reading red tower: assistant to the villain could've stayed a 60 second skit 

"The glory days of YA but make it spicy and aged up" As someone that has read both fourth wing and hunger games, HG is *WAY* more mature than FW. I went into FW completely blind (and when I say completely blind I somehow was able to miss the comotion around it, only saw the cover with dragons and thought "neat, fantasy with dragons, sounds cool") and the narration and characters were so juvenile and immature I fully believed it was a YA book until the first sex scene hit me like a sack of bricks.

some of the tiktoks were funny, mostly when they were focusing on the villain doing evil things, not on just being attracted to him IMO. Also guys, being evil and hot does not make you "morally grey", you're still morally evil lmao

8:40 i havent read the book but these descriptions + the tiktoks are also giving me that marvel/superhero movie "....He's right behind me, isn't he?" style of humor. In small doses I don't mind it but with long-term exposure I would struggle a bit. I see the appeal though, the idea came from a good-intended place i think! maybe it mightve worked as a silly sitcom novella instead of the tone mix. or, one of those short episodic comics/webseries

the craziest thing to me is that Korean manhwas and webnovels have already done this 100 times over and from the sounds of it 100 times better

That Tik Tok compilation has big “I had to sit through this so now you will too” feels to it. And although I understand it, I can’t condone the cringe lmao

So knowing they were “ YA but spice “ clears up for me why the characters sound so young. Now…the ceo editing… that’s a choice….

the CEO is editing their books?? that's...what is that?? Does that mean they couldn't hire editors before publication or they just didn't want to? I'm guessing the latter. I'll give them this, Red tower definitely seems to know their audience. The "tropes and vibes" girlies are obsessed. I'm just not convinced they'll have any longevity. Especially if they're trying to turn these books into series. People will shrug through one bad book if they're having fun, but sticking around through two or more is a harder ask.

I mean, the way their site describes each book is literally "successful series meets other successful series, but searingly hot!" really solidifies the feeling that the Red Tower project is to sell as many half-baked vibes as possible instead of actually crafting stories. And while I can appreciate that people are having a good time eating up stories where you can turn your brain off, it really does echo Hallmark in the way that the same stories over and over have subtle normalization of shady ideas and then reinforcing them through repetition. Japanese and Korean Light novels, webtoons, and manga are going through an absolute glut of "villainess" types of stories, and even the silliest ones have decent deconstructions and commentaries of villainy and our attraction to villains. To anyone really disappointed by this novel, I highly recommend these as starters: (slapstick) I'm the villainess so I'm taming the final boss (peak drama & angst) Villains are destined to die

Those skits made me want to claw my eyes out.

i really don't understanf why the tiktoks have "morally gray" villain, even though it feels more like an old disney hyperbolic villains that are only doing evil for the sake of it..... a "morally gray" villain would need complex reasons to do things considered evil, not just "well, he is the villain" :-/

The very idea that someone watched those inane, obnoxious, and very not funny TikToks and was like THIS NEEDS TO BE A BOOK makes me wish the printing press had never been invented.

The red tower thing feels like the result of the capitalism and tiktok overtaking the book publishing industry. The books have to be sold in an elevator pitch using tiktok buzzwords and the readers buy and own as many editions as possible. It’s quick turnover times and first draft publishing, with the sequels being pumped out so quickly to maintain the viral moment. It’s honestly very tragic.

I feel like making this idea into a comic book with short self contained chapters would have been a lot better. I haven't read the book or watched the shorts but from what I saw here the author's skillset and experience don't seem to be in long-form media.

5:28 "there was not an ounce of fat on that man's body" I know she was trying to say that he's jacked but this is an awful sentence that conjures terrible imagery. It also feels wildly insulting to fat people (and not fat people tbh.)

Huh, I am again baffled by current book trends. I wasn't really interested in Assistant to the villain, but thanks for suffering through it! The TT skits looked...mildly amusing as an idea to me, but I don't get the whole "and he's hot" thing. I think I would be more interested in a sort of jaded assistant who just works there, because what can you do, we all need to eat - but only as skits every now and then. As a book, it sounds way to exhausting

I always side eye things that call themselves fluffy and fun but have SA. How is that light hearted and fun? Pick a lane.

