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The Cruel Prince The Folk of the Air Holly Black Books

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The Cruel Prince The Folk of the Air Holly Black Books

There's a couple things you should realize about this book before deciding to read it. 1) The reviews are a little over-hyped. I was looking for something to help me with my book withdrawal after finishing SJ Maas's trilogy. This book kept showing up as a recommendation and I finally bit the bullet and downloaded a sample. It didn't grasp my attention at the time and I didn't bother buying it, instead I read some other books in lieu of this one.

Now, it's been a while since I downloaded the sample but my thoughts did go back to this book from time to time. Something about it DID intrigue me.

Now this brings me to point #2. The first half of the book isn't the greatest. You will probably dislike all of the characters which is a major frustration. You can definitely get into the feel of the world and stay there, a testament to the author's ability to good writing but the 3 sisters, Jude, Taryn, and Vivi feel like they have no personalities at all. The author tries to convince us in a particular chapter that Jude has been through a lot and gives you a glimpse into the twisted way of faeries. This is supposed to reinforce our thoughts that Jude is only a lowly pawn with a predestined life filled with misery and misfortune. This is why she is dull and non-responsive to her own feelings and thoughts.That wasn't completely supportive enough to justify how bland Jude was. Her inner monologues were thoroughly lacking in regards to bringing the story to life.

Once you hit the second part of the novel, that's when things begin to pick up the pace and the book becomes a true page turner. It's as if someone else penned the second half of the novel. Someone who breathes in life and vigor to the plot. Jude becomes sharper, smarter, wittier. I have some issues with that as she was not exactly like that during the first half of the novel. And how she concocts a masterful plan and predicts the outcomes is a little above what I thought she was capable of within such a limited time of playing the Fae game.

Certain elements and plots come to light. It makes you abhor certain characters even more and makes you want to find out what some characters are ultimately up to. And some even manage to redeem themselves, although not entirely just yet. There is a lot of potential here for the next novel and I am really looking forward to seeing what Cardan will do to Jude after what goes down at the end of the novel. I also want to know what Locke's endgame is. True to what he says earlier, he is indeed a trickster; a very dirty one at that. Will Jude also be punished for her crime of murder? How will that (literally) be uncovered?

I primarily read adult novels and I do appreciate a good dollop of romance. If this was an adult novel, I would be expecting quite a few feisty and interesting scenes between Cardan and his new 'master', Jude. *Sigh*. One can only wish.

If you are on the fence about this novel but do enjoy YA novels with plot twists, conspiracy, and revenge then I would recommend this book to you. Just do yourself a favor and give yourself time to get to the turning point in the novel. I promise, it gets much more intriguing.


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The Cruel Prince The Folk of the Air Holly Black Books Reviews

Did I just read the same book that everyone else did?
...
If I had to describe this book with one word, I would keep it simple and just say- bad. But, in bold and all caps BAD. And underlined.
I wasn’t super drawn to this book from the summary, but it had glowing reviews so I was pretty excited to read it. That excitement quickly turned into annoyance (and sometimes rage.)

First, this book is told in first person, present tense narrative. Now, I love first person narrative, but I’m a little more picky about narratives in the present tense- I think it takes a skilled writer to pull it off, otherwise the narrative falls completely flat. I want to feel like I’m inside the protagonist’s head, living the story with them. Instead, this book reads like a choppy diary- all of the present tense words are used, but I still felt like I was being told the story in past tense. This even becomes blatantly obvious in chapter 6, when Jude, our protagonist, says “I’ve told this story all wrong.”

I also felt that this book was incredibly juvenile. Yes it is YA, but our 17 year old protagonist acts/talks like she is 12. I *maybe* would have chalked that up to her background- she’s spirited away to faerie-land or whatever the heck it’s called (we’re told but I instantly forgot) with her sisters when she is 7, and raised by her parent’s killer in a foreign land with foreign creatures, so maybe she didn’t mature like she would have if she had remained in the human world? However, ALL of the characters in this book act extremely childish, especially the faeries. We’re told that they’re ancient and immortal and beautiful and fanciful, but they’re portrayed so awkwardly that they come across as “powerful” children. (I use quotes because there’s like, zero exciting magic in this book.)

