The Cruel Prince Book Review

The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black 

2018

Young Adult Fantasy, High Fantasy

The Cruel Prince follows Jude, a human who has spent ten years in a fairy court after the murder of her parents. Along with her twin sister Taryn, Jude has grown up in the household of Madoc, the murderer of her parents, who feels a sense of duty over the twins and their older fae sister. As a grown Jude navigates the faerie world, she learns more about the secrets of the court and caught up in the drama of crowning a new king

Jude is an interesting character and I loved following her journey. She openly discusses how she wants power in her monologues, a trait I really like seeing in a YA protagonist. Her motivations and actions all felt understandable, and I loved all the twists in her journey to power. The book was way more political than I expected in the best way possible.

As for Cardan, the namesake cruel prince, I’ve seen a lot of love for him all over Instagram and I look forward to learning more about him. If he has a good redemption arc, I will be able to excuse all his actions in this book.

The side characters did fall a bit flat for me. Taryn felt like a stock character to me, I wish we got to see more of her, especially since she seems like she’ll have a larger role in the next books. Jude and Taryn’s older sister was equally interesting, and I can’t wait to learn more about her character

I read through The Cruel Prince in around two days, maybe even under 48 hours. This makes a great book to binge because the plot is like a faerie dance. When I first started the book, I found it quite slow and felt like I was missing something. But then, the last fifty pages really picked and I realized that the book is such an even, constant ride to the amazing end. Black’s pacing is amazing and subtle. 

Rating 4/5: I had a lot of fun reading The Cruel Prince and look forward to finishing the series after the amazing cliffhanger!