Reviews with content warning for Death - The Cruel Prince

The first half of the book fell flat for me. It felt like mostly setup. Most of the characters were pretty one dimensional. (Maybe that’s just the challenge with a first person pov.) Plot lines felt like they needed more time to ruminate as well as a lot of “tell don’t show” going on.

However, I enjoyed the second half of the book much more, and I was even inclined to pick up the sequel. I don’t know. I like how cheeky Cardan is. I think their dynamic would’ve been more impactful had they interacted more in the first half. It was very “he’s so cruel” when it’s mostly Cardan taking a backseat while his friends were being cruel. Maybe Jude is supposed to be an unreliable narrator?

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sizzlesteaks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

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e_gallego's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holly Black, I loved you when I was a kid because of your Tithe series, and now you have recommitted my undying love for your work with the Cruel Prince. This is my second go-round with this book; the first time I read it a couple years ago, I finished the entire trilogy in three days flat. Holly Black does fae perfectly: mean, petty, insidious, monstrous, greedy. Her entire world is so fun, her writing so good, you really do become entrenched within the story. And Jude? Where do I even start with Jude. Jude, my beloved. You can do no wrong in my eyes, Jude you feral creature. Jude may quite possibly be one of my favorite protagonists in all my reading. Honestly there’s so few characters here who I dislike. Perhaps the most interesting relationship however is between Madoc and Jude. The romance honestly takes a backseat to their complicated and nuanced relationship. It is ultimately the story of a girl who becomes all the things she hates in her father to achieve what she needs. And Madoc? I could ramble forever on how fucking cool of a character he is and how nuanced and complex of a villain. I LOVE Madoc like crazy, he’s such a great antagonist; endlessly fascinating. That isn’t to say that the romance is bad: on the contrary, Holly Black may be the only author I trust to write the bully trope as I normally fucking hate it. The romance here, enemies and lovers, is written in a way that understands the characters and every way that they tick. Their fears, their hatred, their yearning, their needs. Cardan’s seething obsession is so batshit that I just have to laugh; and Jude’s reciprocal obsessive rage makes me kick my feet. They want to destroy each other and it’s wonderful and dare I say romantic. In Holly Black we trust, amen.

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mokkekitty's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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livaausma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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wise_old_fishie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

it has now been a good 8ish months since I read it and have finally gotten around to reviewing it so i'll do the best I can :)

I really liked this book because I found that there was a lot of pretty interesting 'world-building' where we just got to kind of see jude's day to day life without too much BIG changes and wild plot-twists (well compared to the other 2 books especially. Though I kind of found Jude to be another boring mc (though bearable enough). I kind of liked cardan despite his actions, he is a silly (but mean) guy.

Personally i do think that cardan was really cruel in this book (and this doesn't make his actions excusable), after reading the rest of the books (and especialy after delving into how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories, we can see the roots of how he behaves and especialy why he treats jude the way he does. I also found jude's relationship/attitude towards MDOC kind of strange, I can both see where she's coming from with the whole 'he killed my parents' which I think makes perfect sense, but he also raised her for like, well alot longer than her parents did, and it's sort of in him to kill them, as he's a redcap. It's not like idk, an excuse, but Jude also should take into account that Madoc isn't a human, and that it's part of his nature and his race to do shi like that.

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samiilg's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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