Assistant to the Villain

Debut author Maehrer’s TikTok series–turned–novel follows Evie, a chirpy personal assistant who catches the eye of her boss, a decidedly grumpy dark lord. Though it seems she may have magic of her own, Evie must keep her job in order to support her family—which is why she initially rationalizes hanging around Massacre Manor after the first stray eyeball squishes beneath her stiletto-heeled boot. In a departure from similar retellings of “Beauty and the Beast” (see Diana Wynne Jones’s classic Howl’s Moving Castle and Naomi Novik’s more recent Uprooted) wherein a beastly wizard’s employer’s reputation is undeserved, Tristan, the Villain, actually is murdering people. The change adds some grimly funny moments but is undermined by audio narrator Em Eldridge’s plodding pacing, which draws attention to Maehrer’s repetitive and underworked prose. Fans of the TikTok series will likely be disappointed in Eldridge’s wooden characterizations, which lack the infectious, unselfconscious glee of Maehrer’s TikTok skits. The novelization of a viral video series might attract an audience but is less than magical as read by this narrator.