The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black
Published: January 2nd 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
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.
If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.
I almost DNFed this book, and I am so glad that I stuck with it and finished until the end!!!! It took me till about half way through the book to finally start enjoying it. It’s not that the writing is bad, it just took awhile for the plot to get moving but once it did I couldn’t put the book down.
Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It’s disgusting, and I can’t stop
Like I said, after the slow start the book became a lot more enjoyable. That was when we started to get more court intrigue and spying on our enemies. If there is one thing you should learn about the land of faerie is that no one is who they say they are. We are rooting for one prince to be king for most of the book, only to find out something that they did. Then of course, the prince that we didn’t like turns out to not be so bad.
If you hurt me, I wouldn’t cry. I would hurt you back
Jude has definitely lived a hard life with her twin sister. The only, I guess you would say free and “protected” humans, in the land of Faerie. They have to learn how to protect themselves against glamour and the tricks of the fae, who by the way doesn’t like them. Jude…isn’t one of my favorite characters in the whole book, actually right now I don’t think I have a favorite character. I didn’t like some of the choices that she did, nor did I like the fact that she hates Cardan one minute and then all of a sudden he is isn’t. I won’t go more into that since then it would be spoilers, and I like to do spoiler free reviews.
I have lied and I have betrayed and I have triumphed. If only there was someone to congratulate me
I recently read another book by Black, and I can’t help but wonder how this book would be better if it was a standalone like most of her other books. Now that the second book is out, I can’t wait to read it to see if my opinion of this series changes. I enjoyed it immensely, but like I said earlier it took awhile for me to start enjoying it. I hope the second book has better momentum.
Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all
Sam's Little Corner 