it to those looking for a quest for some good laughs and a desire to rekindle that first love of fantasy. 

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House/ Ballantine, Del Rey Books, and the authors for an advanced copy for review.

It was kind of funny, but I felt like it was maybe trying a little too hard to be Monty Python; the humor often came across to me as very WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE GEDDIT??? which, after a while, made me roll my eyes rather than laugh. I think if you go into this book knowing that it's going to be mostly a lowbrow comedy style, you'll appreciate it, but I think I had the wrong expectations going in that caused me to end up a little disappointed.

One-sentence review: A parody of the most well-known fantasy tropes. 

If you have followed my reading journey, you know that I am relentlessly pursuing the next Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. I adored their books and seek to find a light-hearted fantasy to mix between trips into darker fantasy lands. This collaboration was suggested to Pratchett fans, so I hungrily began to read Kill the Farm Boy. 

I enjoyed seeing how the authors slashed the tropes which define mainstream fantasy. It makes you chuckle a bit at your favourite stories and yourself for falling for the same, cookie-cutter storylines. I love puns, so I was entertained throughout the story. 

I felt the humour was more slap-stick and sophomoric than I prefer. I chuckled to myself that the story was set in Morningwood but after a while, I felt like the cock jokes were competing with innuendo to drive the story forward. I did not feel the depth in the humour that is present in an Adams or Pratchett story. I never laughed out loud.

Lots of someones will love this book. I just wanted more out of it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dawson, Hearne, and Del Rey for providing an eARC of this novel in exchange for a review.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


I’ve been a fan of Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson’s work separately for some time now and when I heard they were writing a book together, I just knew it was going to be something amazing, and it was! Kill the Farm Boy is the first book they co-wrote together and it’s everything one could hope for from a fantasy/humorous read! I like to think of it as a combination of The Princess Bride and a Mel Brooks film! It’s that kind of humor set on the backdrop of a fantastical world like The Princess Bride! It makes for a most entertaining read!

In the beginning, what we know is that there’s a terrible cursed placed on a nearby kingdom in which everyone has fallen into a deep sleep and can’t be awakened for anything. Then a fairy comes to Worstley and claims that he is the Chosen One! He is meant to break the curse and set the people free! Though the fairy might be a little off her rocker as she’s only wearing one sock and when she wants to give an example of her magic, she gifts his pet goat with the ability of speech, though Gustave, the goat, isn’t quite what you’d expect from a talking animal companion, I’d say he’s more of an adult version of Donkey from Shrek! You can definitely expect a lot of laughs from him!

Our introduction to more characters comes from a warrior type woman who falls onto Worstley as she’s climbing the tower he’s trying to reach and kills him. Yup, Worstley gets killed very early, but don’t worry, he’s only mostly dead. The warrior, Fia, hopes that by putting him into the cursed tower with cursed people will keep in him a sort of stasis until they can find a magical fairy who can reverse his current state.

Fia and Gustave continue to add more ragtag characters into their group as they venture to find the fairy who’s an aunt to Worstley. Joining them is, Poltro, an assassin who fears chickens, Toby, a Dark Lord who is very fond of cheese and wants to kill the Chosen One to aid in his powers, and Agrabella, a bard who’s part rabbit as that was the effect the curse had on her in the tower. This group makes for quite the entertainment as they are not quite the heroes you would expect. They’re rather charming and sometimes, not too bright in their endeavors. Naturally, as they travel they get waylaid by other quests and encounters with dangerous enemies and life threatening perils. They will have to set aside their variable differences and work together if they hope to survive.

Kill the Farm Boy was seriously entertaining! I am talking more laughter than I ever thought possible when it came to a book! There were so many puns and different references that it was just hysterical! There’s also still a good story going on throughout. The characters all have their own dreams and ambitions and yet, they still work together when they have to. Gustave was especially entertaining, I mean he’s a talking goat! I wouldn’t be surprised if he was Donkey’s great-grandson or something! Lol!

There were quite a few surprising twists to this story that I didn’t see coming! Murder, love, transformations beyond one’s ken! Yes, ken! Obviously I am still riding the high of a seriously good read here! Lol! What I said still remains true! There’s a whole lot of adventure going on here and it was a most spectacular read! That there’s already a sequel planned has me completely giddy! I will be excited to see if this will involve new characters or if we’ll stick with this gang. There’s no official description yet, just a title that already has me chuckling!

I guess the only bit of issue I had was that there were times when I felt like things slowed down a bit. There weren’t too many of these times, thankfully. Still, at times I felt like things just kind of came to a halt and it was like trying to drag your feet through mud to get through them. They didn’t last for real long, and part of this could be because I was reading this on my kindle, I find that this happens to me more often when I read a longer book on my kindle. It’s just a weird habit that I can’t seem to shake.

