Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Cruel Prince

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

54 reviews

spatterson7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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noellegrace8's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It took me about 25% of the way through to start truly enjoying this book. Because it takes the path of a slow reveal of situations and motivations, the beginning groundwork can be almost frustrating because you don't know why some people are acting the way that they are. Also, for a book with so much death and otherwise adult themes, the characters and the writing style both are a bit juvenile at times. I struggled at first with the incongruency of a lack of contractions in dialogue mixed with colloquialisms like "that sucks," but I eventually got used to it and do recognize that it makes sense given the setting. I also really hate first person present tense because it feels overdramatic and impractical, and this book uses it throughout.

That being said, I really like the main characters. Some of the side characters are a bit flat, but Jude, Cardan, Maddoc, Vivvie, Dain, Taryn, Oriana... none of them are "good" or "bad." They just are. They make decisions, they have instincts and natures that make those decisions difficult. I love the complexity! I also think this book set up a series (trilogy) well, so I'm hoping to like the next two even more! The worldbulding is awesome. Holly Black has created a very interesting mix of "fae" and "mortal," complete with rich history and quirks and physical descriptions.

I don't factor audiobook reader into my overal star rating, but I give Caitlyn Kelly 3.5/5⭐️. Honestly, I think she was part of the reason I struggled to get into this book, but there's no telling for certain. She oftentimes doesn't seem to read with the same cadence that the words on the page suggest. She also has a cheesy tone when voicing male characters and over-acts when it comes to emotional (and even sometimes non-emotional!) scenes.

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lyr1cal's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

2.25

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yasaman's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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luziebohnel's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

because I think the book is written too simply. It's not engaging and there are too many characters and names to digest in the first 20 pages. I also don't think the death of Jude's parents is portrayed as sad. I also find it strange to describe how they die.Furthermore, some of this book borders on abuse. Just the scene where they practically drug Jude (an apple) and then force her to take off her clothes is not okay. “Enemies to Lovers” is fine to a certain extent, but I think that’s where it ends. In the first 100 pages alone, Jude is almost killed by him twice and he enjoys it in the most disgustingly perverse way. In addition, Jude is somehow strangely sexualized by the author. For example.
she doesn't wear underwear under her clothes to appear more "real"?! All in all I'm very disappointed with the book because Holly Black can write really good books (Spiderwicks)but this one was not it,It seems like one of those Wattpad stories

( read the german Version )

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oddpilot97's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious 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

I think I might be obsessed with this book. It’s the first novel I read as an adult that gave me the same feeling as when I read as a child.

Enemies to lovers is one of the best tropes in my opinion. And this book did not disappoint. I appreciated that both characters were complex, with dynamic motivations, and that there wasn’t an uncomfortable power dynamic.

The only tiny critique I have is that the audiobook narrator got a bit whiny at times of high tension. It was a tad grating/melodramatic.

The main character isn’t a goodie two shoes, and I loved that. The plot had excellent twists and turns without being predictable, and never got too dull. The twists were well established in advance as well, which I appreciated. It's got my favorite parts of YA without feeling immature.

Read this! It’s amazing.

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