Amnesia’s never fun but it’s even worse when you come to in the lab of a Dread Lord sans eyebrows and there’s someone at the door. Imagine your horror when you discover that the Big Bad is you!

“It’s a pleasure to watch you work, my lord. The way you have of targeting someone’s deepest insecurities and just … eviscerating them. Verbally. Before you eviscerate them. It’s masterful.”

Gavrax has interesting taste in decor, questionable fashion choices and a princess locked in the dungeon. Every Dread Lord’s castle needs a dungeon, after all.

Gav has questions. Like, why is there a princess locked in the dungeon? Who chose these horrendous clothes? What happened to his eyebrows? And who is he if he doesn’t have his memories?

This is one of those books I knew I’d love. I was so convinced that I preordered a signed special edition when I’d only read a chapter.

The struggle of trying to figure out who you are when you’re weighed down by other people’s expectations has a whole other layer when you’re the villain.

“Do you think there’s a point where someone is just … irredeemably evil?”

I loved watching Gav navigate this for himself while encountering huggable squid, goblins that would prefer not to be BBQ’ed -

‘How did he possibly keep the castle running if he kept executing the staff?’

- and the ever present threat of garlic breath.

Gav may have had a complexity I wasn’t expecting (and loved - I loved this about him) but it was the princess who stole the show for me. I’m not usually one for damsels in distress but it turns out I absolutely adore damsels who aren’t quite as distressed as advertised.

Which reminds me. Not that I ever planned on being all ‘yay, false advertising!’ but yay, false advertising! This book is not Dreadful after all. There are characters of the mwa-ha-ha variety planning deeds most dastardly. There are some ‘did you choose that outfit with your eyes closed?’ moments. The dreadfulness, though? It’s fairly limited to the menu. Sorry, Orla. You know I love you.

Bonus content: If you sign up to the author’s newsletter, you’ll get a copy of Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss, a story that’s a prequel to Dreadful. It contains some spoilery bits so it’s probably best if you read the book first.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.