Everybody Loves Large Chests, Book 1: Morningwood
I avoided this one for years thinking it was pure erotica. It is a dark, funny monster story with a genuinely nasty little protagonist, and I am glad I finally listened.
The short version (spoiler-free)
I almost skipped this one for good. The title alone had me convinced it was going to be wall to wall erotica, so I avoided it for the longest time. I was wrong, mostly. The opening is surprisingly normal. There are small hints of the nasty stuff early on, but nothing heavy, and it did not put me off the way I expected.
What actually hooked me is the chest itself. The main character is a treasure chest, and it is pure evil in the moral sense: no remorse, no guilt, none of the usual hero conscience. That could be grim, and sometimes it is, but a lot of the time it lands as dark comedy. Funny, just funny from the shadow side.
- Rating: 7/10
- Narration: 9/10, Jeff Hays (full performance with sound effects, the works)
- Length: 13h 17m · Series: Everybody Loves Large Chests, Book 1 (Morningwood)
- Progression / pacing: steady monster-evolution LitRPG that gets more fun as the chest levels up
- Read it if: you want an amoral, funny, dark power fantasy with a villain for a hero · Skip it if: you need someone you can root for morally
Heads up: there are sex scenes in it. It is not the erotica the title implies, but it earns its mature tag, so go in knowing that.
Bottom line: I avoided this book for the wrong reason. It is a dark, funny monster story with a genuinely nasty little protagonist, and I am glad I finally gave it a shot.
▶ Full thoughts (spoilers, click to expand)
The deep dive
The whole appeal is that you are rooting for a monster and the book knows it. The chest is a mimic, and the fun of book 1 is watching it work out that survival means eating, evolving, and getting stronger, with zero moral hand wringing about how it gets there. It is a LitRPG at heart, so there are levels, skills, and evolutions, and that progression is the carrot that keeps you going.
The dark comedy works because the chest has no conscience to argue with. It does awful things and then just moves on, and the humor comes from how casual it is about all of it. When the book leans grim it can get genuinely dark, but it never takes itself too seriously, which keeps it easy to keep listening.
The mature content is real, but it is not the point of the book. If you were avoiding it like I was because you assumed it was straight erotica, that is the wrong reason to skip it.
