Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous is a cozy fantasy with some extremely uncozy backstory: In the aftermath of a war involving an Enchantrix backed up by a mind-controlled cult, one of the survivors of that war attempts to gain some kind of emotional equilibrium. Our Protagonist is a magic user named Oaklin, and was formerly a mind-controlled cultist with huge gaps in their memory and plenty of horrific flashbacks. They do not actually ever want to have anything to do with magic again. Unfortunately the farm they buy turns out to have been previously owned by a witch…who is haunting the place, and is absolutely determined to have Oaklin succeed her as the friendly neighborhood farm witch.
This is a very gentle recovery story that does not even bother to pretend the setting is medieval. (Mostly in the sense that it implies familiarity with near modern mental health care, and the language and social interactions are anachronistic if they were playing it straight as far as “low tech setting,” was concerned.) Note: This is not a negative. There are many fantasy works where the language is more “modern,” or anachronistic than it technically has any right to be. For values of “modern” that includes “talks like a gangster from a mob movie set in the 1930s only with swords and daggers.”
Oaklin gets nagged (in the kindest stubbornest way possible) to first start using magic, and then to start actually interacting with people. The ghost is there to offer advice, and actually teach Oaklin how to farm, and later how to use the witch’s style of magic. (Oaklin comes from a farming family, but due to the mind control, doesn’t really remember much of how to do anything, and really, really doesn’t know how to grow or harvest magical plants.
The only point where the tension really ramps up is at the arrival of an Inquisitor looking for the few surviving cultists who were judged more or less innocent by reason of mind-control. (Something literally no one wanted her to do, and no one asked her.) The other areas of tension mostly involve Oaklin’s adventures in learning to act like a human again, socialize and getting up the courage to ask the cute paladin out on a date.
Over all this was a really engaging book. The pacing was good, and the characters were easy to like. The world building was also very good, and it seemed like various aspects of farming or foraging were fairly well researched. (This can sometimes be an issue.)
This review was based on a galley copy received from NetGalley!
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