The Dark Lord Clementine - Sarah Jean Horwitz (book review) *contains spoilers*

Book: The Dark Lord Clementine
Author: Sarah Jean Horwitz
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published By: Algonquin Young Readers
Published Year: 2019

My Review:
Having been given an advance copy of The Dark Lord Clementine for an honest review and as part of a book blog tour I was very excited to start reading this. This book was a fun read and one that I am glad I got invited to read.

The book is about a girl called Clementine who after her father has been cursed by the Whittle Witch she needs to take over doing dark deeds however realises that maybe that isn't who she wants to be after all.

I liked that this book had names for each of the chapters but had it as two separate titles which gave more insight into what the chapter was going to be about before reading it. I also liked that the story was being told not only from Clementine's side but also from Darka's which gave a good contrast and a better understanding of what was happening as able to see it from two different perspectives; Clementine who is losing her father and has lived in the valley's her whole life and Darka who is new to the area and is there for very different reasons. Not only this but seeing how the villagers went from fearing her to helping her as they realised how Clementine cared about her people and that they didn't hurt them as much as they could have done and at the end saving the people from a much bigger evil as well as giving the mayor back his son who had been living as a sheep on the Dark Lords farm. I did think that one of the previous dark lords having put the heart of the unicorn into a snow queen which people looked up to for good luck was really nice as it showed how they didn't want to risk the unicorn dying and being hunted on their lands and was keeping it safe. As we discover also why Darka wants to kill unicorns the reader goes from not trusting her and disliking her character to feeling sorry for her and makes a great character development within the book. I did also like that it showed how much Sabastian started caring for Clementine and was even prepared to leave his family in order to be with her which was really sweet and as he was one of my favourite characters in this novel it was so good to see that there was love from both of them might last.

However, I did think that the book didn't have much of the villain in the book and only really introduced them at the end which did disappoint me as it didn't explain who she was or how she was able to start turning the Dark Lord himself into a wooden puppet. I did think that there should have been more on them as it would have added a lot more to the book in my opinion. I also did find that even though I was enjoying what I was reading I never really got excited for reading more which did upset me as this was a really good book in my opinion I just wish I ended up more excited for this than I was.

Overall, I thought that The Dark Lord Clementine was a fun book and one that is great for teenagers and a middle grade level of reading. This is a book in which I would recommend people to read and check out and I can't wait to read more from Sarah Horwitz and I hope to find out a little more about adventures of Clementine and wither she ends up being a good witch overall and what happens to the lands now that they are having to start again.

My Rating: 4/5 

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