The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Summary from Goodreads:

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 years old 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.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war 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:

Oh, how I’ve missed Holly Black. I wish it didn’t take so many years for her to write books. This book had been on my radar for some time, and I was number 1 on the list at the library for it. That being said, I don’t know why I was so hesitant to start it. I always second-guess my love for this author, and I have to stop doing that and accept the fact that I will probably always love her books. I love how dark they are. And I love how strong her characters are.

This one did no disappoint. The darkness was at an all time high. The stuff the main character endured at the hands of the court and the mean fairies was just awful. And for some reason that’s even worse than her watching her parents be murdered at a young age. I guess the memory of that was more abstract than the every day bullying and demeaning behavior.

Jude is just so strong! I wish I had half of her fierceness. She was probably the fiercest Holly Black character yet. I found her and all of the political background of this world to be utterly fascinating. This is a book for people who love great world building. The plot started off kind of slow (after the initial moments of remembering her parents’ murder). But, it picked up and escalated rather quickly later.

I liked the different aspects to all the characters. No one was purely bad or good. Well, maybe some of the fairies were pure evil, but mostly they weren’t. The character I loved to hate the most wasn’t even a fairy; it was her twin sister. I really hated her twin and I was secretly glad each time Jude talked about not seeing her again. Seriously, there wasn’t anything that redeeming about her. She was cowardly, easily manipulated, prone to ignoring mean things happening to her twin, and way too okay with the idea of marriage to someone not nice. Ugh. I hated her. I did like the older sister (who was only half human). She was both interesting and had redeemable qualities.

I also loved the plot twists in this book. The final one actually surprised me. I loved the ending. It reminded me of the ending to Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (one of my all time favorite books/and cliffhanger endings).

All in all, I loved this. It was dark, twisty, violent, and surprising. I loved the characters (most of them any way). And I loved the messed up world this all takes place in. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait a few years for book 2. I give this one a 9/10.