Squawk of the Were-Chicken by Richard J. Kendrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wanted something that tickled all my tail feathers and when I saw this on NetGalley, I just had to jump all over it.

I'm glad I did, too. I somewhat expected a tongue-in-cheek fantasy blowing some chicken or another into epic proportions a-la Pratchett, but here's the funny bit: I got a nice taste of fourth-wall literary post-deconstructionism from one character and a smart-mouthed tinkerer from another as they try and often fail to rid their little podunk kingdom of the greatest threat it has ever known!

WERE-CHICKEN!

What surprised me the most, however, was the rather detailed town, townsfolk, and all every-day life. I felt like no one was ever going to take the danger seriously until it was far too late, and that was despite or perhaps entirely because these folks were already chicken-happy to begin with! I mean, seriously, Chicken-prophesies? Chicken-remedies, professional egg-launchers... well, the last was just an accident, but still... you get the idea.

It didn't remain nearly as light as I'd hoped but as a well-rounded novel with not quite as much humor as I might expect from a title like this, I still had a good time.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to check out this author's other works thanks to this!


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