Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

148 reviews

e_emmaa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

cloudysky123'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

5.0

The book is a must read for fantasy lovers my fav fantasy read so far this year this is epic shit really!!! Pls I'm begging everyone to read this atleast once guys

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

orakuruno's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Fantasy politics is some of the hardest stuff to write about, but this book series is doing it beautifully.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Slavery, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

_ao_'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to give up early on, but told myself I'd give it until the end of the first third. It picked up right around 1/3 of the way through, and wound up being better than I had expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Torture, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

fannehsm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery and Blood

carrot2025's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

Holly Black is the queen of ya fantasy books and this book truly proves it. It's a wonderful read that leaves you wanting more each time you have to put it down. The first book of a series can be difficult to love since it's often filled with too much exposition and not enough story. But this book manages to beat that in so many ways. When there is exposition, it's done in a way that woves into the story and doesn't make the reader feel stupid. It leaves so many questions that a second book is obvious but it also works as a wonderful stand alone book that gives the readers the chance to play with an open ending. 

Overall this book is amazing in so many ways and works as a great introduction to someone who has never read or been interested in fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Slavery, and Classism

Death, death of a parent, and murder are pretty major themes in the books.

The book literally starts with Jude parents being murdered/spoiler>. I wouldn't say any of it is tasteless or done for no reason. Everything is done to define the character and world build. The bullying is also for the most part mild until you get towards one scene where it goes a little too far but it's nothing that feels tasteless and just shows what the world is. The slavery and classism more so has to do with the book containing myth accurate fae. Anyone who has researched the fae knows of stories of them stealing humans to make their servants. I don't think it's truly needed as there's other ways to show the evil of the world Jude lives in but I also don't think it's done in a necessarily evil or malicious way.

stewartj0421's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It took 85 pages for me to become invested in the story. The beginning feels clunky and aimless, and then all at once you’re swept up into this magical world of lies and dishonor.

I found Black’s fondness of obscure vocabulary to be at odds with the modern time period the story takes place in. I suspect her intention was to portray Faerie as more elegant and otherworldly, but the juxtaposition was jarring and, at times, unsettling in a way I can’t explain.

Despite my dislike of the writing quirks, the book eventually captured my attention. I also found it to be really well suited for the young adult genre. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Grief

pocketspoon's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I still enjoy some YA books, but I am definitely too old for this one. A host of the problematic bully-lover dynamics that I can't stand. Seriously, putting that shit in YA books is irresposible. And a really disinteresting and weirdly unsympathetic narrator/mc. Maybe it's just laying groundwork for somebody to actually have growth in later books, but... I do not care. It also moves so slowly. I got so bored of waiting for the story to actually progress that I read the synopsis on wikipedia to convince myself to keep going (and usually I hate spoilers). Would not have finished the book at all if it hadn't been a recco, but now I'm wishing I hadn't so I wouldn't have to tell the recommender how I feel about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent