Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1)
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Pages: 370
Format: Hardcover/Own

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.

Review: I avoided this book right when it came out because of the hype, but I'm so glad I finally picked it up. Definitely worth the read! So this book was nothing like I expected going into it. I've read a lot of fae books that have the idea of the fae being awful but actually really aren't. This one actually lived up to the idea of fae being the wicked creatures they are and I loved it. 

So Jude is human. Not secretly fae or anything like that that we normally see. Just human. She comes to Elfhame after her parents are murdered by the man that now acts as her father. More about that later. But her older sister Vivi, is the actual fae child and Jude is pretty much with the fae because of her. Jude has it pretty rough, not gonna lie. Most of the Fae treat her like garbage because of her being human and them thinking lesser of humans. I really like Jude. Despite the fact she and her sister were treated like garbage by the fae, she refused to stand down. She stood her ground against Cardan and his awful friends, she refused to give in when everyone called her weak because of being human. I love Jude. She is so strong. I also found her incredibly interesting because of the fact you see her upbringing in the wicked fae world affecting her choices and playing huge roles in her actions. She was brought up knowing how dark the fae can be and she embraces that darkness. She uses her fighting skills from Madoc, her being human to blend in among servants to get places she otherwise couldn't go, her being human to be able to lie and spy her way through people since the fae themselves can't actually lie. I loved seeing Jude embrace her upbringing with the fae and mixing it with her human traits. Jude was definitely not a sunshine and lollipops kind of light person. She might be human, but she can be just as dark and wicked as the fae. 

Madoc. So he is the one who killed Jude's parents and now acts as their father. He was married to Jude's mom. Jude's mom ended up faking hers and Vivi's deaths to escape Elfhame, but eventually Madoc finds out it was a ruse and finds them in the mortal world and kills her and her new husband (Jude and Taryn's dad). While not shocked by the brutality of this, I was surprised at the fact Madoc takes all three girls and raises them when his only obligation was to Vivi. He claims that since Jude and Taryn are his wifes children that it falls to him to raise them regardless. Despite how wicked Madoc could be, I thought this was actually a pretty noble thing for him as a fae, to do. And the fact that he genuinely tries to do his best by them was even more shocking. He could have easily only given Vivi the luxury of being fae born but he raised all three girls with the luxury of the fae. Wanting for nothing and having almost every opportunity the fae were given. And on top of that, he even saves things for Jude and Taryn from their actual father to give to them. He might be a bloodthirsty general, but he did try to do his best with the girls. However, his decisions regarding the High King and Princes, that however is up for debate. He definitely showed his wicked, bloodthirsty side there. 

Taryn and Locke. So I'm not a huge fan of Taryn. She is Jude's younger sister and she unlike Jude, seemed perfectly content to just roll over and let the fae walk all over them. She never seemed to want to stand up for herself, and pretty much counted on finding some jawdroppingly handsome fae boy to marry to give herself a better status in Elfhame. She on top of that had the nerve to get upset with Jude for standing up for herself and making her seem like the bad guy. I'm sorry, Taryn was just so unlikable for me with her high and mighty attitude towards Jude. Locke. So despite him seeming like a good guy, he definitely annoyed me too. Being all sweet to Jude, making her feel like she found one decent guy in Elfhame just to have him go off and propose marriage to her sister. And then he still tells Jude he wants her. Like is this guy for real?? Just eww. You made your choice, live with it. I love though that Madoc doesn't think Locke is good for either sister. Haha!

The royals. Holy shit guys. So much behind the scenes. Poisonings, killings, coups, spies, schemes within schemes. Just wow. So we first think Cardan is pretty bad with the way he treats Jude, constantly irking her on for being mortal and trying to trap and provoke her into doing stuff that could get her killed or thrown out of the faery lands forever. But then we meet his older brother Balekin. Not only does he seem more evil than Cardan, but then we witness the abuse he does to his own brother for not being as good as he wants him to be. Not to mention Balekin is scheming behind the scenes to get the crown because he knows he isn't the favored child. I definitely think Balekin is a worse person that Cardan. And then Dain. He seemed like a good guy on the outside compared to his brothers, but then we learn what he did in secret to Locke's mother and her unborn child. Just whoa. That was pretty dark in itself. And what happened during the ceremony with the coup. Guys, just... Wow. Was not expecting all the bloodshed we get. Just wow. 

I thought the ending was really great. We learn all this stuff about Oak and who he is really. We see Jude become a serious master schemer using Cardan to protect Oak, but then turn around and use him in a completely different way than he agreed to. And he can't to anything about it because of the oath he took to Jude. Vivi agreeing to take Oak to the mortal world and raise him. Jude. Guys, she outwitted Madoc and Cardan with her schemes. Jude is brilliant and I love her and I can't wait to see what she does in The Wicked King!! :D