Book Review - Dark Lord: The Teenage Years

Title: Dark Lord: The Teenage Years
Author: Jamie Thomson (Dirk Lloyd)
Series: Dark Lord (book 1)
Publisher: Orchard
Release Date: 6 Oct 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1408315118

Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old schoolboy, Dirk Lloyd, has a dark secret - in fact he is a dark secret. Dirk - according to his own account - is the earthly incarnation of a Dark Lord, supreme ruler of the Darklands and leader of great armies of orcs and warriors, intent on destruction and bloody devastation. Following a colossal final battle between the forces of good and evil, the Dark Lord was defeated and hurled by his arch-foe's spells into the Pit of Uttermost Despair. At the bottom of the Pit lies...a supermarket car park in the municipal town of Whiteshields, somewhere in modern day England. And when he is found, and tries to explain that he is the Dark Lord, people think he means Dirk Lloyd. The fact that he's trapped in the puny body of a schoolboy doesn't help. And so begins Dirk's battle to recover his dignity, his power, and his lands... Along the way he faces the inconvenience of being fostered by a do-gooding family, the Purejoies; the torture of endless hours of drudgery at the Whiteshields Brainwashing Centre (aka school); a vengeful Headmaster; two interfering Psychotic Persecutors (psychotherapists); and constant laughter and disrespect when he attempts to marshall his lackeys and lickspittles (friends) to do what he wants them to.Dirk makes friends with the son of his foster family, Christopher, and the local Goth Girl, Sooz, and together they attempt to cast a spell that will transport Dirk back to his homeland. Inevitably, not everything goes to plan...

My Review
I really wasn't sure about this book, the blurb sounded quite funny and made me giggle a bit but it's not my usual read. We have the author coming to do a talk at our library tomorrow so I decided I should try it. I started it at break time at work and managed to read about 35 pages in 15 minutes. It's actually a really easy read. I got home from work today and decided to carry on, I was only going to read for about an hour and see how far I got but in the end I got so into the story that I had to finish it. 
Dirk Lloyd is no usual human, in fact he doesn't think he is human at all, he believes himself to be the Dark Lord above all puny humans and master of the Darklands. OF course everyone thinks this is a bad joke or a way of him dealing with some sort of traumatic past, but for him it is very real. He makes some friends at the torturous place known as school and they go along with his 'game' not really believing in his far fetched stories.
This book is actually really funny, I giggled throughout. Dirk was just so out of touch with reality and his phrases and mannerisms were great. He starts to become the Dark Lord and you start to believe it with him.
The story flows well and comes to an exciting ending with a bit of a cliffhanger. I definitely want to read the next one. I just have to decide whether to skip it to the front of my list or add it to the pile. 
I'm even more excited about the author visit tomorrow now. It should be a great morning.

My Rating