I first decided to read this book because at the time, I had
read one other book by Penelope Douglas and had already fallen in love with her
style. It also has a 4.04/5 star rating on Goodreads. By the time I actually
picked up this book to read it, I had read a total of three books by Penelope: Bully, Rival, and Falling Away. I could
not wait to jump into Corrupt. Not
only is this book in my favorite genre, New Adult, but it also has a Cruel Intentions and 90’s horror flick
feel to it. Horror is not something I usually like reading, but just by reading
the summary of Corrupt I could tell
that it was definitely for me. It is also the first book in a companion series,
meaning each book is about a different couple. I enjoy these kind of series the
most because you get to see different characters grow and build relationships
and still see previous characters, but you don’t get bored with the story since
you’re not reading about the same characters in each book.
Corrupt is
about a girl named Rika, who is in college and wants nothing more than to get
away. Get away from her life, her friends, her family, her ex-boyfriend. It’s
not that they’re bad; she just wants a fresh start at a new place where no one
knows her. She wants to be free to be herself. She’s only really felt like
herself once. It was one night many years ago, when she was able to be with
someone who showed her it was okay to really be her.
Being
in the city as a college student where no one knows her is crushed pretty
quickly, because Michael Crist, her ex’s older brother lives in the same
building as her. Michael is a pro basketball player. He’s out for Rika, and not
in a good way. He and his friends want revenge for something that happened a
while ago that changed their lives forever. Rika doesn’t understand the “whys,”
but she knows they're up to something and she’s not giving in.
I
thought Douglas started off this novel fantastically. Immediately, this book
had me hooked. A lot happens within the first two chapters that really sets you
up for the rest of the book, and that is a perfect way for an author to pull a
reader into a story. You can tell right away that Rika and Michael are going to
have a very intense, back-and-forth relationship. But then you also start
wondering about how Rika ended up with Michael’s brother, Trevor, if she has
feelings for Michael.
As the book progresses, the point-of-view and time period
changes in each chapter. It switches between Erika’s POV and Michael’s POV, as
well as past and present. This is also a very interesting aspect of the book.
Readers don’t immediately find out what happened between Michael and Rika when
they are younger. Douglas gives us bits and pieces, and that is what really
makes this a page turner. Every chapter ends in a situation where you need to
know happens next, but then it switches from the past to the present or
vice-versa. It’s very aggravating, in a good way, at times because I needed to
know what was going on.
As it switches back and forth, readers get to see
different sides of all the characters. Young Erika was very curious, but very
shy and dependent on others. Older Erika is not as curious and wants to do
things for herself. Since her family is wealthy, everything comes easy for her,
which is why she transferred out of a college where Trevor was and where her
friends from high school were close. She does not want to have to depend on anyone
but herself, which I admire. She is also very different with Michael. When she
is younger, she wants to be near him and be with him and wants his approval. When
she is older, she wants nothing to do with him, even if she is a little drawn
to him.
Young
Michael is intrigued but wary of Erika. He and his friends believe that women
are only good for one thing. But as the story progresses in the past, Michael
softens with her. Older Michael still has a soft side, but he is more focused
on making life hard for Erika as a way to get revenge on her for what she did
to get Will, Kai, and Damon sent to prison that night three years ago. Will,
Kai, and Damon have all been damages by their experience in various ways.
After finishing this, I was filled with mixed
emotions. While I really enjoyed this book, I had a higher expectation for the
horror. I expected there to be scenes that made my heart race and while they
guys were definitely horrible to Erika, I thought they could have went a little
further than what they did. They taunted, threatened, and assaulted her but
they really didn’t take it that far. There were no moments when I wanted to
“cover my eyes” because I was scared. Erika’s enemies never went to the length
I’d expected. That left me a little disappointed. I have read other reviews
where the reader thinks Douglas takes it too far, but I disagree with them.
The
pacing of the story was fantastic—until the ending. I thought she paced all of
the events and the chapters perfectly so that you were really hooked in the
story and couldn’t put the book down. I was completely in love with the story
until I hit the last twenty pages. I’m a huge fan of ending fight scenes where you’re
not sure who is going to die and if they’ll defeat the bad guy. This one
happened really fast. There was a sense of urgency but there was no
heart-dropping moment when you think one of the main characters died or that
they were never going to get out of this. It was all very rushed. It was like
Douglas took too much time setting everything up in a way that lead to a
perfect ending then realized she was running out of time and rushed it. It was
a little too perfect. I think she
could’ve branched off with this a little more than she did. However, she did
wrap everything up nicely. There were no loose ends and all of the questions
that were raised while reading this were answered.
Douglas
did one other thing right along with wrapping everything up in the end. The
plot twist about a quarter of the
way through was amazing. Some others cannot pull off a plot twist perfectly.
They either give away too much information so readers figure out what’s going
to happen before it even happens or they don’t give enough so when the twist
happens readers are confused because it doesn’t fit together. I did not see the
plot twist in this book coming at all I had to put the book down and just take
a minute to process what had happened because it was so well done.
I thought that the character development was done really
well. Switching back and forth between the past and present helped. Readers get
to see them when they were younger and then how they changed in the three year
gap. Rika was a great main character. She never backed down from a challenge
and faced what some people would never be able to handle
Will
and Kai definitely had a soft side when it came to Erika, in the past and
present, and I really liked that about them but there wasn’t much development
beyond that. However, since Will, Damon, and Kai will be getting their own book
in this series, I wasn’t disappointed in the lack of development since this was
really Erika and Michael’s story. There was definitely some character
development with Damon. From past and present, he stayed the same with his
attitude towards women, but the longer the story went one, hate built up more
and more in him. I’m anxious to see how he got that way and what caused him to
be so hateful towards women.
My absolute favorite part of this book was the romance!
This is definitely more of a hate story than a love story, since this book is
based around the guys’ need for vengeance. Throughout the entire book, Michael
is both fighting his attraction to Rika and trying to hate her for multiple
reasons. However, when they end up coming together, they work for a little bit
and then end up butting heads. Their relationship is not pretty most of the
time. It’s downright volatile at times, but I grew to love them both. They were
a perfect storm, and it worked.
Corrupt is
definitely different from the other Douglas books that I’ve read. While Rika is
only 19, I would actually categorize this book as an Erotic New Adult romance.
It was definitely sexually explicit, and the scene in the steam room with Rika,
Kai, and Michael was almost too much for me to read. And while I wouldn’t compare
this book to Fifty Shades of Grey, since
it wasn’t all sex, it had an actual story line, and did not have as much
controversial content, I definitely do not recommend this book to anyone under
the age of 18 years. Older readers who like dark romance and are looking for a
hate/love story that’s twisty, intense, and sexy should go buy this book right
now!
Overall,
I give Corrupt by Penelope Douglas a
4/5 star rating. Even though I was disappointed with the mediocre horror and
the poor pacing at the end, I fell in love with the characters and the story.
It didn’t have everything I felt it needed to be a five star read. Nevertheless,
I cannot wait to read Will, Kai, and Damon’s books and see how they grow and
develop and, through their stories, see how Michael and Erika grow as a couple.
I am definitely invested in The Devil’s Night Series by Penelope Douglas.
Disclaimer:
I know this review is long! Not all of my reviews will be this long. This is a review I wrote for my Advanced Comp. class. This review is way more in depth than I would usually do, but I figured since I already had a review written I did not need to write another one. 😊
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