The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz

The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz

My Rating: ★★★★★

I received a copy from Algonquin Young Readers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Clementine has been groomed to become the next Dark Lord since her birth, but she’s always felt lonely and not exactly what her father imagined his heir would be like. One day, her father is cursed by a powerful rival and starts wasting away. As soon as he’s not strong enough to run his own lands, Clementine takes over as the temporary Evil Overlord. She quickly discovers that she can’t do things by herself and very stubbornly makes new friends and discovers that these friendships have considerably brightened her life. The more she’s left to her own devices, the more she discovers about herself and her family, and she begins to wonder if she’s a good person and not evil at all.

This is such a wonderful and heartwarming book following a lonely pre-teen who has been learning how to be the best Dark Lord she can ever be for her whole life. Never having been truly evil, she doesn’t have a single happy memory and has always been fascinated by the townsfolk who are absolutely terrified of her and her father. She may not be evil, but she’s still not perfect, and that’s okay because she wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love that this story brings up that being good doesn’t necessarily mean being perfect. Being bad is not straight forward like she’s been led to believe, and this is a good topic for middle schoolers who are at that weird age where they’re trying to figure out who they are and how they fit in with their peers. At this age, it’s easy to think that one mistake means you’re not a good person and stories like this show them that life is more complex than that.

In this case, Clementine believes she’s evil and she’s been raised to be the next Dark Lord, but she discovers that she possesses light magic and doesn’t like to hurt people. She wonders if she’s secretly been good this whole time, but then thinks that she can’t be because she also likes to do some bad things. There’s a town full of people who are terrified of Clementine and her father, but then she makes friends with a group of kids and they discover that Clementine isn’t so bad just as Clementine discovers that friends are a wonderful thing to have.

This book is just full of so many wonderful and complex characters that each bring a lesson with them. I love how cute, charming, and full of character the story is and I highly recommend it.