By Lucky Felder
Since I’m once again in a reading slump, I decided to take a look at my shelf filled with unread books and finally pick something up. I eventually landed on Starter Villain, a short novel I randomly bought on a trip to Barnes and Noble last summer, since I was intrigued by the front cover, which pictured a cat wearing a suit. The story follows Charlie, a pretty much broke man who inherits his uncle’s supervillain business. This definitely wasn’t my usual choice of reading, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but I was ready for the challenge.
What I immediately noticed about the novel was that the mood felt very unserious. The main character lives alone with his cat and is a washed-up journalist who’s working as a substitute teacher. He narrates the story, making many sarcastic comments and just being confused, like a lot. I enjoyed that there was a good balance between comedy and action. To me, there was enough to stay interested, but I was never really hooked. However, a few parts in the book were so ridiculous (like when intelligent, talking dolphins showed up) that I actually started laughing, which I don’t think I’ve ever done while reading.
The plot stayed pretty flat for most of the book, and I never really understood where it was going. Once Charlie inherits the supervillain business, a lot of the chapters are just him making negotiations and learning about the business. Despite that, I still found the book pretty easy to get through since it had short chapters, and the author made some modern references that helped engage me. The things that the author came up with were really fun to imagine, like the talking spy cats that were all clones of each other, and just the whole idea of supervillain billionaires. I’d also say the plot twist was more satisfying than it was surprising, which I didn’t mind.
Overall, this story was not what I thought it would be when I picked it up last summer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It got me out of my normal genre preference, and it was a fun, new experience to read. I liked that the story developed fairly quickly, but it just ended up not being all that interesting, so I’d probably give it about a 7/10. If anyone is looking for a quick read that’s certainly unlike anything you’ve read before, I think this would be perfect!