DNF Audiobook Review – Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer by James T. Callum, Narrated by Travis Baldree (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: All Ages
Genre: Fantasy/Humor/LitPRG
Length: 14 hours and 14 minutes
Publisher:‎ Podium Audio
Release Date: August 20, 2024
ASIN: B0D9KRCNS2
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer series
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“As a monster, Shrubley is forbidden from joining the adventurers guild. In a world where essence artists rank up in power and most monsters are feral beasts, Shrubley is among the weakest of creatures and is treated as an outcast that is worth less than dirt.

With curiosity essence bound to his spirit, Shrubley might be weak, but he’s intelligent and determined. Against all the odds, he discovers a loophole from the Druid that gave him life—but there’s a deadly catch.

For a chance of ever being accepted as a true adventurer, he must challenge an otherworldly realm threatening to consume everything. A realm rife with dangers and opportunities in equal measure.

With a band of fellow low-tier monsters—a tiny slime, an undead skeleton mage, and a koblin—Shrubley sets off to prove that monsters can be heroes too. Even if he must die trying.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in the Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer series. I borrowed this on audiobook from Audible.

Thoughts: My husband and I were listening to this together on road trips. We ended up stopping it about 60% of the way through. There isn’t anything really awful about this book; it is just really boring and predictable. It seems like it is written for younger children and not adults. The world-building is non-existant, the characters are very simple and predictable, the story and language is also very simple. I didn’t really find it that funny either.

This book follows Shrubley, a monster that decides to join the adventurers guild. He ends up collecting a misfit collection of fellow low level adventurer monsters to challenge a threat that could consume everything.

This book is cute, and that is about all there is to it. If you have kids that you want to introduce to LitRPG this is a simple and cute way to do that. Kids will probably think a lot of things in here are funny, like the Proper naming of things with a simple name and the simple mis-understandings between friends. There are some cute life lessons in here and a message about being who you want to be and sticking to the tough road. You will notice I use cute a lot….yep, this is cute.

However, if you are an adult that likes action packed LitRPG (or are coming to this series after catching up on Dungeon Crawler Carl) this may not be for you. Shrubley and his fellow monsters are very simple and stereotypical characters. Yes, they are monsters trying to be heroes, which does cause some issues for them. However, if you picture a typical hero as a plant….that is pretty much Shrubley. He is exactly what you expect a monster trying to “do good” to be.

The world building is pretty light on this, I would say almost non-exisitant. We never understand why the heroes and monsters of this world have HUDs and are leveling like this, it really isn’t explained. The plot on this is very light as well. Everything is highly predictable and very linear. You stick with Shrubley and friends the whole time, there aren’t any surprises.

The main reason we stopped reading this book is the main reason I stop reading a lot of audiobooks, sheer boredom. Sheer boredom is bad while you are on road trips and the book you are listening to is making you sleepy.

The narration done by Baldree is well done; this is a decent audiobook to listen to if you like audiobooks. I would definitely recommend if you have younger kids and want a family read. Older kids, pre-teen and maybe even slightly younger depending on their exposure to fantasy and RPGs, will find this simplistic.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this is cute, simple, and generally non-offensive. I think it is better suited to younger kids who have had some exposure to RPGs. Pre-teens and older will find the characters, world-building, and plot overly simplistic. I don’t really understand the high ratings on this one unless it’s from people looking for family reads. This was just dull and fairly unoriginal.