ARC Review--Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne

In an irreverent new series in the tradition of Terry Pratchett novels and The Princess Bride, the New York Times bestselling authors of the Iron Druid Chronicles and Star Wars: Phasma reinvent fantasy, fairy tales, and floridly written feast scenes.

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born . . . and so begins every fairy tale ever told.

This is not that fairy tale.

There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.

And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.

There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he's bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there's the Dark Lord who wishes for the boy's untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there's a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar "happily ever after" that ever once-upon-a-timed.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


I’ve been a fan of Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne's work separately for some time now and when I heard they were writing a book together, I just knew it was going to be something amazing, and it was! Kill the Farm Boy is the first book they co-wrote together and it’s everything one could hope for from a fantasy/humorous read! I like to think of it as a combination of The Princess Bride and a Mel Brooks film! It’s that kind of humor set on the backdrop of a fantastical world like The Princess Bride! It makes for a most entertaining read!

In the beginning, what we know is that there’s a terrible cursed placed on a nearby kingdom in which everyone has fallen into a deep sleep and can’t be awakened for anything. Then a fairy comes to Worstley and claims that he is the Chosen One! He is meant to break the curse and set the people free! Though the fairy might be a little off her rocker as she’s only wearing one sock and when she wants to give an example of her magic, she gifts his pet goat with the ability of speech, though Gustave, the goat, isn’t quite what you’d expect from a talking animal companion, I’d say he’s more of an adult version of Donkey from Shrek! You can definitely expect a lot of laughs from him!

Our introduction to more characters comes from a warrior type woman who falls onto Worstley as she’s climbing the tower he’s trying to reach and kills him. Yup, Worstley gets killed very early, but don’t worry, he’s only mostly dead. The warrior, Fia, hopes that by putting him into the cursed tower with cursed people will keep in him a sort of stasis until they can find a magical fairy who can reverse his current state.

Fia and Gustave continue to add more ragtag characters into their group as they venture to find the fairy who’s an aunt to Worstley. Joining them is, Poltro, an assassin who fears chickens, Toby, a Dark Lord who is very fond of cheese and wants to kill the Chosen One to aid in his powers, and Agrabella, a bard who’s part rabbit as that was the effect the curse had on her in the tower. This group makes for quite the entertainment as they are not quite the heroes you would expect. They’re rather charming and sometimes, not too bright in their endeavors. Naturally, as they travel they get waylaid by other quests and encounters with dangerous enemies and life threatening perils. They will have to set aside their variable differences and work together if they hope to survive.

Kill the Farm Boy was seriously entertaining! I am talking more laughter than I ever thought possible when it came to a book! There were so many puns and different references that it was just hysterical! There’s also still a good story going on throughout. The characters all have their own dreams and ambitions and yet, they still work together when they have to. Gustave was especially entertaining, I mean he’s a talking goat! I wouldn’t be surprised if he was Donkey’s great-grandson or something! Lol!

There were quite a few surprising twists to this story that I didn’t see coming! Murder, love, transformations beyond one’s ken! Yes, ken! Obviously I am still riding the high of a seriously good read here! Lol! What I said still remains true! There’s a whole lot of adventure going on here and it was a most spectacular read! That there’s already a sequel planned has me completely giddy! I will be excited to see if this will involve new characters or if we’ll stick with this gang. There’s no official description yet, just a title that already has me chuckling!

I guess the only bit of issue I had was that there were times when I felt like things slowed down a bit. There weren’t too many of these times, thankfully. Still, at times I felt like things just kind of came to a halt and it was like trying to drag your feet through mud to get through them. They didn’t last for real long, and part of this could be because I was reading this on my kindle, I find that this happens to me more often when I read a longer book on my kindle. It’s just a weird habit that I can’t seem to shake.

Kill the Farm Boy was a hilarious read that is likely to make my top list of reads this year! I can’t remember when a book made me laugh so much! This is definitely a book for fans of Mel Brooks’ movies and even The Princess Bride too, just don’t expect an overly serious story in that matter. This is a read sure to entertain a variety of readers, it was hysterically magical!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars


Kill the Farm Boy releases July 17, 2018