Holly Black - The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1)
4⭐
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Fiction
Pages: 370
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Date Published: 2nd January 2018
Big thanks to Hot Key Books for the copy of this book and TandemCollectiveUK for having me on their #TheFolkOfTheAir #TandemReadalong on Instagram.
Book Blurb:
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
My Review:
This is my first YA fantasy book series
in like 4+ years and honestly, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I am going
to. The Cruel Prince definitely put me in the mood for finding my old YA
fantasy series and putting them on my already quite big TBR shelf. Also, it was
my first Holly Black book. So yes, I am late to the party BUT better late than
never!
This book has it all from drama
to gruesome moments, from lies to bloody deaths, from hate to hints of
potential romance and love…This story basically ticks most, if not all the
boxes for YA fantasy. Although, I did wish that there was more romance but even
without it, the tension between Jude and Cardan as well as Jude and Locke were
enough to satisfy my needs.
The story follows Jude, who as a seven-year-old
sees both of her parents brutally murdered by Faerie general Madoc. Then she
and her twin sister Taryn together with her older sister Vivi are taken against
their will to Faerie, where fast forward ten years all three of them live with Madoc
and his wife. Madoc raised them as his own children amongst the fey even though
Taryn and Jude are both humans. Whilst her twin Taryn is settling into the Faerie
world quite well, for Jude this is not the case. She battles between hate for
them and love for them. She wants to belong to their world because that is the
only place she knows and can call home but at the same time, she knows how
cruel they are. On top of that she and Prince Cardan, one of the Elfhame
princes hate each other and Cardan tortures Jude as much as he can in school
and outside. To survive in the Faerie world Jude, need to become powerful, and just
as cruel and to do that she will have to lie, deceive and hate…
I enjoyed Holly Black’s writing
and how perfectly she built such a complex world of Faeries. Also, from the
very first page, I was hooked by the never-ending drama, action, lies and
tension, which all kept me wanting to read more and more. I also really liked
that the characters in this book aren’t labelled just as bad or good, but instead
it is portrayed that each character is capable of being both good and bad depending
on the situation.
In terms of the plot, I always thought,
especially from Bookstagram that there will be a huge romance story in this
book between Cardan and Jude and to my disappointment, there wasn’t a love
story at all. Yes, there was some tension between those two characters but I wouldn’t
call it a full fairytale story. For me this book was more about family drama,
power, revenge, coming of age and finding a place to belong as well as personal
conflict and personal acceptance.
Overall: I enjoyed this book and
the world of Faeries and can’t wait to read the second book. I loved the intensity,
drama, action and tension in this book, as well as the variety of characters who
one minute you love and the next you hate. Also, in this book, you don’t know
what might happen in the next chapter so it is one of those that you don’t want
to put away but just want to read it all in one sitting. It was definitely a
perfect book to get myself back into YA fantasy books.
About the Author:
Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over thirty fantasy novels for kids and teens. She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award and the Lodestar Award, and the recipient of the Mythopoeic Award, a Nebula, and a Newbery Honor. Her books have been translated into 32 languages worldwide and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library.
https://blackholly.com/
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