A Practical Guide To Evil II

De: David Verburg

Narrado por: Amber Dekkers

For years, Catherine Foundling struggled to scrape together enough money to enroll in the War College of Ater, the capital of the Dread Empire.

Only when she arrives there, it's not as a powerless orphan: she is the Squire, apprentice of the Black Knight, and is immediately dragged into the schemes of powerful lords.

Catherine must get to the bottom of a string of eldritch murders and the greater plot that lurks behind them before they get her killed—all while staying under an assumed name at the War College, lest the blades of assassins find her.

If she fails, it will start a civil war that would ravage the same home she left to save. If she wins, it might be at the cost of becoming the very kind of monster she thought she was fighting.

It will be a long year in the capital, living in the Tower's shadow, and how long Catherine can last might just be decided by the number of lines she's willing to cross to get what she wants.

©2026 David Verburg

Solid twist to classic fantasy, while being classic fantasy

I enjoy how nearly all of the characters are quite competent and doing the best they can with what they’ve got. And for a book that is so keenly aware of the trope’s of fantasy, they did a really interesting job of incorporating them. I’m extremely just pleased that this book came out like a week ago because it means that the sequel is probably a year out.

Bad, but in a good way.

I was a little leary of “main character goes to school” plot line being a little contrived, but instead it was well executed. The MCs steps toward villainy all seemed reasonable and almost had me going “isn’t she supposed to be the bad guy”, which makes the ending all the more satisfying as you realize “yep, she’s definitely still becoming a bad guy.” I was worried I’d end up hating the MC and motley crew, but I don’t, even as I realize they are still clearly not the good guys. The writer does a masterful job of riding that line. Please release part three sooner.

Inventive punishment 👍

I enjoyed the part about The Soup. It's something we need as a society for punishing those who would take advantage of children

heiress sucks

the squire goes to college like she had originally planned but it's not in the way she planned to on top of that she received her imperial summons to court stumbling into a murder plot that's not against her for once hunts a serial killer at black's behest and she has to deal with her rival heiress who just all around sucks