Kill the Farm Boy was a hilarious read that is likely to make my top list of reads this year! I can’t remember when a book made me laugh so much! This is definitely a book for fans of Mel Brooks’ movies and even The Princess Bride too, just don’t expect an overly serious story in that matter. This is a read sure to entertain a variety of readers, it was hysterically magical!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars


Kill the Farm Boy releases July 17, 2018

The description of this book indicated that fans of Terry Pritchett would find a tale that speaks to them. Though “Farm Boy” contains quirky characters, magic, and mythic creatures, it contains very little of the titular boy. I found it more reminiscent of Piers Anthony’s Kingdom of Landover series (pun laden accounts of daring do). Unfortunately I thought that the writing here was less effective, the characters less interesting, and the plot line did not hold my attention. As a reader I found the turn of events throughout to be confusing, but more importantly I did not care to unravel the motivations of these characters.

If you like fart, poo, and booger jokes, and each character dumber or more clueless than the last, this is the book for you. Alas, not having the sensibilities of a junior high male, that's not me. I'm not sure I'm even going to finish it.

Kill the Farm Boy is a pun-filled adventure story that takes the hero trope and kills it dead. The heroes in this story are anything but normal, and characters we need more of. This was a very fun read.

Monty Python meets every fairy tale you could imagine plus some and you've got Kill the Farm Boy. Packed full of slap stick humor, outrageous characters and fairy tale antics to the extreme! Part of me cracked up laughing and part of me was shaking my head at the outlandishness. While reading, I couldn't help but think this book would be perfect for those who love the comedy of SPACE BALLS the movie. It was just a fun, fanciful read.

I received this ARC copy of Kill the Farm Boy from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine - Del Rey. This is my honest and voluntary review. Kill the Farm Boy is set for publication July 17, 2018.

My Rating: 3.5 stars
Written by: Kevin Hearne
Series: The Tales of Pell
Sequence in Series: Book 1
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: July 17, 2018
ISBN-10: 152479774X
ISBN-13: 978-1524797744
Genre: Fantasy | Comedy

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Farm-Boy-...
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Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/kill...

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Fairy tale upon fairy tale is blended together in this mishmash ride to crazy town. Funny, irreverent, and charming. Fans of funny fantasy will enjoy it.

I started off not at all sure what I was getting into, and I'll admit it took me a few chapters to really get used to the quirkiness of the writing style, and what the hell was going on.
And then I did those things, and it got BRILLIANT.

This book takes the "hero's quest" trope and flips it on it's head. It's got everything you could want in a book. Talking animals, a cute love story, a HEA, copious amounts of cheese, puns from here to tomorrow, queer characters, fairies who give no fucks.
I thought the characters were absurd until suddenly found myself quite attached to them. The book ended on a very nice night, but I wouldn't mind another jaunt through Pell, either with these characters or others.

Definitely read this one if you are a fan of Terry Pratchett, of puns, of cheeseboards, or hilarious fantasy tropes.

I got this from Net Galley for free in exchange for my review, so thanks Net Galley, you've got good taste in suggestions.

If you're looking for punny prose and shenanigans of a sometimes bloody nature, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. Seriously, the puns are off the hook in THE BEST sort of way and there's a lot of blood. Because swords. And assassins. And fighters.

And bread. SO MUCH BREAD.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves...Ahh, you know what? I'm not sure WHAT I can say about this book that won't give away some of the weirdest/funniest things. Let's just say there's a Chosen One who doesn't have the best luck. A goat who has some mighty fine moves. A Dark Lord who...likes cheese. Honestly, I find no fault with Toby's love of cheese. Cheese is delicious. Then there's a cursed bard, a clumsy assassin who has issues with chickens, and a fighter who only wants to find some peace and grow roses.

And...THAT DOESN'T DO IT JUSTICE. The puns, man. The PUNS.

Yes, I'm a sucker for a good play on words.

Puns and shenanigans. That's what you need to know.

I wanted to like this book. The description sounded like my kind of book - poking fun at fantasy tropes and really funny chapter titles. But it's just not my type of humor. Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors of all time, so I was drawn in by the comparison, but it's really not a fair one to make. Pratchett is much drier and usually mixes in something profound. This book makes a lot of poop jokes and innuendoes.

I originally thought this might appeal to middle schoolers, but I think it's a little too raunchy. I can see people other really enjoying this book, but I honestly didn't make it more than 20 pages in before I knew it wasn't for me. It might get better later on, but I'm looking for titles to add to my middle school library. Maybe consider this one more closely for high school or public libraries.

