The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Pages: 370
Release Date: January 2, 2018
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Jude was seven when 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.

I have been in a bit of a fantasy kick at the moment, which may or may not have been caused by reading the entire TDA trilogy in two months, but I've decided to just ride it out and read as many of my backlist fantasy books as possible. I got this book in an Owlcrate box a couple of months ago, so I've definitely taken my time getting round to reading this, but I'm glad I waited until now because I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much as I did.

This book had a lot of classic YA fantasy tropes in it so be warned! I'd recently read A Court of Thorns and Roses, and it there were definitely aspects of this book that was very similar to this book. There was a young girl who was taken to the land of the Faerie, a ruthless hunter figure, a mysterious faerie prince and a challenge that to be completed. However (!!), don't let that put you off. Holly Black has a way of twisting the expected into something completely unexpected, and this book was no exception.

Jude was the most likeable unlikable character I have ever seen, but I LIVED for it.  She was so focused on protecting those she cared about that she didn't stop to think about what impacts her actions would have. I feel like I have to go back and read the book again, knowing how it ended, to see if  Jude is actually likeable. You could tell that she is the kind of person who would do well in politics, because she does seem to be constantly scheming against people, and collecting information about all the people around her. Surprisingly, I actually quite liked her for most of the book because there didn't seem to be anything inherently wrong about her. Sure, she was a little grouchy and didn't always think about her sisters and what they felt, but overall she didn't seem too bad. And then everything went down.

The book is quite slow, so if you prefer your fantasy to be completely action-packed you may have troubles getting into this story. The main action scenes probably happen in the last 10 chapters of the book, but what really drew me in was the focus on constructing a court that would interest the reader. There were so many different rules and regulations that thrown at us in the first half of the story, and with all the different princes each getting a mention it was easy to see how complicated the court dynamics truly are. Luckily, there was no point in the story where I felt lost or intimidated by all the information that was getting thrown at me because Holly Black was able to construct a world that was simple enough for anyone to understand, but complex enough to be interesting.

Maybe it's because I'm new to the fantasy genre, or maybe it's genuinely because this book is so good but I had such a great time reading. I'd have to say that it is in my top 5 fantasy books (which isn't saying much but still) and I'm actually really excited to read the next two books in the trilogy!