“There was also an abundance of portent swaddled about the place. Oodles of it. A surfeit, even. Something would go down there soon. But for now, the lady slept. And drooled a little, probably.”

Kill the Farm Boy is a traditional hero’s journey with a young farm boy being informed of his Chosen One status and going off on a grand adventure. Just kidding! While the story starts with the farm boy Worstly, it very quickly goes off the rails as nothing in the boy’s life goes according to the Grand Plan and a cursed bard, an assassin terrified of chickens, a barbarian fighter who dislikes killing and even the Dark Lord who would like nothing more than the death of the farm boy are all dragged along for the ride.

I really wanted to like Kill the Farm Boy but it was a struggle for me to finish. What killed this story for me were the comparisons to Princess Bride, Monty Python and (worst of all) Terry Pratchett. Kill the Farm Boy is far from terrible. It’s written by two authors who are talented and whom I respect even if neither is among my favorites. There were lines in the story that had me giggling and I struggled constantly between liking it and being disappointed. Kill the Farm Boy would have been great IF it had been a short story or even a novella. But 300+ pages of as many jokes as they could possibly fit in got old REAL quick. I feel like anyone comparing this to Pratchett isn’t that familiar with him. Pratchett understood subtlety and how to stick jabs in there without having to slap the reader in the face with them. His books make fun of a lot of fantasy tropes while still having a story at the center. It felt like Dawson and Hearne got so wound up coming up with jokes about fantasy tropes that they had to put three or four per sentence and never really bothered to flesh out the characters or let the story stand on its own two feet. Kill the Farm Boy has its moments but I ended up feeling frustrated with it and comparisons that didn’t feel equal to me.

I love humorous fantasy stories but this was just too much for me. The lack of finesse and incomplete development mean that the only readers I’d really recommend this to are middle schoolers. Some middle grade fantasy is appealing to a wide audience but Kill the Farm Boy will appeal mostly to those who want a good laugh and don’t mind sacrificing character development for the joke.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Ray for the opportunity to read an ARC for an honest review.

Alright, so this wasn’t uproaringly hilarious nor was it a boring drab piece of meat either. It mellows right around the middle where at some moments your laughing and others you’re rolling you’re eyes and begging for a new joke to be used already.

The amount of poop jokes just got seriously out of hand, the first few times, sure they were mildly funny, but slowly you realize they are not going away. And that ladies and gentlemen is how you kill a joke, not that poop jokes are that funny anyways, but you get the point.

The character building was fun, I actually really liked all of them, they were each funny in their own manner, although Poltro stole the show me, that girl is the best Rogue she could have ever been and I’ll go down fighting chickens for her! And this of course goes with The Dark Lord Toby, his bread magic is one I wish I had!

There was many times when I got the feeling I was watching a D&D group play out and they just kept getting bad rolls, because everything that could happen to this party of characters happened and it was for the most part funny and entertaining.

There was a lot of poking fun at high epic fantasy tropes and I loved it all. There was even a few modern jokes thrown in. Was I the only one who caught the Trix rabbit joke with Argabella?? I laughed at that one for sure! Also the TROLLZONE! Hah, that was funny just for what it was making fun of!

Honestly if you’re looking for something kind of stupid, funny, or just something to relax and listen to without needing to have a whole world built around it, this is perfect. But again don’t go in thinking it’s the most hilarious thing out there, unless you are super into poop jokes, then this is right up your alley.