Book review - The Dark Lord's Daughter

 

Title: The Dark Lord's Daughter

Author: Patricia C. Wrede

Genre: fantasy

Similar books: Dark Lord by Jamie Thomson

                      Dr. Critchlore's School for Minions by Sheila Grau

Rating:

 

a fun twist

Summary (provided by publisher): Kayla is just an ordinary girl . . . or so she thinks. When a day at the state fair is interrupted by the news that she’s the daughter of a “Dark Lord,” she and her family are quickly whisked to another world—one that’s chock-full of magic but lacking in technology!
As her family encounters fantastical creatures in place of their Earthly gadgets, Kayla must prepare for the unpreparable: meeting her father, the Dark Lord himself, for the very first time. All Kayla wants is to go home, but she must learn magic to do so. The catch? For the Dark Lord’s daughter, the road to mastering magic is filled with evil traditions.
As she ventures closer to her father, Kayla must decide whether to accept her birthright. Is she destined for darkness? Or can she become a new kind of Dark Lady?

My opinion: We read plenty of books about characters who find they are "the chosen one". But what if the thing you're chosen for is evil? That's the central problem at the heart of this book. In a turn not unlike Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens, though, Kayla has been raised by a "normal" family. Thus, she has pretty average and sensible approaches to what should be dramatic problems. She's also a girl after my own heart. When told she must do something her first reaction is to ask "why". And she's strong-willed enough to resist tradition and forge a new path. A fun story for fantasy fans and kids unafraid to forge their own path.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley