The Cruel Prince – Book Review

3 1/2 stars – pretty words, compelling characters, a sprinkle of darkness and scheming cunning.. the recipe to Holly Black’s the Cruel Prince.

“Jude was seven 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. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal 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.”

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26032825-the-cruel-prince

“Let’s not stall anymore. This is the part where we fight.”

The Cruel Prince, Holly Black

I will admit I was skeptical going into this read. I’d heard a lot of good things about it (in fact ONLY good things) so I was intrigued. Only when I first picked it up in my local bookstore and read the first couple of chapters I was no longer intrigued. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style and I wasn’t particularly hooked by that opening chapter despite a few people telling me I would be. So I put off buying it until my curiosity got the absolute better of me and I just had to know what all the fuss was about.

Quite frankly, I’m still not actually sure what all the fuss is about.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book (I literally read it in a day and couldn’t put it down) and it had some really great things in it. I loved the world building! Black’s awesome version of Faerie is one of my favourites (sorry Cassie Clare), and I loved that a lot of the faeries in this novel were vicious and cruel and true to the (supposed) nature of faeries.

I also adored her characters. Jude I’m still kind of on the fence about. I had trouble personally relating to her, but I appreciated her character and her development through the book. I loved that she was cunning and she admitted her true desires (however not selfish and angelic they were), it was refreshing reading a strong female antihero who stood up to her bullies and did what she had to do to create the life she wanted (or thought she wanted anyway). However, I felt there was something impersonal about Jude, which considering that the Cruel Prince is written in first person, in the present time, I found odd.

Cardan was one of my favourites. At first I didn’t like him and I feared the worst – that despite his cruelty and bullying of Jude, they would end up as romantic interests. But alas! I loved the way that the relationship between these two characters played out, and I thought it was great that we got to delve into Cardan’s character and see some of the reasons why he is the way he is. I’m excited to see how his character develops further in the next book.

The rest of the characters were colourful and well developed and everything about them and their choices was believable and (mostly) enjoyable (which is a major positive for me because there’s nothing worse than unbelievable characters).

The big reveals however, were a little predictable and I found myself disappointed at each big point/reveal as I had guessed most of them beforehand (maybe I’ve just read too many books for my own good, who knows), but there was no part in this novel that I was truly taken by surprise and this ended up being a big let down for me cause I love a good unexpected twist.

I also personally wasn’t a fan of the writing style. That’s not saying I can’t appreciate it, because it’s poetic and pleasant to read, but there’s a lot of short sentences throughout the book and this just seemed to take the personality out of it (for me), and could also contribute to why I didn’t connect well with Jude. 

Overall though, I devoured this book and truly enjoyed reading it. I loved the gruesomeness and darkness and realness to it. There was obviously a lot of thought and creativity put into it and it paid off. I’m super excited to grab a copy of The Wicked King and see what scheming Jude gets up to next!!

What did you think about The Cruel Prince?

Love always,

Lola xx

Links for the book and author:

Holly Black’s Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/25422.Holly_Black

The Cruel Prince on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26032825-the-cruel-prince