Blog Tour: The Dark Lord Clementine

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the blog tour for The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Horowitz. Thank you to the folks at Algonquin Young Readers for providing the e-galley!

"Clementine Morcerous awoke one morning to discover that her father had no nose. This was not exactly unexpected. Several mornings previously, the Dark Lord Elithor Morcerous had greeted her with slightly less nose than usual, and a bit of a weaker chin. The difference was so small that Clementine, who was quite small herself, barely noticed it. She did notice something different about him—he was her father, after all—but she thought perhaps he had gotten a rather unflattering haircut."

This is how this middle grade fiction novel begins to tell the story of Clementine, who must take over for her father as he has been whittled away by the Whittle Witch!

As Interim Dark Lord, Clementine must pick up where her father left off, and figure out how to handle things which can get complicated in general, but things take an interesting turn when she thinks she might not want to be all evil all the time!

This book is a comedic romp of a magical tale, full of talking animals, clever sidekicks, engaging dialogue, and best of all Clementine is such a snarky fun joy to spend time with. The engaging writing captivates throughout the story and never lags.

As it surely must be, even the Dark Lord goes through family dramatics, and watching Clementine figure out her obligation to her family name and try to understand herself as an individual is a touching and clever examination of self-discovery, magic, secrets, and figuring out how to do The Right Thing when you're officially The Dark Lord.

I haven't read anything this imaginative in quite a while, and I absolutely loved this book. Perfect for fall and Halloween time reading.

The Dark Lord Clementine is out now and you can purchase it from Amazon, your local bookstore, or find it at your library.

Now I'm off to go find more of Horwitz's books! Happy Reading!