Book Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.
Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.
But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.
It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.
In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

I absolutely loved Starter Villain. It was an easy read with a likable main character and funny dialogues. I really liked Charlie, a wholesome, kind soul who rescued stray kittens and was always trying to do his best by others. Charlie’s actions managed to warm my heart as I read about the situations he faced after inheriting his uncle’s empire following his death. He could be described as the reverse of an antihero in a typical book; Charlie is asked to be a villain, and instead of a starter villain, he manages to be the antivillain of this story.

I have to say that I found it a bit surprising that, out of his depth as he was, he managed to deliver clever retorts and was always able to look at any situation with fresh eyes. However, I was enjoying the book so much that I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoy the wild situations he encountered.

After reading this book, I want to read everything by Scalzi that I have still pending. I might want to take it in small doses so I don’t run out of popcorn books.

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lomeraniel

My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.

I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.