How many special editions do you think this one will get? 😂

Wait it’s like a feudal fantasy type setting? I thought it was more like a supervillain/incredibles type thing

There are SO many weird/icky things about the "YA but make it spicy", why are grown adults still doing that 😭 AND WHY IS THAT CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE PUBLISHING STRATEGY. People are literally making money off this ick 😭😭 this kind of tonal dissonance you describe so well here is one of my LEAST favorite things, I hate it so much!! Either have a consistent tone, or use contrasting tones in a way that is effective and meaningful - don't try to tell me we're just here for a silly fun time and then throw a ton of awful sh*t into the story that you just ignore!! random, but idk if you ever saw that animated movie Megamind but from what I remember it did this vibe SO much better. The FMC wasn't the villain's assistant but she does eventually end up working with him - and I think his character arc/our understanding of the character was handled well AND the movie was also kind of ahead of its time in the way it showed how creepy and scary the whole unrequited love/incel thing can be (who is not the MMC just to be clear)

That third “why?!” about the main character’s feelings towards the woc in her workplace 😭 too real. How many times have I read a book on my yt friend’s recommendation and then midway thru been like “haha now why does this MC hate this new character… oh they’re not white yay! …oh. Oh! Oh???? No…………..” 😅😅😅

Me and Marines 🤝 being bamboozled by Booktok books (Fourth Wing) 😂 literally my exact experience “Like YA but spicy! And aged up!” BEGGING, BEGGGING, BEGGING! Publishers to just accepted New Adult. Too many grown ass adults wanting to read YA and demanding “spice” (aka content meant to arouse which is fine if it doesn’t involve MINORS) and co-opting a space meant for teens so loudly and taking it over. But the barely legal age characters being vessels for grown ups (myself included, I’m 25 LOL) to enjoy sexual content is….a problem. Also; I totally thought those skits were suppose to be mocking the trope but apparently not if there’s a whole book about it😂😂

4:28 Do y'all know that one SpongeBob reaction pic where Mr. Krabs stares at a chalkboard that says "Days without white nonsense: 0"? That's essentially my reaction to these videos of her

The way a book like this could have been a Chuck Tingle style satire but instead it's.... well.

I was curious to read this book because personally I love hammy villain romances but that's usually in a "I will take over the world and give you Austrailia as a present" sort of self-awareness about villainy. I feel like the book would have worked better in that sort of lens because you don't actually need to make the villain morally grey to be compelling or romanceable but when you try to have it both ways you end up getting "I wished my father loved me as much as I love kicking puppies" energy

The CEO of Red Tower being the "editor" for both books is why publishing needs more unions 🙃

I'm only in the skit section and my God this is cringe. it's painful and not in a fun, self aware way like, prime 2005 quirky girl core 🤢🤢🤢

I don't mind the tik toks. They're so much shorter and the suspension of disbelief is higher. They're not great, but I see why this is a funny idea for a sketch. But part of the humor comes from the main character being the butt of the joke for how oblivious and horny she is, and the fact that we never see the villain, so the implication is that he's doing all this bizarre stuff just off screen, and trying to imagine what's going on adds to the tension and the humor. But that does not make a book. We can't all be as charming and creative as Terry Pratchett.

I misheard one of the skits as “your love interest” instead of “her love interest”, and I think that a story about the assistant to a gay villain in one of those dramatic love-hate relationships with the hero would be a lot more interesting than the bog standard secretary/boss office romances. Like, all the potential humour gets drained away the moment it becomes about how much the assistant wants to bone her boss, but being the third wheel to the world’s messiest gay romance? Now THAT has potential

I miss the person I was before I watched those Tiktoks. You are by far my favorite reviewer. You never miss! Your 4th Wing hate makes me giggle every time because they really swindled us all with that one.

I saw the comments about the skits and the curse that I call curiosity couldn’t help it and I went to check them out. Now I'm sitting here, freshly after opening the Dead Dove Bag in the fridge, thinking "I dont know what I expected" sigh edit: i commented before watching the video because I didnt think you'd add examples and now i reached the point of the video with examples and my skin wants to leave my body :') lmaoo

I died at “a LeCroix of a plot” 💀

I picked this up at the library recently because the description sounded like a worse (i.e. less critical thinking, more tropey romantasy) version of Hench, and I was curious how that would work. I'm not on TikTok so I hadn't realized there were skits, but I think you summed it up in the title: could've stayed as a 60-second skit. I feel better about DNFing it, if that's what they were building the whole story around. Also, "the La Croix of a plot" is such a descriptive and concise phrase, might find that sneaking into my review vocabulary!

