A review by readers_together
Villains Rule by M.K. Gibson

5.0

This review is going to be on the shorter side, not because I don’t have a lot to say about it, but because I don’t want to write a review full of spoilers and with a number of twists and turns in this book, I would be hard-pressed not to say something spoilery.

MK Gibson has written a book that is not only funny and action-packed but also endearing. This book was hilarious, I don’t remember the last time I laughed this much, and I’m talking laugh of loud in public and getting weird looks sort of laughing. If you like superhero books/ movies etc, I think you’ll like this book, the character of Jackson talks to the listener for the entire book (4th wall breaking at its finest), think Deadpool and it works. It works really well, I think the book wouldn’t have been half as funny without it. Even the chapter headings are humorous. It has a fantasy feel to it, an epic adventure that just grabs the listener’s attention and doesn’t let go. It even has a little romance... yes, I said it, and it’s true. The chapters are short. The pop culture references throughout the book were entertaining.
Maybe you’re looking at the cover right now and thinking ‘meh, not my thing’ well, shush but I thought the same thing, it wasn’t until I listened to the sample and read the synopsis that I was hooked…so give them a shot before counting this book out.

I love the characters in this book. Jackson, of course, was hilarious and I even found myself laughing at things I ordinarily wouldn’t have found funny. His team of heroes was an unlikely bunch which made them all the more interesting, you never know what angle they were working on or if they would find out the truth and abandon Jack. The reveal towards the end was shocking and a character steps up that you’ll never see coming as the evil lord that Jackson must face.

I’ve listened to many Jeffrey Kafer performances and this one really blew me away. His comedic timing was on the mark and the vocal fluctuations really emphasised some key moments. Sometimes with the amount of characters a book like this has, it’s hard to keep track of who is who but that wasn’t the case with this performance, each character was uniquely performed. Kafer never fails to entertain but I think this performance was something special. The overall production was smooth with no issues that I noted.