A review by the_jesus_fandom
Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

2.0

 At first I liked the morally grey thing; it was interesting. But I think we’re letting Corrick off the hook too easily. It’s all “he has to punish people who do wrong”, but everyone conveniently forgets that poking people’s eyes out while they’re still alive and feeding them to lions, etc. aren’t legitimate punishments. You can punish citizens without torturing them. The author justifies it by making the victims of these punishments into evil people, so then suddenly it’s all ok. 

Other than that, Corrick is such a red flag from the moment we meet him. Genuinely, why do his guards even like him? How are they supposed to know he has good intentions when he never shows it and goes about his day exacting cruel punishments on everyone? The author tries to turn him into a sympathetic figure so hard. Oh boohoo, the poor tyrant, forced into tortuing people. 

All this made the notes in the epilogue about the covid-19 years rather scary:
‘the way COVID-19 affected the world absolutely changed the way I looked at the kingdom of Kandala and what responsibilities rulers have to their citizens, especially in times of tremendous challenge and strife.’ And torture is what you came up with? 

Minor quabble:

there’s a death fakeout

.