The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, 1)

I used to never be a reader who gave into the hype and buzz a new book can sometimes bring along with it. But while Instagram has taken book marketing to an entirely different level, some books are becoming difficult to ignore. Literally thousands upon thousands of readers, reviewers, publicists, and enthusiasts are pushing the free marketing of books attached to hashtags and accompanied by beautiful and creative photography upon Instagram and other social media site purveyors daily. The Cruel Prince was one book that began to saturate my feed as readers latched on to the newest novel by fantasy maven Holly Black; their accolades and insistent cries that the book shattered them caught my interest and I decided to dive in.The opening is brutal. Young Jude and her two sisters are enjoying a quiet afternoon at home, the TV lulling them into a comfortable slumber while their parents tinker about in other parts of their cozy home. Unbeknownst to them, this is the day that everything they have ever known will change, as the man watching their home from across the street decides to finally make his move. The stranger barges into their haven and shatters the idyllic scene by murdering both of Jude's parents in a quick and succinct fashion.Whisked away to the land of Faerie, Jude and her sisters are forced into a life settled firmly on the borders of being outsiders. Her oldest sister, Vivi, being the cause of the disruption in their lives, is ironically the most unhappy with their new situation. She is only Jude's half-sister, the result of their mother faking her own death and spiriting herself and her pregnant belly back to the mortal world, with the help of a secret love. Previously attached to a brutal war general of Faerie, Jude's mother committed the ultimate act of betrayal by hiding the child, and the result was her execution. By the laws vested in Faerie, General Madoc became responsible for the children of his wife the moment she died at his hand, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously.Growing up in Faerie has had its difficulties, almost from day one. Jude is not one of them, not a member of the Fair Folk. She is human: dispensable and fragile; a veritable non-starter. Her saving grace, however, is that she is a member of the upper class and elite. Having been raised by Madoc garners her a touch of reverance. He is a man who commands respect and if he doesn't find it, he takes it by force. Having risen to become the right hand of the Faerie King by hook, crook, and buckets of blood, Jude is afforded a modicum of respect in Madoc's stead. But behind the scenes, she is taunted and ridiculed by her peers, looked at as a pretender, and as a frail human who has no real worth or talent. To say the situation is complicated is an understatement.The worst of those who bully her is Cardan, the beautiful young Prince of Faerie who chooses to amuse himself by taunting her and putting her right onto the cusp of deathly danger before ripping her back. He skulks around the periphery of her life with his band of merry friends, waiting for any opportunity he can find to make her life miserable. Her twin sister Taryn also suffers the same fate of having her life soaked in nasty words and actions . . . but there is something different in the way Cardan treats Jude - almost as if he divines immense pleasure from making her bleed from within, from personally making her feel like less than human . . . and more like an animal.Cardan is cruel, to say the least of it. But Jude has other things on her mind. She has to find a way to solidify her place in Faerie as the impending years of her adulthood begin to creep just over the horizon. She has some ideas on how to do this, but she finds that she's blocked at every turn by her pseudo-father, Madoc. He insists that he has her best interests at heart, and he has always treated her just the same as his true born daughter Vivi, but Jude is cloaked in a blanket of frustration and raw anger. She wants to fight. She's trained for it. So why won't he allow her her chance?She's also finding herself strangely attracted to a member of Cardan's vicious pack, but the man in question seems to have secrets of his own, hidden within the endless depths of his mysterious soul and locked behind the doors of the expansive empty mansion on the outskirts of the forest that he calls home.And then a proposition is brought to Jude, from the most unlikely of characters. The man most believed to become King after the current reign is over comes to her in secret, seeking an alliance. Prince Dain offers Jude her innermost heart's desires, in exchange for information. He wants her to become his spy, part of his Court of Shadows. And Jude must toe the thin line between safety and sure death to get the Prince what he demands.But before Jude can achieve her goal and find her place in Faerie, everything begins to unravel like so much thread from a well-worn sweater. And on an evening that was supposed to be dedicated to a fresh new start, Jude will watch everything burn to the ground, leaving her to pick up the pieces and put them back together all on her own.The Cruel Prince is the first book in the Folk of the Air trilogy, and before I recommend this to you let me say - you will be clamoring for more from the moment you turn the last page. This novel, set in the high-fantasy world of enigmatic Faerie, is sharp and deceptive, taking the reader on a roller coaster ride full of darkness and delight. The writing is masterful and faithful to the fictional world of Faerie as most high-fantasy readers know it. Sometimes YA books can come across as a bit corny, but this one was full of strong female characters and flawed systems. Nothing was obvious, and the plot was well-played. This is one book that lives up to the hype. Appropriate for readers ages 13+, fans of The Cruel Prince would be wise to look into the rest of Black's literary catalogue, as the worlds of her novels have finely tuned connections. Also, the cover art and a sneak peek excerpt has been dropped via Entertainment Weekly - both can be viewed on their website.

