Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

774 reviews

tovetott's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Okay so... this is a very wierd book to review, I feel like. Despite it being nearly 400 pages, it feels like nothing really happens. We don't really get to know any of the characters that well. We don't understand the world or the magic or the history of it that well. 

What we DO learn, however, is the backstory to what I imagine is the Actual Story. This book feels like a prologue. A 400-page buildup to the story Holly *actually* wants to tell. 

I have seen and heard so many people claim that The Wicked King is such an incredible lift in the story, and I'm willing to believe that. The Cruel Prince leaves me with 110+ angry, frustrated notes on my Storygraph containing everything from... *interesting* word choices to straight up me screaming at Jude, and I leave this book off with an equal dislike for every single character lol. Nothing makes sense, everything is stupid, and I'm disappointed because I really REALLY wanted to love this book. Believe me, I DID. 

However, The Cruel Prince is written like a prologue. It finishes off with a lingering aftertaste of promises that I haven't even gotten ankle-deep into the story as a whole. If The Wicked King is not as great as everyone and their aunt has made it out to be, I'm suing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sizzlesteaks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

glddstwmn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and War

clarification for CW tags: racism towards humans vs fae, not POC. Sorry if this is misuse of the tag ❤️

kakashigoons's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

While I did find myself not wanting to put this book down, I couldn't get fully invested in or emotionally attached to any of the characters. I did like Jude, though. Not as much as I thought I would, but I still liked her cunning, her ambition, and her struggles with identity and place in Faerie. Cardan did not make much of an impression on me

until the last third of the book.

There were some parts of the plot that I could predict and some that threw me entirely for a loop; overall, the plot was enjoyable and interesting. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Murder

Minor: Suicide

mokkekitty's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying and Sexual harassment

Minor: War

uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture and Toxic relationship

cup_cake's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I liked it, it wasn't particularly good but entertaining nonetheless. Its quite easy to breeze through and there are parts that were genuinely funny and intriguing, though the plot twists were easy to figure out and the characters fall flat sometimes. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Slavery, Violence, and Murder

livaausma's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

robin_reads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Chef’s kiss 

I always knew I’d like this book I just didn’t know I’d love it as much as I do. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping and Grief

wise_old_fishie's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism