You would think I would love the pants off Alexa, right? Because she’s all gender bending and dressing like a boy and totally kick ass. And, really, that’s kind of the whole story - how the rebellion happens and what leads up to it. Also, there’s a rebellion brewing, hence the book’s title.

So hmmm, to get to the point of the main plot that drives the book, Alexa and another of the guards named Rylan end up in the jungle with Prince Damian and captured by a sorcerer and some insurgents from the neighboring, enemy kingdom. Anyways, Alexa becomes part of the prince’s personal guard and ends up being like his bodyguard. Alexa chops all of her hair off, lies about her age and becomes Alex, because orphaned teenage girls end up in the breeding house and basically live to make babies which will become soldiers or whores. Together, the two join the army - more specifically the king’s guard. You see, main character Alexa’s parents are slaughtered in front of her by a sorcerer, and so she runs away with her twin brother Marcel. Sara Larson’s Defy opens with a bit of tragedy. Perhaps someone else will find Defy to be extraordinary, but that person is not me unfortunately, no matter how much I want it to be otherwise. Perhaps when other people read this they will flash back to when they read Alanna for the first time.

Sure, the concept was interesting but there was never that something special that I felt while reading. There’s also an interesting setting as well as MAGIC. Larson it would be my new favorite book of all time, right? The summary talks about gender bending, there’s a comparison to Graceling. You would think that based on the official summary of Defy by Sara B.

Defy by sara b larson