Question L

[Jonetta]

Jude killed a LOT of people that we were aware of by the end of the book. What event do you believe was his tipping point for him to justify his behavior? Do you believe he was evil as Sebastian stated or an avenging soul, righting injustices he felt perpetrated on the poor?

[Jonetta]

I thought it was probably when he killed his father and got away with it. He probably saw himself as an avenger in the beginning but later turned out to have bloodthirst. I agree with Sebastian in that he probably killed many more they'll never know about.

[Veronica]

I'm not sure if I would classify him as evil. I suppose when I think of evil people I think of people who kill or hurt others just for kicks. Jude didn't strike me as that sort. He had his reasons and he believed them to be just but his sense of right and wrong definitely became severely warped. And I think that with every murder he lost more and more of his humanity.

[Jonetta]

I had trouble seeing him as evil, too, but in the end, he was willing to kill innocent people. That's when I think he'd crossed that proverbial line into evil behavior. Emma couldn't have been more innocent and her death by suffocation was awful.

[Charlene]

I think, along with Jonetta, that he crossed the line at least with Emma, but probably before that murder he was well on his way. To kill with purpose and planning in advance was evil behavior, and I was surprised he thought he had GOOD motives for any of this.

[Jonetta]

That tends to be the typical mindsets of vigilantes. They always feel justified.

[Lauren]

While I wouldn't necessarily classify him as evil (that word is overused and has led to desensitization of true evil), he was a classic sociopath.

I agree that his first kill was probably his father and that it emboldened him, but Emma was not his first innocent victim. That would be Hannah Miles whom he killed because she rejected him.

He killed anyone who slighted him or who got in his way and had absolutely no remorse whatsoever.

[Veronica]

Yes, not a lot of sympathy for him at all.

[Mary Beth]

I think he is very evil!

[Joanna]

I can understand killing his father for survival purposes. And I can understand his mind set about avenging the death of his cousin by killing Lord Seaton. But he went way overboard with the rest. I think he lost himself when he killed Hannah. That, to me, was when he lost his soul.

[Veronica]

I agree, Hannah was the tipping point.

[Jasmine]

The series continues to have a theme about revenge and I thought Jude continued that. The first murder, the murder of his father, is killing based on defining his father as someone who is justifiably subject to the ultimate punishment,
with Jude as the Judge and executioner. This is completely understandable in the case of someone so abused, but it also means that he then has the mindset that he IS the judge and executioner not just for his father but more generally for anyone who sins. So then Hannah sins by betraying her class and must be punished. Did anyone think that his name echosed "Judas"?