What a ride it was to be back in Holly Black’s land of Faerie. I read her Tithe series way back in the day, probably when I was in middle school or high school, and I absolutely fell in love with it. The story was so fascinating to me, and it’s really the thing that pushed me to fall in love with faeries from that point on.Now, in this new book, it shows a much darker side to Faerie than I’m used to. I mean, I’m used to reading dark tales about Faerie because, let’s be real, it can be a very cruel place not just to mortals, but to the other Fey as well, but this story brought on a lot more betrayal, hatred, and a general sense of apathy than anything.Let’s talk characters because there were a lot of characters introduced to us through Jude’s eyes, and I want to give some of my thoughts on them.Jude, herself, was a very melancholic character. We were often reminded of how much she hated life in Faerie and how she loved Madoc, though he’s a monster, and how she despised Cardan. I’m not saying those points were annoying, but I did pick up just how often they were said and I kind of felt it was redundant. I also felt her character was a bit… lacking? She was very much just a ball of anger at the world around her. Any emotions other than general discourse or anger felt outside of her realm and I didn’t really feel any particular attachment to her, especially through the first two thirds of the story. More on that in a minute.Cardan was quite the cruel prince (but not the main reason for the title of the book, let me tell you lol) who enjoyed seeing Jude suffer, but also did very, very subtle things to ensure nothing harmed her to the point of death. In the latter half of the book it felt almost like I was reading about an entirely different character? At least in some parts he felt a bit too open, a bit too friendly, even, but that familiar cruelness came right back at the very end and I was like, “Ah, yes, there he is.”Madoc, Balekin, and Dain all had fairly significant parts to play throughout the story, and each of them played it well. Overall they all felt very cunning, very manipulative, and willing to do anything to get what they wanted. But my biggest point here in talking about these three: I wanted to learn more about them and why they were the way they were, even as fey.Valerian, Locke, and Nicasia were friends of Cardan’s, and I didn’t very much like them. Valerian was a huge jerk, Locke always seemed like there was something more mischievous and cunning underneath everything that he did, and Nicasia… well, I actually kind of liked her, despite her being a horrible person.Taryn and Vivienne were Jude’s sisters, and though they had their parts to play in the story, I also felt like they were just there when it was most convenient for the plot. I do, however, really like Vivi and her determination to do everything in her power to go against her father’s, Madoc’s, wishes.Okay, now let’s talk about the plot, because I have some things I want to say about it, as well as the writing through the first two thirds of the book.First off, the writing continuously felt like it was jumping and cutting out scenes that should have taken place. When I was reading some parts and it instantly jumped from, for example, Jude about to go somewhere, it then jumped to her having already done it. Or there was no real dive into any sort of emotions – not often, anyway – or a real look at surroundings or situations that I really craved for.There was no middle ground, no “filler,” I guess you could say. But it wasn’t just that that bothered me, it was my desire to feel something more for what was happening to Jude and what was happening around her.I didn’t feel as connected as I was hoping because I felt so disconnected because of the jumpy writing – at least for the first two thirds of the story.And then? Oh man, did it kick off right at the climax of the book, and even the writing got a lot better and I felt like I was following it a lot better than I was before.The plot was leading up to the grand coronation of one of the princes, and when the thing (I won’t spoil it) happened, and then a lot of chaos ensued, I was shocked. Seriously, I hadn’t been expecting it to go down the way it did, and there was a lot of bloodshed and just… a lot of stuff happening.The last third of the book really held my attention and, more than once, especially in the last chapter, I had to catch my breath because I was so anxious as to what was going to happen next, how it was going to play out, and if the plan was going to succeed.Overall, I found that the last third of the book was much more enticing and dynamic than the first two thirds, but that’s not to say it was a bad read. I actually really enjoyed the book and found myself hooked into reading it, despite the flaws that I personally found. And I can’t wait to read the sequel; it’s going to be so good. THAT ENDING THOUGH. UGH, MY HEART.★★★★☆