Igor and the Doctor are just about to finish the Great Work when angry villagers arrive with pitchforks and torches to put a stop to their project. Again. So, once again, Igor has to pack everything up, pull the Doctor away from his (now deceased, also again) subject, and flee to another lonely place with more openminded attitudes to dead bodies. Except, in The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore, things go a little differently once the Doctor and Igor arrive at their newest sanctuary.
The biggest difference is that Igor and the Doctor are not the only ones trying to use Ravenwald—a decaying manor with convenient access to a cemetery—as their base of operations. With a day, the Doctor faces off against Auntie Mag (a witch) and Count Ravenwald (a vampire and, awkwardly, also a distant ancestor of the Doctor) for the space. When it turns out that all three are about evenly matched in power, Igor brokers an agreement to have the three (and their underlings) share and try to keep out of each other’s mischief. For the first time since he left the orphanage, Igor has roommates. And, when he meets Grimalkin, Mag’s familiar who only looks like a cat, and Cornelia, Count Ravenwald’s fed-up bride, Igor is even more surprised to discover friends.
The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing was a joy to read. I loved watching the various plots of the villains crisscross (the Doctor has begun again on his quest to bring the dead back to life, Mag wants to summon an eldritch god to destroy the world, and the Count can’t be arsed to get his own meals) while the underlings do all the work. The henches put up with an awful lot from their employer/captor/overlords. Before now, they just haven’t been able or allowed to quit. Henching is all they know. In Grimalkin’s case, henching means they can be a cat and not a tentacled monster. But having friends who genuinely care makes it harder to take the verbal abuse and unrealistic expectations. Over the course of the novel, we see Igor and his friends finally snap under the pressure—much to my delight. I do love righteous comeuppance and this novel delivers a triple helping of it.
I’m going to recommend this book widely; it was just so much fun to read!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.