Reviews with content warning for Violence - The False Prince

This was a reread and it's still a 4.5 stars for me.

I enjoyed that, while the twist was obvious to me both times, the foreshadowing was completed nicely throughout. And the few secrets that weren't ever hinted at still felt real due to them fitting in with the characters and their personalities.

I also enjoyed that when the twist was finally revealed, it was a quick two chapters of flashbacks to fully explain and then nicely and easily jumped back to the main story.

There were a few times when the story dragged or got repetitive, which is partially why I can't give a full 5 stars.

Content Warnings

cait's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

“A person can be educated and still be stupid, and a wise man can have no education at all.”

I think I'm losing my touch, man, because I did not see almost any of this coming. The only thing I was able to predict was the truth about the prince.

This is one of my sister's favorite series of all time. I have long been lectured about how good it is, how much she loves the characters, the way the angst and torture scenes make her feel alive (because, I guess she's a sadist or something). So, when my good friend offered me a copy for free, I accepted and then I didn't pick it up until eight months later.

The False Prince follows a group of orphan boys who are purchased from their orphanages to be taken to a mansion and trained to impersonate the missing prince in order to take over control of the kingdom. Failure means death. Success likely also means death. But the boys don't have any choice but to obey. They must learn to read like the prince, write like the prince, ride like the prince, fight like the prince, speak like the prince, walk like the prince, etc. And they only have a few weeks to do it, because there's a secret that no one yet knows: The entirety of the royal family is dead and the whole kingdom will fall if a new monarch is not placed before the truth is revealed.

I enjoyed this more abstractly than actively. I thought it was cleverly done and brilliantly executed, but there was also an element of distance that the author maintained between the reader and the characters that made it impossible for me to ever fully connect with any of them. It served a very important purpose, of course, but you don't realize that for a very long time, which makes it hard to understand why she won't let you close to them.

A pro or con of this author's writing style, depending on how you look at it, is the directness of her storytelling. Nielsen doesn't use flowery prose or create meandering paragraphs, she simply writes the story, which is a huge appeal to a lot of readers. It is not my preference, but I still see the appeal.

All in all, a very interesting story populated by intriguing characters and incredible twists, but I probably should have read it years ago when my sister told me to.

Content Warnings

mintfaun's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

agoldendear's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I read this two times--once in eighth grade, and now as an adult. I liked it significantly more when I was younger, unfortunately.

I think what I liked most about it was the tense plot of this book. You're always aware that the protagonist, Sage, is in a dangerous situation, and one wrong move could end his life. There was also an element of mystery. (minor spoiler)

Spoiler

At various times, random plot points would show up for a little while without being resolved and then just go away for a while. For example: Sage lost a rock at one point, but he didn't share why he cared so much about it. I was wondering what the point of it all was, but everything tied together pretty well in the end. (I still think the big plot twist advertised on the back cover was decently interesting, although a bit info-dumpy.)

Overall, I loved this book so much that I got the sequel as soon as it came out.

That being said, there was a lot I didn't like in my second reading. First, the writing frustrated me because nothing the teenagers said sounded like how teens talk in the real world. Everyone speaks a bit too unnaturally to convince me that they are real people. Even if you just read the first page of Sage's inner thoughts, you'll get what I mean.

Second, I didn't particularly like the characters. Sage was annoying and reminded me of this guy I knew in high school who would argue with our teachers constantly for no good reason. I didn't particularly want him to be chosen as the king for most of the book. The other two boys were also pretty bad. They didn't even START to like each other, or at least develop some sense of camaraderie from being stuck together in a terrible situation. But nope, they were always jerks. There wasn't even a point to (major spoiler)

Spoiler

Sage saving their lives, since one was only nice due to blackmail, and the other tried to murder him in the end.

The female characters, of which there were only two important ones, were quite underdeveloped. Imogen, who I guess was the love interest, was wishy-washy with whether she was on Sage's side for no reason I could tell. And it really annoyed me that (early spoiler)

Spoiler

Sage insisted on being involved with her, even after it was clear that he was actively causing her trouble.

Conner was wishy-washy as well, it was always like "oh maybe he'll pick Sage, jk maybe he'll pick Tobias." It all seemed random. Also, I had to roll my eyes at his punny name.

Oh, and speaking of the women--Sage always started his descriptions of them by mentioning how good-looking they are. The only part of him accurate to a real teenager, I guess. Gross.

The one character I did like was Mott. He was the only potential POC in the book (mentioned as "dark-skinned"), and he was one of the smartest and most reasonable characters. He was also not treated any differently due to having darker skin in this fictional world, hooray.

Overall, good book for middle-grade readers. Not so sure I would recommend it to adults.

Content Warnings

More...