The wild thing about all of this is that I’m pretty sure these skits are knock offs of a MUCH funnier, better written series about being an assistant to a super villain by Daniel Fox

As far as how PoC are treated in Fourth Wing there's also Rhiannon who is a very stock "black best friend". About the only thing I've seen that differentiates her from other stock black best friends is that Rhiannon is clearly the most intelligent character in the series but is never treated like it (Which I'm pretty sure isn't even that uncommon for the archetype she fits into)

i remember blocking the author bc i cringed every time she popped up on my fyp

if ANY ‘working for the villain’ pitch was gonna work as a book it would be that blonde guy who did the ‘villain’s gay assistant’ skits imo bc those are actually funny, well-paced, have the assistant as unambiguously on the villain’s side and tonally consistent instead of having this naïve, sunshiney woman breezing through this immense torture lmao

these are all excellent points and I am HERE for your red tower nemesis era... could it end in an enemies to lovers arc? we'll have to see haha. Great video!

When you said "it reads like YA, it feels like YA, it has themes like YA" I so wanted you to break out into a Gaston-like song about YA. That is all. Thank you for reading this book so we don't have to :)

Im here for your watching this imprint and trying to make sense of it, thank you. For an interesting book that looks at the collateral damage caused to regular people by heroes and villains, I recommend Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - have you read that one? It's from the perspective of temp agency workers that heroes hire to run their operations - a pov I've not seen before.

i’m very intentional about not skipping through the videos of my faves, you being one of them mari… but those tiktoks were a no. absolutely not. i was double tapping before i knew it, i’m so sorry 😭😭

YA but "aged up and spicy"? Red Tower? Mama that's a Red Flag

Ohh nooo.... the only woman of colour being the token "we hate the other female character for no reason" godddd. That trope sucks enough when it's the way these books characterise any other woman, but have some self-awareness, authors, please....

i know humour is very subjective but my godddd being subjected to those tiktoks you showed was a little painful oof i had to skip ahead 😮‍💨

Yea after reading Assistant to the Villain and watching your review on both this and Fourth Wing, i think i can safely say im done with Red Tower books

I haven't read Assistant To The Villain yet, but you mentioned the anachronistic especially in Fourth Wing pulls me out of the story so fast. Your characters use modern swearing, fine. At basic training I swore all the time (even though we weren't supposed to). Okay, that is fine. But the concept of a 'hot guy' isn't an old verbiage it's a new one. Like a baddie. That just bothered me. The language you use in your authorship matters. Got a fantasy world, create a swear, in my book its 'all above and below' or 'everything above and below'. It's very clearly meant to be a curse, most people would read it as a curse, and you don't sound like you're recording a tiktok, like a totally viral tiktok, like i'm-going-to-get-someone-cancelled-and-I-like-it tiktok. I'm down for smut/spicy but the rest of the story has to match. No plot/slice of life romance is fine. Just be honest and use the right language.

Good sweet Lord, this has a 4.03 on Goodreads with almost 21,000 ratings. We are really living in the worst timeline.

I had to fast forward through the tiktoks 😬

I waited weeks for this on Libby only to return it after two chapters… 😅 underdeveloped idea and cringey execution

So is the "Assistant to the Villain" trying to be "Nimona"? Cuz it feels like it failed. I love "Nimona" the movie and the graphic novels, but this book doesn't sound like a book I would enjoy. Granted, I'm sure Nimona isn't the only story out there from the POV of an assistant to the big bad villian, but going off only by the summary of "Assistant to the villain", and its attempts at humor, it's sound vaguely inspired by "Nimona", but make it so the assistant is attracted to the villain.

It definitely seems like this new publishing press is trying to create the most marketable and “viral” books as quickly as possible without checking the quality inside the cover. Their growing reputation will start to jam that short term strategy real soon I bet…

First of all, you have the most delightful laugh on the internet!! Secondly, this video was great - I especially liked your thoughts re: "better to be dead than a survivor," and I like how you distinguish between the things that are not for you vs. objectively not good!! You're a really good, well rounded reviewer, and I'm really glad that you're on booktube. Lastly, if you're up for making a video with your thoughts/analysis on what the new adult genre is/what it could be, I would love to hear it!! Best wishes 💓

The skits were just a less funny version of the Villain’s gay assistant

I didn't realize Red Tower was that shady but I literally just saw that the preorder of the Fourth Wing sequel has bonus chapters!? Like in addition to the sprayed edges and the fact that they made it an "untitled project" on Amazon to get people to feel extra need for it is sooooo ... gross for lack of a better word

I KNEW there was something going on with Fourth Wing's marketing. Thank you, this was very informative

I can’t lie I had to fast forward through the TikToks because I was physically cringing

I former cast mate (local theatre) has a tiktok series about being the mortal companion of death. I'm between wishing they had been the one turn their skits into a book and relieved that they didn't do it too 😂😂 Also, you're laugh is infectious that I can't help but smile myself. Thank you for the content!

