by Holly Black
rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
published: 2nd January 2018
spoilers? yes
Goodreads
What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.
Galley provided by publisher
You know when you finish a book and you just don't have any words for how good it was? That's me with this book. Even over two hours since I finished it, I don't know how to put into words what I feel about this book.
Holly Black is one of those authors I know I'll always be able to trust to write a good and compelling book, and The Cruel Prince is no different. After the prologue and first chapter hook you, it's perhaps a bit of a slow burn, but the pace picks up soon enough, and by about a quarter of the way through I couldn't put it down.
As per usual, the characters in this are wonderful, and Holly Black even had me changing how I felt about Cardan by the time the book was over. I'd still like him to have some more character development before (if) he embarks on a relationship with Jude (though after that ending my hopes of that aren't high), but he does start to develop as the book goes on (and there's another two books worth of time in which he can further).
My one (eensy-weensy) problem with the book is how the conflict between Jude and her twin sister, Taryn, comes about. Locke, one of Cardan's friends, starts hooking up with Jude. Meanwhile, Taryn is going to be proposed to by an unknown faerie at the High King's coronation. Firstly, it's blatantly obvious - or it was to me - that Locke is this unknown faerie. Secondly, Taryn knows Locke is playing Jude. She's aware of that. So forgive me if I don't feel any sympathy when she gets angry at Jude because Jude feels betrayed. Taryn knew everything that was happening with regard to that. And yet, instead of punching Locke in the gut like he deserves, she gets angry at Jude. I'm mostly annoyed about the fact that this is the way Holly Black feels the need to get conflict in between the twins. This. When she could have brought it about through a number of different ways - I mean, the whole book, Taryn is against Jude antagonising Cardan and his friends. Surely it's not hard to get the angst in through that.
But despite that part, I really really loved this book, and I don't have a clue how I'm going to manage to wait til 2019 for book two.
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