Defy: maybe for a younger, less-picky audience

Defy by Sara B. Larson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Defy has a few main plot points that could sum it up for anyone debating about reading this book: Medieval-type sword fighting/conquering kingdom, girl-hiding-as-boy, outlawed magic, love triangle, and villains who aren't villains, oh, and a few over-the-top scenes done for the sake of ringing the angst out of us.

I gave it three stars because the writing style was fairly good, and the plot intriguing enough for me to stay interested all the way through. In fact, the story was decent as long as you didn't analyze it too closely.

Once you do, however, you come up with some issues. First, why are these people wearing medieval armor in a jungle kingdom? It's not practical, and makes it seem like they're not really from their own kingdom. Second, why isn't the issue at the beginning already about overthrowing their king? The king is over-the-top evil, and a recent conqueror...you'd think most of the country would want to get rid of him already. And what happened to the previous royal family?? We also have breeding houses for building up an army, but that must mean this king is planning a 100 year war or something for him to think that was practical.

The book also had some odd moments that felt very contrived, and not practical. Like Alexa's two love triangle guys conveniently knowing all along that she was a girl, and then this random jungle trek where Alexa gets to spend every night with both those guys because she's required too, and then oh, she's suddenly the only person who has this special fighting magic, even though outside her kingdom there's a whole lot more people with magic.

It was decent, just...don't pick it apart/think too much if you want to enjoy it.

This digital copy of Defy was given to me by NetGalley & Scholastic in exchange for an honest review.

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