Friday, September 26, 2025

Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1) by Penelope Douglas Review


This review contains major spoilers - read with caution. Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion advised.

Susan B. Anthony I apologize that I am putting feminism back one hundred years - these boys are unhinged and I am sorry that I enjoyed it so much. I was actually taken aback by the fact that I am supposed to see four basketball players be the center of some sort of dark and devious little group where they tun around the town acting like fools and wait in the darkness for Rika to turn eighteen before they start with her. Michael takes the forefront as the man behind the plan to make Rika's life a living hell for the role she played for sending his three friends behind bars - but they are out now and it is finally time for them to make her understand how far they are willing to go to show her how bad it can get.

Basketball players that have a "dark side" is a phrase that I never expected to come across in my lifetime. This is simply ridiculous and absurd - you cannot wear basketball shorts AND terrorize the town. You need to pick a struggle and frankly the basketball shorts are the worse trait in this situation. This is red flag central... what do you MEAN you waited in the shadows until Rika turned eighteen to start torturing this girl and ruining her life??? Absolute freaks in my opinion - and this is coming from someone who loves a good cat and mouse chase... but only with ADULTS!! Michael Crist is also absolutely certifiably insane - a man who covets his younger brother's girlfriend and stirs up a revenge plan over the course of three years on a girl who he has had ONE memorable interaction with that he claims is the reason behind his psycho friends being jailed.

The Crist family in general totally sucks - the only person who is likable is the mother, and she is present for approximately three pages before her use as a page filler is through. The father is just as deplorable as Michael, and Trevor is a nuisance that you can sense is up to no good but hiding behind ulterior motives. Rika, girl... run for your LIFE!! Kai, Damon, Will, and Michael basically have made it their mission to destroy Rika's life because they believe she is the one that leaked incriminating videos of Damon, Kai, and Will committing assault and engaging in improper relations with the mayor's daughter - that event is Damon's alone. Maybe... I don't know... ask her if she did it before deciding you are going to BURN down her house?? Absolute idiots sharing no brain cells.

The things that came out of Damon's mouth in this book had my jaw on the floor. "As long as they're old enough to crawl, they're in the right position." I beg your finest pardon??? This boy needs to go back to jail immediately for that comment alone. I literally could not believe my eyes reading that sentence - sure, his childhood past reveal may explain why he said that, but good lord if I had not already not liked Damon, that would have sealed the deal.

Michael and his merry gang of lame little friends basically commit financial abuse and essentially steal all of Rika's money and act like it's a casual thing. And we are not talking a couple thousand dollars, we are talking millions. And the kidnapping?? They do it so often?? Like guys she is clearly able to get away on her own, think of something better. That being said, they really take this kidnapping on a casual Tuesday very conveniently and are obsessed with making Rika fear for her life at every chance they can get. It is actually diabolical - it's not even a kidnapping where the girl is like "oh my god, nooo, don't!!" when she actually likes it - they girl is literally showing up armed because she thinks they will kill her.

"F**king Trevor" welcome back, Hardin Scott. I think we can all agree that the Trevor twist was something that you could see coming from a mile away. The second Michael and the boys said that Rika was the reason they were arrested, I called BS and said it had to be Trevor - it was clear from the beginning. Trevor was very vocal to Michael on how he wanted Michael to stay away from Rika, so this was obviously a ploy to ruin Michael's life and a way to try to guarantee that Michael would lose feelings from Rika. I cheered when Michael took that boy out on the yacht. Which is an entirely other scenario to address - Rika being kidnapped for about the sixth time in the book leads to Damon and Trevor holding her hostage on this boat because... get this... they're mad that Michael fell for her and does not want to continue the plan of ruining her life. Trevor more so because he wants to get back together with Rika and knock down Michael.

This entire book was nearly 600 pages of sexual harassment and straight up kidnapping. The smut was mildly decent towards the end of the book, which of course did not make up for the fact that the first 450 pages were the boys putting Rika through Saw traps left and right. I wish I could say that I would be abandoning this series because of my views of this book, but unfortunately I low-key want to know what happens with Kai, Will, and Damon.


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