If you like a seriously romantic book with beautiful pixies named Butter Blossom or Sweet Rose, this is not the book for you. If you like satire, off color jokes and a pixie named Staph, you should read Kill The Farm Boy. Yes, there's a farm boy and a goat named Gustave. You will find some of this story reminds you of other stories I thought it was hilarious. I received this book from Net Galley for an honest review.

I didn't much like this. I appreciated the intent of skewering fantasy tropes, but I didn't think the book was funny. Even unfunny satire can be ok if it has a good point, but this was pure parody, so there wasn't a point. I didn't find the characters interesting or amusing or the plot interesting or amusing.

I really enjoyed this book. So many tongue in cheek references. There are very few books from
Kevin Hearne that I don't absolutely love and this was no exception.

Kill the Farm Boy is a humorous fantasy novel from Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne. This is a pretty powerful team up, as Hearne is well-known for his Iron Druid Chronicles and Dawson did the recent Phasma novel for the Star Wars universe. But this book didn’t work for me.


The marketing materials for Kill the Farm Boy liken it to Terry Pratchett and The Princess Bride. Now, I’ve only read a few Pratchett books, I never quite got into him, but I grew up on The Princess Bride movie and have read the book. And I don’t recall Discworld or The Princess Bride having nearly as many dick jokes as this book has.

In the world of Pell, the beautiful and mysterious elves live in Morningwood. If the idea of an entire chapter of double entendres about that name sounds like your idea of a good time, you’ll absolutely love Kill the Farm Boy.

“But AJ,” I hear you saying, “You loved Pantheon and that starts off with a joke about a god having a wank. Do you like dick jokes or not?”

I don’t know what to tell you, good readers. I have a very particular sense of humor. Some dick jokes are uproariously funny. But an entire chapter of erection humor had me rolling my eyes and saying “Yes, I get it.”

Part of the problem is that the tone of the book is so uneven. It wants to be a commentary on the tired “farm boy is the chosen one” trope. It wants to give us interesting strong female characters, but it also wants to remind us that they have boobs. It wants to be funny. But sometimes characters die terrible deaths.

There were moments of this book that I really loved. There’s a really sweet lesbian romance threaded throughout the book. There’s some good send-ups of genre tropes. The book is pretty well-paced and while the setting is a pretty generic fantasy world, the world building and magic rules remain consistent throughout.

But as hard as this book tried to honor Terry Pratchett, it instead called to mind Piers Anthony. I mean, not as gross and creepy as Xanth could get, but the humor is very juvenile and punny.

The thing is, I get it. Twelve year old boys are the ones who most need to let go of their attachment to the farm boy trope. They need to learn that they are not the chosen one and that they are not going to be handed women and riches as trophies.

That said, as much as boys need to read this book, I suspect most of the people who want to read this book are going to be people like me: thirty-something women who grew up reading about farm boy after farm boy, asking why his far more capable female love interest wasn’t the main character. Or POC sick of the white boy getting the starring role. Or LGBTQ readers who just want the chosen one to have a queer romance for once.

There are moments for readers like us. You just have to wade through a lot of sophomoric humor. Your patience with that style of humor will entirely dictate how much you enjoy this book. If you loved Xanth as a kid but as an adult cringe at some of the sexist storylines, Kill the Farm Boy will scratch that itch.

Pros: Strong female characters, diverse protagonists, lesbian romance.

Cons: Sophomoric humor, uneven tone, the middle drags a bit.

Conclusion: I was not the reader for this, but I suspect it will find a loyal audience anyway.

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne will be released on July 17th. It is being published by Random House Publishing Group. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a digital review copy!

Kill the Farm boy is an attempt to send up several fantasy tropes such as a complete nobody being the "chosen one" in one short novel. The result is at times funny, but often the humor falls flat and the story just drags on to its inevitable conclusion. Not that impressed at all and upon reading the author's notes, it become obvious, I didn't drink enough beer while reading to appreciate it. Sadly, the book really comes across as the narration of someone's fantasy RPG session, which may have been very entertaining for the players, it is less so for a reader.

A funny , pun-ny, delightful, a tiny bit naughty, magical, and fantastic collaboration between two authors of style and wit. This is a fun read! It is so far out there that it is hilarious and somber at times and just the best story! I didn't want it to end. I love all Kevin Hearne's previous books, the Iron Druid Chronicles and A Plague of Giants. They are fabulous. This new series written with Delilah S. Dawson is the beginning of something great. The action and the adventure that this unlikely bunch of odd 'people' ( not to mention the talking goat) go through will keep you laughing and reading for more. This book is exciting, fun, entertaining reading. I highly recommend this book!!!!