Dreadful is a hilarious and slightly absurd fantasy novel about an evil dark wizard with amnesia. We follow Gav who is caught up in a dark ritual that he can't seem to remember. Gav struggles to understand his past self's actions and motives and tries to become a better version of himself.

This book was so funny and ridiculous in the best way! The writing was self-aware so none of the clichés came across as cheesy. I really liked that Gav was frequently held accountable for his actions and had to confront his past time and time again.

I recommend this to anyone who's looking for a story with heart and is also in for a laugh.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival - all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.

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."

Has a strong Nimona vibe... Also it's wrong that the garlic festival is the thing that really grabs my attention right?

Who doesn't love a good story from a villain's perspective? Especially one that can't even remember that he is one! This story has it all: an evil villain with memory loss, a captured princess who is more than she seems, a moody castle full of goblins, clumsy heroes, and a garlic festival! The Dread Lord Gavrax has quite the time figuring out just who he is a who he wants to be which makes for some interesting scenes where he's just not quite sure how to act. Are we who the world thinks we are based on how we look or act or are we maybe something more?

Trying to be a light, humorous fantasy story (like T Kingfisher or Terry Pratchett perhaps) with a villain redemption arc, but it didn’t quite land. For one, it wasn’t particularly funny and it didn’t have enough ties to real-world issues to work as a kind of satirical metaphor (Pratchett’s expertise).

I got through the whole book with a kind of “meh” feeling. Overall enjoyable but not particularly memorable.

Gav wakes up in the half-destroyed workshop of what could only be an evil wizard and comes to two startling realizations. One, he has no memory of anything before waking up, and two, with the way everyone is treating him, HE must be the evil wizard. Faced with a town full of terrified villagers, a castle full of goblins, an ominous meeting of powerful dark wizards, and a captive princess to contend with, Gav - or Dread Lord Gavrax - must try to keep himself alive long enough to discover who he is and who he wants to be.

This was such a fun, witty, whimsical read from start to finish. The dialogue in this book was particularly skillful, with each character having their own unique vocabulary and way of speaking, and the descriptions really painted a clear picture of the characters and settings. Though this is a high fantasy at heart, the book is written with modern speech and values, and anachronisms as a stylistic choice, but this did not interfere with my enjoyment of the story at all. If anything, they enhanced the tongue in cheek nature of the writing.

Gav was a great main character, and I particularly liked seeing him struggle with his own desires to be cruel while trying to improve himself. Giving him real negative impulses made his journey come across as much more of a struggle than if his evil had just been erased entirely. Equally, I also very much enjoyed the characters who were evil because, frankly, they found it fun. The themes of shame and the pressure of meeting expectations were very clear throughout. Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

5/5 Squid, garlic, magic, and meddling heroes.

This was fun! The plot had a few solid twists, and one scene in particular had me snorting with laughter.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

Dreadful is a fun fantasy romp with a pacey story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I found this to be a perfect bit of light relief between chunkier fantasy tomes; it’s a light-hearted standalone novel with a solid premise and good execution.

The story revolves around Gav, who has woken up in the castle of an evil dark wizard, only to discover that he IS the dark wizard with a severe case of memory loss. The resulting plot feels akin to a classic sitcom, with Gav trying his best to blag his way through conversations with staff, captured prisoners and other evil wizards, pretending he has a clue what's going on. I thought the progression of the story was very well done; every time the situation was on the brink of feeling repetitive or stale, a twist was dropped to keep the interest going and the story progressing. There’s a sense of urgency throughout, as Gav finds himself in a situation where he’s unable to take his time and work things out; he has an evil master plan to enact, if only he could remember what that was!

I didn't think there was a lot to be said for character building or development outside the lead protagonist (or antagonist I guess?), but I really enjoyed Gav’s personal dilemma surrounding his evil past - his process of learning how to be evil again leads to some wonderful moments of charming (if unsubtle) character building. There is a cast of minor characters including goblin chefs, exasperated stewards and captured princesses (all terrified of him), and while many of them have their own minor developments and reveals, this is absolutely Gav’s show.

There have been a few amnesia-based plots in modern SFF times, most notably Brandon Sanderson’s Frugal Wizard’s Handbook and Andy Weir’s masterful Project Hail Mary; while I don’t think Dreadful was quite at the level of the latter, it was still a great entertaining read - particularly for a debut novel! This is a definite recommendation if you enjoyed either of those mentioned novels, plus I think there’s a strong cosy charm to this story that would feel welcoming to readers of Jade Linwood’s Charming and Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes.

This was exactly what I was expecting and more - it was funny, chaotic at times, smart, and the perfect kind of weird. Everything I want in cozy fantasy.

Having read this book I will read anything written by Caitlin Rozakis because we have the same sense of humor. It's not often I find the exact humor I love in fantasy books, but this one was perfect. I laughed and highlighted over 80% of this book. But there was also complex themes about morality, gender, and even beauty culture that pushed this book to the next level and does so without ever losing the humor. There is nothing bad I can say about this book - the worldbuilding, the side characters, the character development, the plot were all perfect. Even at the most chaotic it was easy to follow all the converging plotlines (and still be on the edge of my seat to see how it would all work out).

So if you love funny fantasy, here please read this. I love it (and there is a beautiful sprayed edge edition coming out which is really just the cherry on the cake in my opinion).

