Gareth Hanrahan is one of those names that comes to my head when I think of "dark fantasy but make it different", but certainly The Dungeon Book wouldn't be the direction I would have expected from his writing. And honestly? I loved it, not only because we have a story full of heart that transports the basic idea of the Jungle Book to a dungeon, but also feels as an homage to D&D and its creatures, further fleshing them outside of the monstrous stereotypes, while managing to keep a smile in your face as we have a particular narrative voice.

Bait was raised in the Dungeon; she was stolen as a child by a dragon and handed to the sorcerer appointed as the master of the Dungeon. By chance, she wasn't eaten by the denizens of the Dungeon and they even accepted her, allowing her to grow in the Trapsmith Arcade with the goblins; a different life that what a human could expect, but her life. But the Dungeon, with its secrets and the promise of power, attracts treasure hunters like honey to flies; as they come, the outside world starts to intrude into the Dungeon, and Bait will have to choose which one she truly belongs.

Bait is such a charming character, pulled directly from a classical fairytale archetype, a trope that is immediately twisted as she's raised by the goblins. She's strong-willed and fierce, trying to create her own path despite how many are trying to pull her in a direction (even if some, like Sir Peledon, only wish the best for her). At the core of her existence, there's a question about her own nature and, more importantly, to which world she belongs, which will be explored as conflicts come directly to the very Dungeon's door.
Similarly to how Bait is drawn from a twisted trope, Hanrahan doesn't stop at the main character, exploring more of the classical monstrous creatures, fleshing them out and avoiding that binary good/bad lense that so many times is applied to them; at the end, we could argue that the only characters that acts as monsters (outside of Nithscalpa) are all humans, greedy and ambitious.

The narrative voice also deserves a mention, as all is told through the eyes (technically this is not true) of Cornelius, a talking skull and a former Dungeon master; he's sarcastic and a bit nihilistic by moments (who could blame him after welp, how he ended there), but that narrative style keeps you immersed all the time as a reader, while making natural how certain explanations are delivered.
The novel manages to infuse a certain coziness/heart into what essentially was a dark fantasy story, and the pacing was on point, engulfing the reader from the start.

The Dungeon Book (as told by Cornelius the Skull) is an excellent novel, one that manages to find the perfect balance between heart and darkness, delivering a plot that homages those creatures that are at the core of fantasy; if you are looking for a standalone dark fantasy that packs so much in so little, this should be your election.