Assistant To The Villain: A Review
I’m in my Wednesday Addams shoes this December!
An assistant is needed. Requirements and qualifications:
“Must be well organized.
Must enjoy working late nights and relish writing long documents.
Must be comfortable and even supportive of arson, torture, and murder.
And must not scream when there is an occasional dead body lying across your desk”
Quite a job, don’t you think? And that’s exactly what our main character — Evie — found herself working with.
Easy to understand — Assistant To The Villain is not for everyone. There’s an abundance of negative comments slamming the author and badmouthing BookTok (turns out Hannah Nicole Maehrer whipped this book up after being encouraged by her fans on TikTok). But as the saying goes — it might be disgusting or morally debatable, but nevertheless, I very much liked it (dark fantasy fans — follow me to our demise!..).
The first page of the book delivers a warning:
“Assistant to the Villain is a laugh-out-loud, fantasy romance with severed heads hanging from the office ceiling and employees betting on which interns will be fed to the dragon.”
Therefore, H. N. Maehrer did her job — you’ve been advised to proceed at your own discretion.
The Plot
This story follows Evie as she finds herself out of employment and is wandering around the forest deep in thought: what to do next, what to tell her family and how to survive.
Unexpectedly she runs into the most fearsome man there is — the infamous Villain. He is said to be a horrendous-looking old man with questionable morals and the worst of intentions. Yet rumours couldn’t be further from reality.
We follow the story of a Villain saving a girl. But being no damsel in distress, in return Evie then aims to save the Villain.
Overall, the plot is interesting, we anticipate certain twists and turns as the writer weaves in foreshadowing techniques to enrich our reading experience.
The Characters
Evie and the Villain are both highly unconventional personas — not your typical main character!.. I could not help but giggle how Wednesday Addams Evie seemed to be — everything is approached in a logical way, her sense of self-preservation is barely existent, and she is an awfully blunt and cold-blooded character.
At the same time, it’s sometimes surprising how fearsome and illogical Evie may be — she is not afraid of the Villain, nor does she rush to judge or question his evil deeds.
Evie is focused on her work and dedicated to the tasks at hand:
“One severed head was par to the course. A regularity that Evie had grown alarmingly accustomed to in the time she had been working here. But three male heads dangled there now, their mouths open in a silent scream, like they’d left this life in abject terror.”
However, it somehow fits the narrative — we’re not dealing with a typical character here, after all. Evie is determined to keep her job and shoves her beliefs (or rather — morals?) somewhere deep in a sack (I can almost imagine her burying it in the woods!..). Perhaps this character does not make sense to many, but it flows nicely from where I’m reading. Who knows, maybe that’s just a trick up H. N. Maehrer’s sleeve — creating conflict within us and thus encouraging to read more?..
Our Villain turns out to have many layers to him and as the story develops we unravel his roots as well as — possibly? — true nature. Trystan’s character is more consistent, we see his resolve and dedication to the cause. Yet the author shows glimpses of caring and humanity as the Villain seeks to protect everything and everyone dear to him.
“It seemed feeble to merely refer to her boss as a “person”. In so many ways, he was larger than life, but her being responsible for his every want and need had humanized him.”
Many fantasy books use sharp contrasts to portray the Villain as opposed to the main character. I found it interesting how H. N. Maehrer chooses to emphasise similarities as we see Evie and Trystan depicted in parallel instead.
The main characters grow as we dive into their memories and past experiences to battle current situations and upcoming challenges. And of course, character development unravels the main problems of the book.
For this type of a fun read, it seems to deliver, yet I hope to see better progression and significant character growth in the follow-up works. After all, we are looking forward to seeing Evie in her villain’s shoes?..
Main themes and problems
Fantasy readers love morally grey characters — we say the villain would sacrifice the world to save us, whilst the main protagonist would sacrifice us to save the world. Good and evil, light and dark — they are all but concepts. And they are all but a point of view.
“I don’t run from my demons. I welcome them. I let them envelop me until I grow stronger.”
Assistant To The Villain beautifully illustrates that every hero can become a villain, and every villain can be a hero too. Most likely, in their own books of life, these characters are heroes. But Tristan acknowledges — and quite frankly, feels content — being a villain.
“We’re all monsters in the end. At least mine lives in the light.”
Yet not all villains seek destruction. And not all heroes change the world for the better. If it means saving someone important, can we accept becoming a villain in the process?..
Writing and style
The beginning of the book left me wondering if the author still struggled to find her style of writing — there were parts that felt confusing, and there was no consistent style or rhythm. But soon enough the pace picked up and the reader was immersed in this fun and exciting journey following our stubborn (and quite hilarious!) characters.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea — grotesque, full of irony, and very much macabre. Sometimes the author extends a treat and provides fully-blown descriptions, and sometimes we are left to imagine some of the surroundings and events on our own. Overall, it’s quite dynamic, rich and, no doubt, intriguing.
“The hidden room was large and open, desks and tables laden throughout. Stained glass windows, depicting various scenes of evil and torture, were evenly spaced along the beige brick walls, bringing in a warm array of light over the space. The cobwebbed chandelier above them glinted as the light hit it, reminding Evie of the severed heads still hanging from the rafters below. She really hoped that scream from the torture chambers wasn’t another head about to be displayed as well.”
The book is easy to read (if you can stomach it, that is!) — it’s something light (style-wise) and fun. I gulped it down in a couple of evenings and it left me giggling more times than I would care to admit (does that mean I’m a sadist and should apply for this assistant role too?..).
“A smart person would cease speaking at that clearly taken-aback expression, but Evie was not smart. Or rather, Evie was smart, but her brain and her mouth seemed to have a swift detachment from each other.”
Another interesting aspect is that Assistant To The Villain conveys both points of view — it’s engaging, fun and allows us to tap into both main characters and their inner workings.
“He had passed out, and if Evie were to ever inflict pain purposefully on another human being, she wanted them to be fully conscious of it.”
Overall, it is easy to see how the writer improved — from start to finish this book is a journey in more ways than just following Evie and Trystan. It’s also a journey of how the author graduated as a full-blown successful writer (of quite a dubious novel, at that!..).
Conclusion
Assistant To The Villain by H. N. Maehrer is definitely not for everyone, but it’s undoubtedly an interesting book — fun, unconventional, shocking even. It might make you shiver and leave a bad taste on your palate, so make sure it’s up your alley before you pick it up. I would say if you’re a fan of all things macabre, this should make your evenings quite entertaining, otherwise looking for a different book might be a better idea.
It’s easy to read, there is just enough worldbuilding and descriptions to illustrate the main idea, but it’s not overcrowded and leaves space for your imagination.
The story is entertaining, there are some unexpected twists and turns and it’s pretty exciting as the author scatters hints along the way — we can anticipate what will happen.
Trystan and Evie are incredibly interesting — and unconventional — characters and it is no doubt an exciting journey to unravel their inner workings and explore where this story will lead them.
Overall, it’s a fun and exciting read!
My scribbles dive into a variety of topics. The thread of thought can be unpredictable — inspired by places, people, experiences or the occasional earworm on the playlist…
I often weave my cloth of writing unsure where the threads will lead — or if the final tapestry will hold.
Yet whether I scribble fantasy or horror, highly opinionated or research-driven pieces, I hope it leaves you with something to ponder: makes you feel better (or worse?..), strikes an inner monologue (hopefully, voiced out in the comments!) or simply gives you something to chew on, inspiring to keep the creative ball rolling.
Thank you for reading!
