📚 Starter Villain
Genre: Science Fiction, Humor, Fantasy Originally Published: 2023
💭 Quick Summary & Thoughts
This book answers the question that’s on everybody’s mind: can an average, cat-loving Joe make it as a super-villain after inheriting a super-villainy empire?
I know, I hear it too, it’s just as absurd as it sounds. This one is whimsical, witty, and quirky, with weird and unexpected things happening one after another. There’s a splash of sci-fi mixed in, and it all culminates in a fun but pointless read. This isn’t a book that’ll help you grow, make you a better person, or leave you better informed, and it’s not social commentary either. It’ll just make you laugh a little and take you on an imaginative journey of what it would feel like to step into a super-villain’s shoes.
And I really enjoyed it. I think the author did a phenomenal job of exactly what he set out to do. The writing is sharp and fast-paced, and even though it’s the journey of a villain, it’s very hard not to root for Charlie as he grapples with morally ambiguous decisions. The character development is genuinely good, the dialogue is hilarious, and there’s just enough absurdity in the plot to keep you engaged without it becoming too much to keep track of.
⚠️ Spoiler Zone
🚨 Click to reveal spoilers 🚨
I’m glad I picked this book up. I loved almost everything about it — except the ending. In most cases the ending is a really big piece of the puzzle, but for this book specifically, it’s more about the journey than the destination.
Right from the start, with Jake’s funeral, you know it’s going to be fun. The inscriptions Jake’s associates sent to the funeral were hilarious as hell, and it’s one unexpected event after another — Toby straight up tries to stab the corpse just to make sure Jake’s really dead. And I absolutely loved the cats! I’m not a pet person, but oh my god, Hera and Persephone are sooooo well written. The premise of intelligent animals has been explored plenty in novels, but I’ve never seen them portrayed quite like this. Hera, a cat, has her own intern in Persephone. She owns her own apartment, types on a keyboard using all four legs, and even has her own investment portfolio. And then there are the dolphins — foul-mouthed, cheeky bastards who’ve organized themselves into a union and are running a labour dispute negotiation. Another thing I really liked was how the super-villain business is run. They offer services to companies and individuals — faking your death, machines to destroy satellites — and it’s all led to a mutually assured destruction standoff where all these capabilities exist, yet no one dares use them. That could very well be true in reality too; who knows if there’s an evil corporation out there with exactly these capabilities — it’s not like us peasants would ever find out 😄. It’s hard to put into words why this book is so funny, so you’ll just have to take my word for it and read it. And if my word isn’t enough, maybe the Quote Corner will convince you.
💬 Quote Corner
“Don’t swim with the dolphins during a labor dispute. No matter how much they try to convince you otherwise.”
“Can we start with the cat?” I asked, sitting. CATS, Hera typed. PERSEPHONE IS MY INTERN. Persephone looked at me and mewed. “Paid internship, I hope,” I joked. OF COURSE, Hera typed back. WE’RE ANIMALS, NOT MONSTERS. I paused. “Do you actually get paid?” I asked my cat. YES. “How much?” MORE THAN YOU.
I’M A CAT, I CAN HANDLE RISK. WORST-CASE SCENARIO IS I LOSE EVERYTHING AND I STILL GET FED AND HAVE A PLACE TO NAP.
DOGS ARE THE WORST. THEY’LL SELL YOU OUT FOR A TREAT AND A HEAD PAT.
“So we’re like Spotify, but for evil.” “We’re much less evil than Spotify. We actually pay a living wage to the people whose work we’re selling.”
“Hi, Charlie,” the dolphin said. “I’m Who Gives a Shit, and these are my associates Don’t Care, Fuck You, Fuck Off, Burn It Down, and Eat the Rich.”
⭐ Ratings
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