Review: The Cruel Prince (Holly Black)

*This book will be available in all good bookstores.

Blurb 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.

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RATING

3.75 STARS

HERE’S MY REVIEW!

This is one of the books which totally sucked me in. This one has been gaining tonnes of hype recently so I have decided to go for it. While I was absolutely entertained by the story (the cover is gorgeous by the way!), I didn’t actually get the hype that the book has received. I was left a little bit disappointed hence this has taught me to never put so much hope on books before reading them. Nonetheless, the book kept me entertained the whole time.

I liked the plot. I went into it not knowing how the story would take me and also this was my first reading Holly Black’s book. The plot started slow, as in any YA Fantasy book you would ever read but this is NOT necessarily a bad thing. I was very much enjoying all of the chapters for the first 100 pages. I didn’t feel it was boring because I was totally engrossed with it.

The world building was ON POINT. The writer did an awesome job in building the foundation of the characters, plot and universe. However, some things weren’t explained well and thoroughly and it bothered me because I didn’t understand the hell of it. The book was full of politics and royal drama, which was one of my favourite part of the book.

The characters were very different from characters in other YA books. They were all full with light and dark elements, no one was the hero or the villain. Jude, the main character totally changed from a fearful, ambitious girl to a very manipulative and greedy person. She has lived to become someone who wanted power, and when she climbed the way to the top, she grabbed the opportunity to do anything that she could to proclaim power. I didn’t agree to all of her actions, some of them were honestly selfish and out-of-place, but nonetheless it was interesting to see her coming-of-age story. There were so many characters and that made me forget about their existence and whereabouts in the story. The three sisters’ dynamic was very well fleshed out, all of them have their own wants and interests to achieve.

The book was not that fantastic and mind-blowing, there weren’t any major plot twists and something inventive, however, the plus point of the book was the way that the book was shaped and structured for character development and story wise. 

I am absolutely looking forward for Book 2, The Wicked King and I do hope that the series will blow my mind away!

Thank you Pansing Books for providing a copy in exchange of an honest review.

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Sabrina