The Assassination of Bragnwain Spurge - Review

Author: M.T. Anderson & Eugene Yelchin

Genre: Fantasy / Humor / Illustrated

Format: Hardback

Pages: 544

What I strange book I just devoured. I found this gem while Christmas shopping at one of my local bookstores last month. It wasn't the first time I'd seen it, but for some reason this time I actually opened it up. While I technically wasn't there to shop for myself, I'm always ready to add another book to my ever growing Goodreads pages.

Those first few pages I flipped through interesting. I'm always willing to pick up a book with a different way of story telling. So a book that is partly illustrated, and has a cover like this. I quickly added to to my library queue.

Now I wished I'd have picked this book up sooner.

I first cracked this open at a local coffee shop I go to on my days off.. Before I knew it, the brunch crowd was coming in and I was nearly two hundred pages into this book. The story had sucked me in, and I lost track of time. It has been a while since a book so whole hardly pull my attention in like that. My idea was for this to be my coffee shop book. To only read on the mornings I go in and carve out a couple hours just to read. The farther into the book I got, the less I kept to that.

For me I loved the way the story was told. It's set into three different point-of-views: Brangwain an Elfen Historian whose story is told through Top Secret photos of his mission into the Goblin Kingdom, Archivist Werfel who is a Goblin, and the every smarmy Ysorset Clivers of the Order of the Clean Hand. The best part is none of these point-of-views is the same. Each one is how those characters saw each moment. Through Brangwain's sort of twisted idea of what a Goblin was suppose to be, compared to how they are. Werfel trying to put a shiny spin on everything to make peace, and Ysoret just trying to make sure no blame befalls on him.

Despite three different narratives happening at the same time, a complete story gets told. One that is hilarious, strange, and oddly enough has a somewhat happy ending. Well, happy for some, despite a few chapters where I thought the end was near for Werfel and Brangwain. Even once for sweet, sweet, annoying little Bekky.

Hands down, my favorite bit was the Elfen King taking Ysorset's fingers every single time another thing went wrong. Actually all those letters that Ysorset wrote were my favorites. Just the way he spoke to the King, calling him maj and trying to be so positive. Smarmy bastard.

It was a fun take on the tension that always seems to be between these two races in Fantasy novels. Elves and Goblins never seem to get along about anything, but this one took a more humorous approach to the idea. A more buddy comedy sort of take, and I loved it!

But, Borrow, Skip: Buy or borrow, which ever floats your boat with this. Personally, both of these authors were new to me, so I borrowed it just in case, but this one I would re-read. Mostly because so much happens that there was a chance I was focused on one thing and missed something else. So I say any way you feel comfortable giving The Assassination of  Brangwain Spurge a try is perfect.

HAPPY READING!!