I've never see those tiktoks before, but why are half the skits just her se ually harrassing her boss? And the baby voice🤨 I've heard people describe the plot and its holes, so it's def not for me. I like unconvential superhero stories, like deconstructions and satires or sentai and magic girl variants, but I think I'll stick to the webcomics that fit my tastes.

Red Tower is giving me Zando project vibes. Zando's mission statement might as well be 'we publish podcasters half-baked books". Although Red Tower's CEO being the editor is beyond half-baked thats raw cookie dough gives you salmonella levels of undercooked

@ 17:23 does Marines say “the absolute la croix of a plot”? I’ve never heard the term “la croix” used. Am I spelling it right?

Those TikToks are so…… tumblr. The type of posts I would like when I was 12 and really impressed with myself because I read books unlike other girls. God, I’m having horrible flashbacks now 😅 I studied book publishing at university and this project reminds me of the kind of research article I would write, analyzing the titles of a imprint that has a veryyy particular audience and what that says about our ~ society ~and the reasons people consume the types of stories they do. Good times. Anyway, looking forward to the future videos! Also, you look really pretty in this one 😊

You were very gracious in the way you described the “humor.” Those TikToks made my whole body cringe. The way that gen z roasts us for that kind of humor is both insulting (because I’m sorry but that’s not MY humor in the slightest and I’m an ELDER millennial), and also sort of warranted. If that’s what most millennial humor is then I guess we deserve the criticism and I just got lucky with choosing friends who also don’t find that kind of weird humor anything but the epitome of cringe.

I have been interested in both books, but my library has both! So will be renting both of them so will be able to tell if I like them. Thankfully since they are popular, at least they will have them and if I don't, I'm not out any money. Great Critiques

"the la croix of a plot" brilliant

See I've came across some skits that are quite alike and they are stupid funny. The premise was not the problem, the author just have rly stale comedy on top of subpar delivery. It's also VERY in your face, like having a joke explained instead of told as is😕

That laugh after you said the CEO was the editor really closed the case for me.

There are other creators who do this concept MUCH better and less shriekey. Can't believe this got optioned and not the higher quality ones smh

the concept was semi-doomed from the beginning because when has "lets turn the SKIT/JOKE POST THAT YOURE SUPPOSED TO READ FOR 5 SECONDS, CHUCKLE AT AND CONTINUE YOUR DAY into a full fledged book that tries taking itself seriously" ever been a solid concept, but then you talked of how this could actually work as some sort of commentary and actually say something so now its just kind of sad? instead it seems to reinforce everything it could comment on. seems like red tower is going to be an...interesting publisher to keep an eye on. feels like theyre gonna embody booktok based marketing extremely literally, thats the impression im getting

Meh I think NA could have potential if these characters went through what people in their 20s go through, like your first full time job, actually being independent, what it means to be an adult. But usually NA just means YA romance but with smut. And I guess I’m just… not into YA romance anymore as someone in their late 20s? It’s just a bit too young for me. If I read a romance I want complex characters and actual bumps in the road.

i'm so confused by the "brain-off reading" fans of these books seem to parrot, because... these books are full of things that beg me NOT to turn my brain off?? Fourth Wing for example has a shit-tonne of murder, revisionist history, fascism, eugenics, war crimes, and extremely blatant ableism, yet people were turning their brains off and having a "fun" time? And that's to say nothing of the writing style, which constantly had me re-reading lines to understand, or leaping over paragraphs of information that added nothing to the plot, or just questioning the very premise and set-up of everything going on. and i feel like a book needs to be able to stand up to its own premise. if you tell me something, have some logical throughline that i can follow, even if it's flawed. killing half your army off before they become your army needs to make sense if you're in an active war with an enemy, but it never makes any sense at all. It's meant to be enemies-to-lovers, but it's not. I couldn't just "brain-off" my way through that when the high-stakes and the romance are THE selling points?

