Review: The Cruel Prince

Posted 29th December 2018 by Emma in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review: The Cruel PrinceThe Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Narrator: Caitlin Kelly
Also by this author: The Wicked King , The Queen of Nothing
Series: The Folk of the Air #1
Also in this series: The Wicked King
Published by Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd on 2nd January 2018
Genres: Fairytale, Fantasy, YA Fantasy
Length: 12 hours and 36 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: from the Library
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

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 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.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal 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.

So, this is one of those books that I saw all over Instagram and I mean ALL over. I had seen so many pictures of this book and quotes and I had merch from book boxes. This book was everywhere so I decided that I needed to know what all the fuss was about. I was surprised to find out I wasn’t actually that far behind the curve on this one and it was only released in January. Usually, I suck at keeping up with these sorts of books so I was glad I wasn’t years behind. I also saw that book 2, The Wicked King, is released in January so I thought December was a good time to get caught up.

The main character in this book is Jude. Jude is a human growing up in a Fae world. She has a twin sister and an older fae sister. Because she is human a lot of the fae underestimate her. Jude was quite a likeable character. She went through a lot at such a young age and to have to live with the person who murdered your parents has to do something to you. Jude is strong, brave and deeply flawed.

Jude has to put up with the Fae children who endlessly torment her and her twin sister. The leader of the pack is Prince Cardan. Prince Cardan it seems hates Jude but, it’s quite obvious he also loves her. He doesn’t want to because she is human and he is fae but the heart wants what the heart wants.

The characters in this book are cut throat. While the Fae cannot lie they are very good at telling twisted versions of the truth. The court is full of backstabbers and political wars. This book is no fairytale and some of the actions may shock you.

There were some unexpected twists in this book and I cannot wait to see how it pans out in the Wicked King.

About Holly Black

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare), The Darkest Part of the Forest, and her new series which begins with The Cruel Prince in January 2018.

She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door.

Emma

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:


Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.