Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: Fantasy, Teens & Young Adults

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: January 2, 2018

Imagine a Grimm’s Fairy Tale with Dark Fae and changelings and lots of stabbing, death, secrets, and manipulation. The Cruel Prince is everything you could want in a dark fantasy with enough twists to keep you riveted to every page.

Jude is seven when a strange man comes to her door, murders her mother and father, and whisks her and her two sisters off to live with him in Faerie. Ten years later, and it’s clear that she still can never belong in Faerie, but she no longer knows how to belong among humans anymore, either. Ever on alert, Jude has to guard against classmates that would harm her, particularly Prince Cardan, who it’s well-known always gets his way around Faerie. What he wants, increasingly, seems to break Jude. But she can’t let that happen.

Determined to prove that, despite being human, she can belong in Faerie, Jude pledges her loyalty as a spy to Prince Dain, who is soon to be crowned the High King. The more Jude pushes to prove she’s worthy, the more Prince Cardan and his group of upper echelon Fae try to show she’s nothing. But petty squabbles with her peers are the least of Jude’s worries. The more she grows in her role as a spy, the more she realizes that everyone has secrets. Even her sisters. Even her. Nothing in Faerie is as it first appears.

• This book is every bit as black as my heart. If you’re not into dark fantasy, this probably isn’t the thing for you. I, however, couldn’t get enough. These aren’t your normal garden-variety Faeries. Oh, no. These are the sort that could come straight from Grimms’ Fairy Tales. They’re mean, vindictive, selfish, and consider humans to basically be as menial as animals. Which I find endearing, because oh the conflicts.

• Did I mention it starts with a murder? Actually, two. Straight up, in cold blood, in front of three children, unapologetically. I feel like that sets the tone pretty darn nicely right there. By that point, everyone should know what they’re getting into, so if you can handle that, strap in, dearies. If not, exit stage right. Either way, it lays it out pretty early and lets you know if this book will work for you or not.

• Oh so many deliciously gray characters. I could just eat them up. While I confess that I do like clear-cut good/evil dichotomies at times, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a book filled to the brim with grey characters. Moral ambiguity is a fact of life, which isn’t always pretty. No one in this book is a “good” guy, especially not the main character, but no one’s just straight-up evil, either. Like most actual people, they’re warring with the two sides of their personality.

• Jude is a pretty kickass protagonist. She can dress up and be presentable in the royal court, all while wielding an assortment of weapons and devising cunning strategies. She’s a realist, who understands that while she can never love Madoc, as her parents’ murderer, that he does afford her luxuries most humans don’t get in Fae, and he protects her and raised her. It’s not a good relationship. No, perish the thought. But it’s a realistic one. Jude’s not particularly special, especially among the Fae, who are near immortal and brimming with magic, but she’s capable. Thanks to Madoc’s training, she’s a skilled fighter and strategist, and she knows how to use her one asset to her advantage. As a human, she can lie, whereas Fae always have to tell the truth. It’s an interesting dynamic, especially as Jude rejects humanity and the life offered to her there in favor of earning her own place in Faerie.

• Complex, complicated, and downright ugly relationships. Have I mentioned this is a dark fantasy yet? If you’re looking for someone to sweep Jude off her feet and live happily ever after, you’ve entered the wrong fairy tale. There is no prince in shining armor. These princes are made out of something entirely different. In fact, no characters in this have particularly healthy relationships with anybody. Faerie is a brutal place, especially for humans, but also for the Fae, too. Everybody has secrets. Yes, there are abusive and unhealthy relationships. That’s sort of the point. I’m okay with that, personally, because, one, unhealthy relationships are just realistic, especially in a world like that, and two, the world of Faerie, as it’s built and in the current political climate, doesn’t exact lend itself to rainbows and sunshine. More importantly, none of these are lauded as normal, acceptable, or even idyllic relationship to be sought after. Even the characters realize these relationships suck. So I thought these were well done and fit the setting and narrative perfectly.

• WHY DO I HAVE ALL THESE EMOTIONS? Ew, get them away. It buuuurns. There are so many characters I just want to hate, but I can’t completely because, for some reason, I haven’t stomped empathy out of my character yet. Even writing this, I’m still conflicted. I can’t decide if I love, hate, want to stab (or all of the above) these characters. I actually really liked Prince Cardan, even while I hated him. There were times I felt bad for him and understood the really crappy situation he was in, but this didn’t soften or negate his character. He’s still, in general, a pretty crappy person. But he’s also suave and cunning and a master of double-talk (and not a murderer, which in this world, I’m going to give him bonus points for that). So maybe he’s a sociopath. Aren’t most good characters? No? Just me?

• So. Much. Betrayal. At this point, I’m not even convinced I wasn’t betrayed. It was glorious. It wasn’t all ruthless. Some of it was very necessary betrayal, mostly harmless (and by that I mean, of course, not fatal). Everyone had their own motives, their own goals they were vying for, and those goals didn’t always align. I felt it provided a good amount of tension and intrigue, and it kept me wanting to read to find out more, since I could feel a betrayal coming but maybe not pinpoint what was going to happen.

• I feel like this is where I should put a trigger warning, maybe? I mean, I feel like it goes without saying, mostly, since this is dark fantasy, dark Fae, dark … well … everything. The subgenres it’s under on Amazon pretty much sum it up, too. But I’ll say it anyway. Expect death, violence, unhealthy relationships, lying, bullying, violence, more death, and some straight up underhanded manipulation.

I intended to read this over a weekend. Instead, I cleared my schedule and read it in a day, because adulting is for losers who don’t have books to finish. I just couldn’t put it down. It took a little while to hit that point (probably after about a third of the book), but once I was there, I was all-in.

I’m going to call this as one of my favorite books of 2018. I know, I know, it’s still early, and there’s time yet for someone to prove me wrong, but this book was fantastic. I finished it and then sat there for five minutes wondering what the heck I was supposed to do with my life now. Why did the words stop? Why aren’t there more words? *sobs pitifully*

In my opinion, what it boils down to is your expectation. Do you want something light, something with morals, something you want to have a powerful moral message and role models? Well, this ain’t it. If you’re into darker stories that are stabby and don’t necessarily have happy endings? Well, here you go. I’d highly recommend this one.

Now, excuse me, while I go sob about having to wait A WHOLE YEAR for the next book in this series.

Have you read The Cruel Prince yet? What did you think? Are you planning on reading it?

If you could have a tail, would you? I mean, Prince Cardan’s tail seems to be a point of tension for him, but I’m not going to lie, I’d be first in line to get one if scientists figured out a way.