Which brings me to the characters- none of which are likable. Especially our protagonist Jude. She’s whiny, awkward, and flat out stupid a lot of the time. She’s constantly trying to convince us (herself?) that she *just* wants to become more powerful than the faeries she hates because then she can finally beat them because they’re horrible creatures, but then she also pines away to be EXACTLY like them.
At one point, our antagonist Cardan, one of the faerie princes who is especially awful to her (he even kicks dirt onto her food and then tells her to eat it! *gasp
To which she replies, “Make me.” It was an especially harrowing encounter.) anyway, at one point he’s finally telling her all of the reasons why he hates her, and he says, “Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It’s disgusting and I can’t stop.”
And I s**t you not, Jude, our “bad*ss” who supposedly hates him but wants to be just like him, is so shocked by this turn of events that she kisses him. And she *another gasp* LIKES it.
Wtf? Is this romance in faerie-land? Because I’ll pass, k thx.
As for Cardan, how old is he, anyway? Seriously, I don’t think we ever get even a hint at his age, just that he’s the youngest of the immortal princes/ princesses. Is he older than Jude? Because they act like they’re at the exact same maturity level, and he’s supposedly far, far older than the poor, measly mortal.
I think the only characters I could stand were prince Dain’s three spies- Ghost, Bomb, and something else- and Vivi. Actually, no, I wasn’t super impressed with Vivi either, as she’s one of the somewhat main characters and had zero development.

Speaking of development, that brings me to another point- the development of the faerie world is non-existent. Black gives us all of these pretty descriptions, but they’re of extremely pointless things- why do I need to know exactly what the seamstress (whose name we were given but I immediately forgot) looks like?
“Her feet are turned backward, giving her an odd gait. Her eyes are like those of a goat, brown with a horizontal line of black just at the center. She is wearing an example of her work, a woven dress with embroidered lines of thorns making a striped pattern down the length of it.”
We never meet this person again, and I forgot everything about her instantly because I DIDN’T CARE. I’m all for world depiction, but when you go this into detail about a seamstress (or a servant, or a professor, or how Jude takes her tea along with a full description of the freaking cup she drinks it out of, etc.) and yet glaze over a main plot point such as the battle tournament that Jude won’t shut up about the entire first half of the book like this-

All through the first battle, I fight defensively. I avoid Cardan. Nor do I come near Nicasia, Valerian, or Locke, even when Valerian knocks Fand to the dirt. Even when Valerian rips down our deer hide. Still, I do nothing. Then we are called to the field for the second battle. ... We’re supposed to play at war. When they call us to our places, I play. I play as viciously as possible. My practice sword cracks against Cardan’s ridiculous chest plate. My shoulder bangs against Valerian’s shoulder so hard that he staggers back. I attack again and again, knocking down anyone wearing a silver armband. When the mock war is over, my eye is blackened and both of my knees are skinned and the gold side has won the second and third battles.

- then, we’ve got a problem. This is how Black writes the entire book, and it’s just plain irritating to read. There are excursions to the human world that are completely pointless, and yet we still get a full description of how faeries handle periods when Jude “buys” tampons.
Jude I know what you’re wondering.
No, Jude, you don’t. You really don’t.

Black’s misplaced and excessive descriptions aren’t the only issues I had with her writing, either. I couldn’t stand how 1) Jude’s diary entries portrayed emotion/ expression/ etc, and 2) how Jude speaks/ thinks.
Black grossly overuses adjectives and adverbs, and Jude frequently switches between very proper/borderline medieval-sounding English and slang, which makes it an incredibly awkward and jarring read.
Examples
A wave of panicky frustration comes over me at the sight of her intent expression.
(What the H E double L does panicky frustration look like?)
Taryn watches me intently, as though trying to warn me with her gaze.
(Why is everyone staring so damn intently?)
I have not yet become paranoid enough.
(... what...)
They converse for a moment, then Taryn departs. Cardan notices my noticing. He sniffs, as though the very smell of me offends him.
(I’m noticing that this book sucks.)
I am going to have to trust that he will keep his part of the bargain, but I mislike this kind of calculation.
(The word is DISLIKE, quit trying so hard to sound so eloquent.)
He looks a question at me, and I shake my head before I slump down in the grass.
(HOW DO YOU LOOK A QUESTION, BLACK?)
It shouldn’t shock me that the Court of Faerie is corrupt and kind of gross.
(No Jude, it shouldn’t.)
Basically, like everything about Faerie, geases are awesome, and also they suck.
(Sucks, like this book.)
I do not understand why he likes me, but it is exciting to be liked.
(🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️)