Now this book was right up my alley and something I had a good feeling I was going to love and it surpassed all my expectations. It’s a lighthearted comedy fantasy romp that reinvents the classic fantasy trope of the evil villain and makes readers question is the villain really all that bad? Is what there doing really so terrible? We have Gav our main character who wakes up with no memory in a fantasy castle filled with goblins. Absolutely lovely, hilarious. Such a nice change of pace to my reading.

I think this was a decently good first book. It had some really funny moments and was all sorts of quirky and fun. I did have a major problem with the main character and how unlikable he was. I found it hard to really root for him and was fighting to keep focused on the story. It felt almost TOO chaotic at points when it didn't need to be. Overall, it was a good first story and I'm excited to see what future books the author dreams up.

Titan Books provided an early galley for review.

The description for this one sounded interesting and fun. I always enjoy a story where a villain is the protagonist as those stories are often few and far between. The cover jumped out to me too. Together, the perfect draw for this potential reader.

Rozakis plays well with the amnesia angle and the absurd situations that can arise from it. The fantasy genre works here, with the worldbuilding delivered in measured, as-needed doses. As the layers are added to the characters so are the layers added to the plot, all culiminating in a final confrontational situation.

This was a fun fantasy novel. I am eager to see what the author does next.

The cover is absolutely delightful, but I'm afraid I couldn't get into this one at all. The paragraphs were incredibly long and all the internal monologuing made any kind of momentum hard to come by. I'm sure this will appeal to the comedic fantasy fans, but I am unfortunately not one of them, I don't think.

Imagine waking up in a tower, amidst a smudged chalk circle, with no memory and a jar of replacent eyebrows. Oh, and your servants are goblins. And there's a princess in the dungeon. The humor takes on the traditional tropes of Evil Dark Lords and twists them into something slightly different and unexpected.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

I really wanted to love this book! I thought it would be the quirky, fun read that I’d been looking for. Instead, it was just trying too hard. I didn’t love the massive, run-on paragraphs or the attempt at being edgy. It became very repetitive very early on.

1) I would recommend this to readers who liked Scalzi and T. Kingfisher, although this book skewed longer than those two author's recent standalone.
2) The 'set-pieces' of this book were highlights, especially the garlic festival as someone who's gone to food-themed festivals.
3) A lot of this book is the main character ruminating, okay he's a dark wizard but how bad was his past self. The character rather shines when he acts instead of thinks.

This book isn't so "cozy" as the comparison to Travis Baldree suggests, but the oddness and the quirk of T. Kingfisher is definitely on point. It also kind of reminded me of The Princess Bride and the Pit of Despair scenes at times. This would be a great movie, and I think I would have enjoyed it better as an audiobook. It was silly and quirky and I definitely enjoyed the villain's POV aspect. It was also heartfelt and kind of cliche with the ending. There was a lot of "finding yourself" and questioning morals and self discovery. This story was a lot of fun and I wasn't super satisfied with the ending - although apart from a little romance, I'm not sure what would have improved it. I feel like saying "needs romance: is narrow because not every story has to have romance to be good , but when you read the description and see "villain" and "princess locked up" you kind of assume that there will be something between the two. I love the goblin henchmen.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

When is a Dread Lord not a Dread Lord? Yup, he lost his memories of it all, so now he's got to fake it in order to survive. And what to do about that princess in his dungeon that he apparently kidnapped? So many problems: local townsfolk, face sucking squid, goblins, heroes, more Dark Lords, pesky "good" magicians, and servants who may not be quite what they seem. Interesting, funny, lots of great characters.

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis is seriously the most epic thing I've read in ages! Imagine waking up in this wrecked wizard's workshop, totally clueless and facing the terrifying possibility that you're your own worst enemy. Yeah, that's the insane rollercoaster Gav finds himself on in this book, and let me tell you, it's a wild ride from start to finish!

Rozakis serves up a fantasy adventure that's not just hilarious but also flips all the clichés on their head. I'm talking killer moat squid, a garlic festival and a whole lot of laughs. But amidst all the chaos and craziness, there's this deeper message about finding yourself and owning who you are that really hit me right in the feels.

And let's talk about the characters – they're seriously the coolest bunch I've ever met in a book! Dread Lord Gavrax is an absolute riot, going from dark wizard to... well, something else entirely. And the rest of the crew? They're just as awesome, from the goblins who stole my heart to the princess who's anything but your typical damsel in distress.

But what really sets this book apart is how it tackles big stuff like gender equality and self-image, all while keeping you laughing and cheering on the characters like they're your BFFs. Rozakis has some serious skills when it comes to weaving in those important messages without ever making the story feel preachy or heavy-handed.

So, if you're after a fantasy romp that's funny, heartwarming, and totally epic, do yourself a favor and dive into Dreadful. Trust me, you won't regret it – in fact, you'll probably be begging for more by the time you reach the last page!

An interesting look at what makes us who we are. Dread Lord Gavrax loses his memories, and with them his dark twisted, bitter hatred. This leaves him as just Gav, who discovers that underneath it all, he doesn't actually enjoy torture or any of the other Dread Lord pursuits and actually, he'd quite like to try and make things better.
This was so funny and very clever, I enjoyed it a lot.

I loved this one! Such cheeky humour and a great cast of characters. It could easily be adapted to the silver screen. If you're a fan of The Princess Bride, then it one is definitely for you. My only slight complaint is that it felt a bit dragged on in the middle right before the climax, which took some of the wind out of its sails. But overall, it's one of my top reads this year! Very unique and a breath of fresh air.