Medium: Paperback
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Length: 342 Pages
Rating: 4/5
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.
With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.
But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out.
Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.
After all, a good job is hard to find.
With my brain as flighty as it is, when I only make a mental note of something months or gods forbid, years in advance, I more often than not forget to follow up on it. One of the first TikTok sketch series I started following when I joined the app back in July 2020 was this girl playing the personal assistant to a fairytale/fantasy villain. It was silly and fun and played with the idea of traditional story arcs. The internets newest subculture of BookTok was growing its obsession with morally gray characters (a term which here means people who try to accomplish good, but are willing to use questionable methods to get there) and @Hannahnicolemae hit the sweet spot. Some hundred instalments into the sketch series, Maehrer announced her plan to publish a book that follows Evie on her adventures as The Villain's assistant. I was incredibly excited! Somehow, despite my lack of physical reminder, I managed to buy the book on publication day! It has finally made it off my TBR shelf and damn was it well worth the wait.
It's giving...Medieval Modern
One of the first annotations I wrote in my book was "this gives me Ella Enchanted vibes"! Cause it does! With a bit of a new millennium take and a little less taking itself seriously, Assistant to the Villain sits within the same category as the 1997 classic and its 2004 movie counterpart. Down to the goofy workaround ways to include modern technology or amenities (the description of coffee and document coping are hilarious) it fills the void I've been feeling for this kind of content. The world building is a bit heavy handed at the start, even for a first book in a series, but it becomes more subtle and less clunky by about 30% of the way through. I loved that despite the similarities of the overall vibe of the story, nothing of the setting or plot is a copy of Ella Enchanted. Maehrer creates an entirely original experience that is engaging and adorable.
The choice to not go too far into the science of the magic in this world is the one decision I question when it comes to the worldbuilding. With Evie's tragic backstory involving magic gone wrong, and the constant instances of The Villain's magic, I wanted to better understand the whys, whens, and hows of the magic system. The only concrete things we know is that magic is not genetic and can manifest in any capacity at any time. In my opinion, if you are going to utilize magic as part of your narrative, it needs to have strong rules. Readers are willing to suspend their disbelief especially in fantasy novels, but you can't take advantage of that and drop in magic willy-nilly. I am hoping that in the following books in the series the magic system will be fleshed out further and we will get a deeper understanding of how people with magic impact this world.
Subverting Expectations
The strongest feature of this novel is the way it plays with genre and expectations. In the character arcs, personality traits, and narrative journey we are lulled into anticipating one thing and ultimately hit over the head (in a good way) with something entirely different. It starts with the characters themselves. Evie is our heroine. She is brash where she would be meek. She is messy where she would be put together. She is vengeful where she would be filled with mercy. Then there is Trystan, The Villain. He is caring where he would be cruel. He is orderly where he would be chaotic. He is young and hot where he would be old and ugly. (An ongoing joke acknowledged through the kingdom's wanted posters.) Even the initial set of suspects among The Villain's staff are knocked off the list for unexpected reasons. Each character is so well established with depth of personality without falling back on any typical stereotypes of the genre. Pushing the contradictory traits of each character opens the prospect that any of these people can eventually flip a switch and do the exact opposite of what the reader is ready for.
Although the beats of the narrative lean toward being slightly predictable, the way in which the story brings us to each of those beats is twisty in a way that isn't. This builds a totally new version of a story you've read many times before. I loved that we uncovered pieces of the mystery in a different way each time. Some things we learn as the reader before the characters do. Some things we learn along with the characters. And some other things we learn after the characters have already discovered them. This allows more space for the reader to exist within the narrative. It also dodges the expectations of the genre where the characters know everything and the readers are always one to three steps behind. From the reveal of the traitor in their midst, to the love story building between Evie and Trystan from the moment they meet this book is unpredictably predictable in a way that feels like comfort.
I had a swan of a time reading this book! It was a goofy YA that knows it is goofy and doesn't try to convince you it is anything but. Some of the reviews I have seen for this book have been down voting it for this very thing saying the book reads like baby's first fanfiction. I'm not saying it doesn't, but I am saying I kind of love it for that very reason. If you have read Assistant to the Villain I want to know what you thought! Did you like the silly vibes? Who was your favorite character and why was it Kingsley the frog? What do you think is really going on with the kingdom? Tell me in the comments!
For now,
Keep wondering and stay wandering!
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