Synopsis:
The wizard Margle the Horrendous takes special pride in never killing his enemies. Instead, he transforms them into various accursed forms and locks them away in his castle. His halls are filled with his collection of fallen heroes and defeated villains, along with a few ordinary folk who were just unfortunate enough to draw Margle’s attention.

It’s Nessy’s duty to tend this castle. It’s a lot of work, but she manages, taking pride in housekeeping talents that keep the castle from collapsing into chaos. But when Margle suddenly dies, everything begins to unravel. Nessy finds herself surrounded by monsters, curses, a door that should never be opened, and one very deadly dark wizardess.

Nessy doesn’t have might or magic on her side; she’s just a kobold: short, furry, and sensible. Her allies aren’t much better: a voice without a body, an angry fruit bat, a monster under her bed, a wizard in a jar (or some of him, anyway), and a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple, people eater. It would be smarter to walk away, but taking care of the castle is Nessy’s job, and that’s just what she intends to do.

If only she could find time to polish the silver while beating back the forces of darkness.

Review:
This book was gifted to me for Christmas, so therefore counts towards the paper books read tally. I personally found the book a bit hard to get into, but then it wasn’t a book I would have picked up for myself. This book was interesting in that it dealt with a lot of neat Dungeons and Dragons adjacent creatures/effects. This was definitely a younger age book than I would have expected, though marketed for adults I really think 8+ could read and enjoy this novel. There were a lot of good moments of learning about one’s self and abilities and not being defined by a title you may have gained/have or what you are considered because of the station you were born into in life.

I would recommend this to any young readers into DnD that like adventure.

Star rating: ✯✯✯