Book Review: Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddell

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddell

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Ace (October 7, 2025)

Length: 384 pages

Author Information: Website

Sometimes a book’s title alone is enough to make me stop and take notice, and that’s exactly what happened with Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddell. From the start, I knew I was going to be in for something offbeat—maybe something weird, funny, and hopefully even a little brilliant. But in the end, what I got wasn’t quite as balanced. While the story concept was certainly clever, and here and there were flashes of entertainment and potential, overall the execution was messy and didn’t always deliver on the promise of its unique premise.

The novel’s titular protagonist is Colin, who is about as average as they come. When the story opens, he’s a low-level employee trudging through an unrewarding job that seems to thrive on worker misery and monotony. Even worse, his supervisor is a vindictive creep who has clearly got it out for him, and after one too many negative performance reports, Colin finds himself on the brink of termination. Except his company, Dark Enterprises, isn’t like other companies. Here, being terminated is literal. Dark Enterprises deals in shady, otherworldly services for powerful clients, and failure often comes with deadly consequences. Frustrated by the supernatural bureaucracy and facing possible execution, Colin does what any desperate office drone might do in his position: he makes a Faustian bargain with an eldritch being.

Not surprisingly, it’s a deal that comes at a steep price. In exchange for a promotion, Colin unknowingly sets in motion forces that are far beyond his understanding or control. Overnight, he’s catapulted into a position with far more authority than he’s prepared for and thrust into the upper echelons of Dark Enterprises where the true horrors of what the company does begin to come to light. The entity he has unleashed is insatiably hungry, and it demands human souls—beginning in Colin’s home of New York City. While Colin is relieved to be alive and thrilled by his new power and the prospect of a burgeoning relationship with someone he genuinely likes, the creeping realization that he’s directly responsible for countless disappearances casts a shadow over his happiness. The higher he climbs up the corporate ladder, the closer the world edges towards full-blown apocalypse.

So, the early chapters are genuinely humorous, with clever satire woven into the absurdity of Colin’s situation, where failing at work can quite literally get you killed. Waddell has a clear knack for macabre comedy as this premise is played for both laughs and tension. The introduction to Dark Enterprises and its internal politics are the book’s undisputed high points, full of inventive worldbuilding and sharp, witty commentary poking fun at corporate culture and cranking it up to grotesque extremes.

Where the book starts to falter, however, is in its characters. Colin himself is reasonably entertaining—meek, self-loathing, and occasionally sociopathic in ways make for some eyebrow-raising moments. But he’s also super off-putting for all those reasons. The rest of the cast fares even worse, with his roommate Amira and his love interest Eric essentially coming across as cookie-cutter characters. Their support of Colin often feels arbitrary, exacerbating his unlikability, and their overall flatness simply makes it hard to invest in the stakes surrounding the impending apocalypse.

The result is a story that, despite its killer premise, often feels predictable, with much of the tension undercut by its one-dimensional features. As I mentioned earlier, my favorite parts of the novel were the demonic and paranormal elements of Dark Enterprises itself. The company’s diabolical machinations, its morally dubious staff, and the terrifying entity that wants to devour the world are what initially drew me in, making me wonder what else is next. But as the plot stretched on, the novelty began to fade. At this point, even the world-building couldn’t overcome the characters’ grating personalities or the increasingly predictable developments.

That said, for all its hiccups there are still some highlights to enjoy, and for this reason, Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World lands squarely in the middle for me. It’s funny, clever, and boasts moments of imaginative horror, with the caveat that they struggle to sustain the energy for the whole novel. For readers who enjoy satirical horror, bizarre corporate scenarios, and a pacy if uneven romp, it’s worth a look. I just wasn’t completely satisfied.