And then there are the times when it is terrifyingly obvious. The bad guys in this one are really, really bad and the scariest part is that at times it is kind of hard to tell who the bad guys are. There were several times where I was actually scared. Holly Black’s faerie tales are always kind of dark, but this one is really dark. I’m expecting to like them more in subsequent books, though, since they’re both poised to take larger roles going forward. I wasn’t quite as invested in either of Jude’s sisters as individuals-though I preferred Vivi to Tamlyn-but they did add to the family dynamic as a whole. At first I thought she was kind of one-dimensional, but by the end I really liked her. Oriana, Madoc’s second wife, is also a really cool character. Her weird but mostly affectionate relationship with Madoc-who loves her as though he were her real father but who literally murdered her real parents in front of her-is a highlight because it is so messed up but somehow doesn’t feel forced or unnatural. I loved the dynamic between Jude and her family. The faeries here are even better at deceptive truths than they are in her other novels, and that’s saying something.
I pretty much always love faeries, and as usual Black does a great job with them. As the story develops, Jude becomes more and more involved in the political side of the faerie world: the High King is getting ready to step down and two of his sons, Balekin and Dain, are waging a silent war to determine which of them will take up the crown.įor the most part, I really liked the book.
Jude has aspirations to be a faerie knight and has an antagonistic relationship with Cardan, the youngest son of the High King and the titular character. Madoc is Vivi’s birth father: the girls’ mother fled from him and remarried the three girls lived in the human world for a few years before Madoc found them, slaughtered their parents, and took them back to the faerie realm. The Cruel Prince follows Jude, a human girl who was taken-along with her twin Tamlyn and older half-sister Vivi-to live as the daughter of the redcap Madoc. It’s not my favorite of her books, but I liked it and I’m sure I’ll read the rest of the series whenever it comes out, though I’m admittedly not waiting with baited breath. Holly Black is one of those authors that I like often enough that I will always read her books if I can find them in the library, so picking up The Cruel Prince was a no-brainer.
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