“And despite myself, despite what he’d done and what he was, I came to love him. I do love him. … It’s just not a comfortable kind of love.”
– The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
WOW. The Cruel Prince is definitely going to be on my (and many bloggers’) best of 2018 list. How can I say that when it’s only January 1st? Well, if you want to know you’re going to have to read this incredible feat of faerie literature, because otherwise I’d be spoiling it for you.
Holly Black has done something remarkable in The Cruel Prince. She’s taken the world of faerie, blended it seamlessly with the modern world, added a kick-butt female heroine with a tragic past, a hunger for more, and a thirst for proving herself, and tied it all together with enough intrigue to keep readers second guessing and gasping their way through this delicious novel.
Basically, you can’t trust anyone in this book. Everyone has a hidden agenda, and the politics are ridiculous. We’ve got an evil prince who is seemingly the scum of the earth, but whose story might just shock you. We’ve got Jude, who is probably my favorite female heros since Alanna the Lioness from the Song of the Lioness quartet. I freaking want to BE Jude. Okay, maybe not entirely (I’m much more squeamish than she is), but I DO really love how strong she is. She’s a brillaint strategist too, and there were so many twists that I didn’t see coming – her story is flawless.
“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”
I’m not sure where Jude is going in the next one, but I can see her heading towards an antiheroine situation because some of the decisions she makes are straight up dark. She does what she has to do, and I just couldn’t get enough. She becomes a spy for one of the princes at court and it just gets insane from that point on.
And then there’s Cardan, the Cruel Prince, whom I can’t even really comment on. Let’s just say that I am very invested in seeing where the next book takes him. Very very invested.
Am I blabbering yet? Because I don’t think I can even form coherent sentences after reading this one. It’s got me all wound up.
I seriously am shaking because I just need the next book right this second, and it’s not going to be out for at least a year and ahalkhdfklsahg;kjlshdg;lksjg;lkashdg that hurts me.
Rating: 5+/5 stars