Thank you to Del Ray/ Random House and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review purposes. All opinions expressed are my own.

Condensing the whole of Curse of Strahd into the speedrun of a novel is no small task, but Delilah S. Dawson has done so admirably. She has managed to capture the creep and darkness of the setting and juxtaposed it with the whiplash of utter unseriousness paired with emotional vulnerability that so often arises organically at tables full of friends playing Dungeons & Dragons together.

It is a testament to the writing that the book manages to overcome challenges on several levels that come with writing a book around this subject and particular adventure. First, it manages to remain accessible to readers who may be wholly unfamiliar with the game and its mechanics. Second, it does so without becoming repetitive and boring to readers who are familiar, and likely players and game masters themselves. Finally, and perhaps most challenging of all, it remains fun and somewhat unpredictable for readers who have played through or even (like me) run a game around Curse of Strahd. There were certainly familiar characters or settings, but I was never bored with the story, despite having run this particular game for multiple groups of players in the past.

Speaking specifically as a player/game master rather than a reader, what I enjoyed most about this book was that the author clearly loves the game and drew on that experience. There were several times throughout the book I found myself cackling because, “Yes, that’s absolutely something my players would have done, too”, or saying to myself “The dice are definitely all in jail and the Game Master is exasperated”.

This was a delightful adventure romp for tabletop game enthusiasts, but I hope that others will read the book and enjoy it, as well. Maybe even be inspired to pick up some dice and play themselves? After all, Strahd is different every playthrough, and this book illustrates that wonderfully. Now, if you don’t mind–my Tarokka deck and D20 are calling!

Despite the fact that I believe the kenku should've been written closer to its racial lore, I understand that it might have made interactions much more difficult to write for a party of strangers amongst a few other lore details. As a long time player of DnD, I have yet to play Curse of Strahd. The type of darkness portrayed in this story is the type of illusionary that I would expect for the lore I have heard about him. The author weaved a good balance between the amount of sass from the characters and the amount of darkness they encountered. I can vouche that this is how encounters starting with a party of strangers would have played through in an in-real-life setting rather than a group of friends who partied-up to play. The fact that each character's alignment was portrayed as it should doesn't always factor in when you have a group of friends who all vibe to the same alignment. Where's the fun in that? Very good character contrasts

Random House Publishing provided an early galley for review.

This novel is part of a new collection of fiction set in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. As a long-time player, I was very eager to dive into this one. It helps too that Dawson has a track record of working on novels for franchises like Star Wars and Minecraft.

This novel very obviously draws inspiration from classic modules like Ravenloft (2nd edition) and The Curse of Strahd (5th edition). The story, in fact, even opens up very much like the start of campaign with five strangers meeting in an unusual place and situation. It is a trope that works for this kind of material in that it forces introductions for each of the group and the reader too. The narrative point-of-view shifts with each chapter, giving us a look into the heads of our five party members; Dawson does a solid job giving each their own distinctive voices and mannerisms. I like that she shuffled around the races and classes for some interesting combinations.

The story moved at a good pace, and the narration allows for revealing details of the characters. At a few points, it does tend to be more tell than show, but that was usually when someone was sharing their backstory with others. Just like in a game, there are several side quests before spiraling back into the main plot in the end. I would have liked for the ending to have taken more space to breathe, but I appreciated where the reader is left with the cast. I would actually like to see more of this crew if the author was game for their return.

This was my first Dungeons and Dragons novel. While I like playing there was just something that was missing from this and I think it was the actual playing element.

I was drawn to the this title because Castle Ravenloft is my all-time favorite D&D module and because I enjoyed several of the original Ravenloft novels from the 90s. Heir of Strahd wasn't so much a continuation of the series as it was more fan fiction of Ravenloft. It played out more like the transcript of a group of strangers playing pre-gen characters in the Castle Ravenloft module in a tournament at a Con. It has all the elements of the original module as well as the first novel, plus characters and pieces from numerous other Ravenloft books and D&D supplements. Generally entertaining, I could have used less of the slapstick humor and about 30-50 fewer pages. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This was a really fun time! I enjoyed how the author was able to capture the spooky feel of Ravenloft. Strahd did feel a bit flat as a villain to me and some of the comedy felt a bit too “slapstick” at times given the setting and the stakes of the story, but I did appreciate how the author tried to capture the fun and silliness inherent in a campaign. A lot happened very quickly at the end, but I didn’t see that twist coming and it helped save the ending for me!

I like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this one.

I play D&D. The last big campaign I took place in was the Curse of Strahd campaign. While it has different paths / outcomes, the story remains the same: Strahd has set his eyes on someone from your company as the reincarnation of his love, Tatanya. He then is going to turn her into a vampire while you and your co fight to keep that person (or a person that is NPC) from becoming Tatayna 2.0.

SO, for newbies who have NO IDEA how or what Strahd is, eh, you will enjoy this. For people who do? You won't really gel with it.

The book has surface characters with no actual depth. They enter the book as one does when ending up in Ravenloft, through the mists. The mists and their unseen gods have a way of forcing things in a certain direction. While that is established at the beginning when we meet the characters, it's abandoned somewhat as the story progresses. I can't tell what age the audience is for this? Kids? Teens? I'm going to settle for teens. I wish this book was more adult, and it didn't adhere so strongly to a campaign step-by-step D&D MADLIBS. I've read Dragonlance and sadly, this book is not written like that. In that you can tell when an author is writing a story based on character, plot. Here, it's, 'wait, make sure every character can't do anything without a plausible fail or pass die roll'. Why would write a story like that?

Strahd himself is true to form, and perhaps the strongest and best thing about it. Again, since these are only surface level characters, he kind of walks all over them and his motivations seem a little ... confusing? The worst example is the human female who is the Tatayna 2.0. At one point, we leave her and she isn't in a wedding dress, near the chapel, or met with Von Richten (a Vampire Slayer akin to Van Helsing). When our characters find her later? She in is in the chapel, about to get strangled, Von Richten already threw a handful of stakes at Strahd, and she's in the wedding dress. I looked at the previous chapters to see if I missed anything - nope. It was like the author got tired and decided to do the ol' 'Bilbo hit his head on a rock' lead up to the boss battle. How lame. I don't even want to talk about how the female then goes completely out of character and how the book goes from the 93% point on.

I want to see more D&D books written, I truly do, and with Strahd I *really thought* this was going to be a banger given the author's previous genres. But I want to see a story written for story sake, not checking off some invisible D&D players attack / navigation checklist.