Red tower books is the morphe of the book world and I will not elaborate. 😂 you should just know it’s bad and run.

those skits... are all literally the same except the girl got more confident with each installment and started speaking louder and higher. definitely a skip for me as a book, yikes! feels like it's just pandering to a very specific online reading community

YES, SLICE-OF-LIFE! That was exactly what I was thinking! This book sounds like it'd be a great short webcomic? I imagine it as a comedic / slice-of-life / office lady kind of story. A lot of the comments here seem pretty negative about the book? Never heard of it, the book or the series, and I don't intend on reading them, but I do read a lot of Korean/Japanese/Chinese manga/webcomics and this premise would fit right in. Since the LI has zero personality, having gorgeous artwork would be a good fit! Honestly, I would probably read it. Also the part about the CEO being the editor... I can only say: run away, Marines.

i've heard some loose inside publishing gossip (i can't verify it atm but i believe it!!) that yarros was hired to write fourth wing like an IP project, which makes me think red tower is more of a book packager than they're letting on? having everything personally edited by the ceo would make more sense in this case too -- nothing at all against book packaging or ip work! but i think that context makes this whole thing make a lot more sense

The thing with Becky is she is actually cool. She really cares about her job. And I love that she doesn’t have to be “nice”. But she’s probably the coolest character.

Lately I really want to move away from ya more and more. It just isn't what it used to be. Genious marketing but it shows people don't know what's good and will always cave in with what is in front of them and easy. I'll stick to books where the writers actually care about their story and craft. I still will give the ya books on my shelf a chance but I'll curb my curiousity with these new books by rant videos 😂

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (pub Sept of 2020!) is the only thing I can think of whenever this book comes up. I loved Hench so much

Red Tower is a meme wearing a publishing house trenchcoat.

my conspiracy theory about the fourth wing books release schedule is that the awful colloquial English the book uses is going to make it age like milk so they have to churn these out before even it’s fans find it cringey

The whole thing sounds cringy... like lazy knee slapping attempts at comedy grasping for low hanging fruits. The skits are very 90s cartoon mixed w sitcom. Like if Friends met Dexter's Laboratory or Rocco's Modern Life... I like those but the skits aren't funny

This could've been fun if the villain was more on the lines of megamind. Imposible tho, megamind is not a villain.. is a supervillain 😂

This concept of a romance between the protagonist and a villainous man was essentially done, a long time ago, with Jane Eyer, and way better.

"La Croix of a plot" What a great way to describe a book. I haven't read this, even though the concept sounds like it could be good if written by a better author. Shame it ended up being bad. I think this concept would work better without a romance.

ok, this might be a terrible example but i think this story would've been better suited if the villains were more like the ones in the kids movie, despicable me, . like sure there are some instances where its insinuated that the villains might kill or torture, but it's very blink and you miss it, could be explained as something else kinda thing. They're moreinterested in like, stealing the moon lol.

Why am I hearing so much about this one and fourth wing but I’ve never heard of starbringer? Was the marketing different for that one?

Wait Wah?!? There is going to be 5 total 4th Wing Books. In Rapid Succession. Oh NO. 😱 I'm not reading any more book series with rapid releases of 1 year or less after being burned by a book duology I liked the Book 1 of but Book 2 was obviously rushed and confusing plot choices. There was another one, but it was more like nowhere as good as its Book 1 rather than just awful So no 4th Wing for me for my sanity's sake. Also will keep my eye out for any Red Tower books so I can avoid them. Ohhh my favorite dynamic in stories and fandoms. The "complicated" non-white woman (or dude) is being judged badly for doing the same or not even as bad of things as the white-looking villain dude. This book can't decide if this is a dark, light-hearted, or over-the-top comedy fantasy and failing at both it seems. This should have been a stand alone self-contained story with a possibility of a squeal should the author want to proceed. It feels like Red Tower seems they don't edit anything much other than spellcheck and just rely on rapid release books with all the tropes/trends checklist filled out. Come on Red Tower be an equal opportunity book publisher and let openly queer and/or non-white people write popular trashy novels too. This is why true liberation will never be achieved. If they can't afford full-time editors and have to rely on the CEO to "edit" the books I think they won't bother with sensitivity readers to check on the racist, sexist, and queerphobic writing. If they do have any they won't bother to edit/rewrite the books to fix it as it would take too much time out of the rapid release schedule which is money, but I bet they don't have any sensitivity reader checking this stuff at all. This likely explains the questionable writing among the non-white characters in these books. Heck they probably don't even have Beta Readers. I'm on Team Marines and should you light the bonfires I will wake up past dawn to fight against this Red Tower and its scourge of badly edited, rushed, trope-led books.

