The Cruel Prince by Holly Black Review

The Cruel Prince

By Holly Black

Book one of The Folk of the Air trilogy

My Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: YA Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

When Jude was seven, her parents were brutally murdered by her human mother's ex-husband, Madoc, who also turns out to be the father of her eldest sister, from a land of faeries named 'Elfhame'.  He steals away Jude, her twin sister Taryn and his daughter Vivienne, and brings them to a new home in the High Court. 

Now aged seventeen, Jude still lives in Faerie, but she has never felt like she has truly 'fitted in' as one of the only human inhabitants. She is desperate to belong and escape the clutch of the bullying, vicious, human-despising Prince Cardan, who makes it a challenge to torment her and Taryn daily for no apparent reason other than that they are humans. Jude is aware that she doesn't particularly have any talents other than fighting and so, with that in mind, she decides that the way for her to win her position in court is to become a knight by impressing a noble in a yearly fighting tournament in which a mock war takes place. However, Jude's plans are ruined by Madoc, who does not give her permission to declare that she would like to become a knight. Still,  Jude goes ahead and fights in the tournament, hoping she might impress someone anyway. 

Later on she finds that she has indeed impressed someone...  Prince Dain, favoured to become High King once his father steps down and older brother of her tormentor, Prince Cardan. Impressed by Jude's skill, but also her uniquely human ability to lie, he asks her to become a spy for him. Jude is quickly caught up in a new, hidden side of Faerie, full of mystery and intrigue, yet for once feels that she has found somewhere she belongs. But will she be able to keep her secrets from Madoc, her sisters and the boy she is starting to fall in love with?

Content warnings: Violence/Gore

*spoilers ahead*

Whilst The Cruel Prince isn't perhaps the most unique book of them all, you shouldn't let this dissuade you from reading it, since there are plenty of reasons for you to read it. I for one, really enjoyed Holly Black's excellent world-building skills. Faerieland based worlds are common in YA fiction, and are often so similar that they seem to blur into one big mess. This is not the case with Elfhame in The Cruel Prince. When you are introduced to Elfhame in the first chapter, you aren't immediately overwhelmed with a long description, or the entire history of it. Instead, the first chapter is a single sentence long, which may seem odd at first, but it is actually really effective in establishing the Faerie world. In the second chapter, information about Elfhame comes in a slow trickle; just enough that you know and understand what is happening clearly, but are still curious about the setting. The description of Elfhame continues in this fashion for pretty much the rest of the book, which kept me interested and asking questions throughout the read. 

Another thing I enjoyed was the family dynamic between Jude, Taryn and Vivi. Firstly, the fact that Taryn and Jude are twins but aren't exactly the same in every way or are complete opposites was refreshing to read, as it is something I find commonly in many books. They had these little subtle similarities throughout the story, and even when Taryn, in a way, betrays Jude by letting her get into a relationship with Locke, a little part of me thought this might have been something Jude would do, had their situations been reversed. It was then interesting to see Jude's relationship with Vivi. Whereas Taryn seemed to be the sensible one out of her and Jude, Jude definitely seemed to be the more controlled when it comes to her and Vivi. This is what showed the difference between mortal and faerie for me; Jude is seen as occasionally reckless and makes some bad decisions, but Vivi has a sense of 'faerie wildness' about her that Jude lacks. We don't really hear or see much of Vivi and Taryn's relationship in this book, so it's something I'd like to see explored more in the next book in the series, The Wicked King. 

The last thing I want to talk about is the character Prince Cardan Greenbriar. For most of the book, I didn't particularly like him: he acts terribly towards Jude and Taryn (and some the faeries) in the first part of the book, he encourages his friends to act in the same way and it's like he only exists to make life harder for anyone who crosses him. Yet, as I reached the end of the book, I found my opinion slowly changing for the better. The first pivotal moment in this decision for me was the scene where Jude is undercover and sneaks into Hollow Hall, where Cardan lives with his older brother, Balekin, and witnesses Cardan being brutally whipped by a servant who had been enchanted to do so by Balekin. This made me think for the first time about why Cardan behaves like he does - what could have happened to him to make him so cruel? Well this is certainly part of it. I also grew to like Cardan a little more after the events at the intended coronation of Dain. His actions seemed to change once none of his older siblings were around to influence him, a new side was revealed which I found growing on me a little. 

So, all in all, I loved The Cruel Prince. I'd recommend it for any fantasy reader aged fourteen upwards (mostly due to the violent scenes littered throughout the book) and also to those who enjoy stories of court intrigue.