A review by iamsherlocked
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Quite slow in the beginning; the bullying tends to get a little to much to read but really picks up in the second half. 

Some (read: two) characters tend to come across as more caricature-ish than terrors they’ appear to be meant to be. 

Power and Love seem to be major themes in this book, as one
or both of them influence the actions of each character in the book. 

Jude and Taryn, two humans living among the fae, fostered by their parents’ murderer are bullied, constantly  bullied and looked down upon by the fae, especially the youngest fae prince, Cardan and his friends, because of their mortality, their ‘weakness’ so to speak. 

At one instance, one of her bullies says this to jude- 

“After all, being born mortal is like being born already dead.”

Jude and Taryn also choose to deal with their situation in two very different ways, for similar reasons. They want to fit in. Jude wants to become a knight, she’s ambitious and wishes to be the best warrior and be *BETTER* than them while Taryn is the kind to keep her head low, and wishes to find love so she may become one of the folk. 

Basically, this is a book my 14-15 year old self would have loved way more than my present self does, but since it started to grow on me towards the end and I really did like Jude, I suppose I’ll read the sequel and find out what happens to these characters. 
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