Can’t wait for you to finish Star Bringer 😂

Honestly, I may be the odd one out in the comment section, but I did enjoy this book. I also think since I read it during a reading slump and didn't want to do too much thinking, this was a good book to read. I think the book had a lot of potential - sunshinexgrumpy trope (which I am such a sucker for LOL), the villain's family, the betrayal of Evie's father, and even the worldbuilding - but I feel like the author missed out on that and hopefully clears it up in the second book. The most thing I hated about this book was Evie LOL. I couldn't stand her as a protagonist. I also thought the writing was too simple, but since I read this during a time I didn't want to do much thinking, I actually enjoyed the simplicity of it. I'm an English major and sometimes I don't want to sit and analyze and figure out what the author is trying to say all the time LOL. I appreciate your review and it got me to think about a few aspects I didn't think would be an issue. Especially with the part about Becky - I did find it odd and horrible she was the only darker skinned character in the story made out to be the antagonist; I didn't realize it when I was reading it and went back to look. Thanks for another great video, Marine!

THAT LAUGH at the end, I cannot. 🤣 I’m cackling with you, what is happening?! It’s like this is a weird vanity project for the CEO.

“The Morally Grey Fantasy Villain’s Personal Assistant” So…basically what Isaac and Hector were in Castlevania?

Your description of this book weirdly puts me in mind of the film Igor, with its sympathy for the villain theme and anachronistic use of language and setting, but Igor is a thoroughly good film with John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard and more. So I guess I'm recommending Igor to anyone disappointed by this book?

I did not know this started as a TikTok sketch but this explains a lot of the problems I had with this book. The characters and world are underdeveloped. The book gives you no reasons to support the Villain early on and you don't learn enough about the king to dislike him until the very end.

I'm sorry, the CEO as supposed editor? That explains a lot.

I bought the book to support the author. I enjoyed her tik toks as they provided me with entertainment throughout lock downs. I enjoyed the book enough but I definitely won’t be continuing.

You would HATE Starbringer. I managed to finish that beast and it was the first book I wanted to chuck at my wall.

I just had to read this for a book club. I agree with most of your points, but am beholden to point out that the "good" character, Tatianna, is also POC. Not that it's easy to find out, because the author doesn't do a great job of describing her characters. You have to piece it together as you read.

I saved this video until I could read the book myself. I never saw the TikToks which is probably a good thing or I would not have enjoyed the book based on what I saw in this video 😂 I personally had fun reading this because it was very cheesy. I don’t think it’s a great book by any means but it was fun. I do think the fancy sprayed edges and special editions have gotten out of hand so fast! I’m worried we will start seeing a lot more books that are just pushed out for sales because people do want the pretty books. I’m tired of buying one version just for another cool one to pop up 😭 Anywho really enjoyed your take!

It's kind of funny to me that the publisher shares a name with a scathingly anti-capitalist short story.

Honestly the idea of "Young Adult books but not young anymore" is just odd to me. If you want less than mature characters + sexual content then I feel like either you're looking for the plot rather than the characters, or you want a type of tonal dissonance thats portrayed in step-sibling porn. Like a young adult story is written for young adults, its for younger adults and teens to relate to. Does no one find it odd that people want a mostly teen-centric media to be mixed in with a mostly hyper-sexual just for those two specific aspects? I think its weird, thats for sure

I haven't read the book, only seen a few review videos on it, but from the way its described I think it might've worked better as a "fantasy workplace black comedy" where the assistant is also morally bankrupt and completely head-over-heels for the big bad evil villain, who 1) actually does evil things on-page and in-focus, and 2) was like, an old decrepit undead necromancer or even a demilich-style floating skull, things where it makes functionally no sense why the assistant would find him so hot or even slightly sympathetic and that's the joke I like commentary and satire on popular tropes and trends in books on occasion, but this sounds less like an examination of why people are drawn to antagonists even if they are meant to be reprehensible (and sometimes even parallel/represent actual evils in the world) and more like the author acting "in on the joke" of recent fantasy NA/adult trends without really adding anything to the conversation. It's the same feeling I got while reading fourth wing before I DNF'd, so I guess this might just be what this publisher is already looking for and trying to build a brand around

Those skits were so bad 😭😭 Also, Starbringer is so hard to get through…I was mostly curious about it due to its marketing (I knew it was probably going to be bad based on it, because I’ve read the crave series) but wow it was so much more boring than I ever thought it would be.