I could go on and on- and I won’t even begin to speculate on the answers to my other questions, questions like how can Jude and her sisters stand to live with their parents’ killer, and yet they break down emotionally at juvenile bullying? Is faerie-land in another dimension, or is in rolling human hills and in shadows of human buildings (no I didn’t make that up) and everyone in faerie-land is just really f***ing small? DO HUMANS KNOW ABOUT FAERIES OR NOT?!

But instead, I’ll just take a chapter from Jude’s diary buck up, and stop feeling my feelings.

I would say until next time, but I don’t think I’ll be reading any more of Black’s books any time soon, which pains me to admit because I rarely quit a series. Even if the writing is bad, if the characters are captivating I’ll hang in there, and vice versa. Sadly, that’s not the case here. I’ve read one book, and it was enough.

Jude I have done the thing, and now I must live with what I have done.
Me too, Jude, me too.
There's a couple things you should realize about this book before deciding to read it. 1) The reviews are a little over-hyped. I was looking for something to help me with my book withdrawal after finishing SJ Maas's trilogy. This book kept showing up as a recommendation and I finally bit the bullet and downloaded a sample. It didn't grasp my attention at the time and I didn't bother buying it, instead I read some other books in lieu of this one.

Now, it's been a while since I downloaded the sample but my thoughts did go back to this book from time to time. Something about it DID intrigue me.

Now this brings me to point #2. The first half of the book isn't the greatest. You will probably dislike all of the characters which is a major frustration. You can definitely get into the feel of the world and stay there, a testament to the author's ability to good writing but the 3 sisters, Jude, Taryn, and Vivi feel like they have no personalities at all. The author tries to convince us in a particular chapter that Jude has been through a lot and gives you a glimpse into the twisted way of faeries. This is supposed to reinforce our thoughts that Jude is only a lowly pawn with a predestined life filled with misery and misfortune. This is why she is dull and non-responsive to her own feelings and thoughts.That wasn't completely supportive enough to justify how bland Jude was. Her inner monologues were thoroughly lacking in regards to bringing the story to life.

Once you hit the second part of the novel, that's when things begin to pick up the pace and the book becomes a true page turner. It's as if someone else penned the second half of the novel. Someone who breathes in life and vigor to the plot. Jude becomes sharper, smarter, wittier. I have some issues with that as she was not exactly like that during the first half of the novel. And how she concocts a masterful plan and predicts the outcomes is a little above what I thought she was capable of within such a limited time of playing the Fae game.

Certain elements and plots come to light. It makes you abhor certain characters even more and makes you want to find out what some characters are ultimately up to. And some even manage to redeem themselves, although not entirely just yet. There is a lot of potential here for the next novel and I am really looking forward to seeing what Cardan will do to Jude after what goes down at the end of the novel. I also want to know what Locke's endgame is. True to what he says earlier, he is indeed a trickster; a very dirty one at that. Will Jude also be punished for her crime of murder? How will that (literally) be uncovered?

I primarily read adult novels and I do appreciate a good dollop of romance. If this was an adult novel, I would be expecting quite a few feisty and interesting scenes between Cardan and his new 'master', Jude. *Sigh*. One can only wish.

If you are on the fence about this novel but do enjoy YA novels with plot twists, conspiracy, and revenge then I would recommend this book to you. Just do yourself a favor and give yourself time to get to the turning point in the novel. I promise, it gets much more intriguing.