Dreadful
- its.brittanyb
- Jun 5
- 4 min read
“He woke up with no eyebrows and no idea how he'd gotten into such a position.”
REVIEW
Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe
Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?
Tropes | Trigger Warnings |
Amnesia, Magic systems | Violence, Murder, Abduction, Torture |
SUMMARY
Dread Lord Gavrax isn’t known for his wonderful personality, being nice, or for being that great of a Dark Wizard. He is known for being mean as hell, tries to set everyone on fire, and a mildly competent Dark Wizard.
If Dark Wizards had a hierarchy, or a boss, Gavrax’s boss would be Zarconar. He is a terrifying, very skilled Dark Wizard. Zarconar tells Gavrax about a spell they are going to do to summon a high level demon. To do this, Zarconar needs Gavrax to get a virgin of royal blood. He sends Xaxus (another Dark Wizard) to retrieve dragon tears. And Valevna (the only female Dark Wizard we get the pleasure of meeting) to retrieve demon seed. They all know certain parts of the spell but they aren’t privy to the whole thing. Gavrax kidnaps the youngest princess, Eliasha, and holds her prisoner. Then he decides to summon a knowledge demon so that he can ask it questions about this spell. Well, Gavrax (somehow, we never quite figure out how) loses (or sells? Bargains?) his memories. He wakes up with absolutely no idea who he is, who anyone is, or what the fuck is going on. He, fortunately, still instinctively knows how to do some magic.
Gavrax learns his name from Siraco who is his steward. Gavrax is like what kind of name is that, I don’t feel like that fits me, so he decides to go by Gav. Siraco is the only human that works for Gavrax, everyone else is a goblin. He is told by Siraco that he killed his last valet just the night before so he has a new one, Grrrribeetle. He also learns he has a princess being held hostage. For what reason he has no idea.
He goes to her cell to question her..thinking maybe she knows why he kidnapped her? But she doesn’t. He does find himself intrigued by her. He doesn’t like that she is in a cell and eating alone. He invites her to eat dinners with him and they talk. He finds out that she wears a ring that has a glamour to make her appear prettier than she really is. He also realizes that she has a touch of magic.
Throughout this book, Gav realizes he doesn’t like Gavrax at all. He doesn’t know what was wrong with him, why he was so evil, or why he mistreated everyone. He finds that he really likes some of the goblins, Grrrribeetle, Orla (the cook), and Throk (Captain of the Guard) being some of his favorites. He even saves Grrrribeetles life, in front of Eliasha, which shocks the goblins and the princess. He has to try and figure out how to keep everyone, including the other Dark Wizards, from finding out he doesn’t have his memories.
Gav finds out that the Dark Wizards are coming to his castle to perform the ritual, which will end with Zarconar killing Eliasha. Gav doesn’t know exactly how to stop them - if he tries, Zarconar will kill Gav and then go ahead and kill the princess (and probably all the townspeople and goblins too). If he doesn’t try, then Zarconar completes the summoning, which cannot end in anything good happening, and kills Eliasha anyways.
Since he kidnapped Eliasha there are a bunch of heroes who are trying to rescue her. So they will be descending upon the castle right around the same time.
Not to mention, the townsfolk have not had a great harvest, they have no food (or money to buy food from other villages) for the winter. Except, they have a surplus of garlic….the only thing that would grow.
Gav ends up telling the goblins and the mayor, Terwyn, about his lack of memory. Eliasha figures it out on her own. They all come up with a plan. This plan will (hopefully) entail - the townsfolk selling a lot of their garlic during a garlic festival that they will conveniently hold when all the heroes descend upon their village. Distract the heroes by inviting other villages to the castle for a Dark Wizard castle tour. Somehow, foil the ritual so that Zarconar doesn’t kill the princess, and also doesn’t summon the demon.
By the end of the book, Gav manages to save most of the townspeople from the dark wizards. Only a few heroes die. The ritual almost gets completed, but Gav manages to kill Zarconar with a squid, and banish the demon. Gav also finds out that Siraco isn’t as bloodthirsty and evil as he pretended to be throughout the book. Siraco has told Gav that everyone Gav requested be tortured and killed…he actually let them go. And people that Gav thought he had killed, such as his last valet, he didn’t, Siraco saved them.
Gav decides he wants to start over, he doesn’t want to be a mediocre Dark Wizard anymore. He encourages the goblins and Siraco to turn the castle into a Dark Wizard B&B and then he leaves with Eliasha. But as friends…for now.
