The Vengeful Scribe by E.M. Dash is an immersive, darkly emotional fantasy that blends second-chance with rich worldbuilding, social commentary, and vivid, character-driven drama.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 for dark fantasy readers)
The Vengeful Scribe Book Review
At its core, it’s the story of Jack, a man who died trying to take revenge on the sadistic noble who ruined his life. Given another chance in his sixteen-year-old body, Jack is determined to do things right this time: protect his family, choose his class carefully, and savor every ordinary moment he once took for granted. But his obsessive hatred for Baron Greaves simmers beneath the surface, threatening to ruin the fragile peace he’s reclaimed.
Please note: the rest of the review contains spoilers.
The story shines in two interwoven threads:
- Jack’s POV, filled with mature, haunting reflections on violence, trauma, and vengeance. Scenes like his near-breakdown while watching Greaves purchase a one-armed orc slave show his seething fury restrained only by hard-won lessons.
- Zia’s POV, offering a stark contrast with gentle, sometimes heartbreaking innocence. Her perspective on leaving home, making new friends, and discovering the monstrous is both touching and genuinely unsettling, especially the harrowing scene with the undead goblin child.
What sets this novel apart is its worldbuilding. Lundun isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a living city of clockwork automata, aether-powered street cleaners, enchanted dirigibles, and slum markets reeking of despair. Every detail feels grounded in a believable economy and social hierarchy, from the merchant classes’ subtle mind-affecting skills to the cruelty of rune-bound slave collars.
Equally strong is the family drama. Jack’s longing to hold his baby brother, the playful bickering of Zia’s parents, the casual teasing of the caravan’s children, these moments feel painfully real. Even the humor is biting and human.
Tonally, it’s darker than many Royal Road fantasies, but avoids cheap edgelord grimdark. Violence is graphic when needed (the goblin reanimating to bite off a boy’s finger is nightmare fuel), but it’s never gratuitous. Trauma matters. Choices have consequences.
If there’s a flaw, it’s that the pace is deliberately slow, devoting whole chapters to packing for the caravan, shopping for a dagger, or watching children invent biscuit-based fantasy games. For readers looking for constant combat or dungeon delves, this will be too meandering. But for those who want deep immersion in setting and character psychology, that pacing is a feature, not a bug.
Jack’s internal conflict is beautifully handled. He knows killing Greaves would cost him his family, but his hatred is so strong he can’t stop himself from stalking the man through Lundun’s slave markets, dagger in hand. He sees himself as a monster barely holding the leash on worse impulses.
The Vengeful Scribe Baron Greaves
And then there’s that slave-market scene: Greaves casually buying a maimed, half-dead orc warrior for the orc’s power. It’s the kind of sequence that makes your skin crawl, perfectly showcasing both the fantasy setting’s moral rot and Jack’s deep, shaking fury.
Meanwhile, Zia’s scenes balance that darkness with raw humanity, she’s just a little girl leaving home, worried about her donkey, forging friendships over shared biscuits, until she discovers horror lurking in the woods.
Final Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 for dark fantasy readers)
The Vengeful Scribe is intelligent, atmospheric, and unflinchingly human. It’s not just about revenge, it’s about what vengeance costs. For readers who want their fantasy rich with grime, magic, and moral weight, it’s essential reading.
