Prompt – A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name.
Medium – Audiobook
About the book – Written by Holly Black, the book tells the story of Jude Duarte and her sisters Vivi and Taryn. As young children, their parents are killed by their adoptive father, Madoc, and taken to the magical realm of Faerie. Jude and Taryn, who are human (Vivi is the true-blood daughter of Madoc and so, a fae), must fight prejudice and hatred from the faeries, which they do in two ways – Taryn tries her hardest to fit in, whilst Jude uses her fighting knowledge to try and demonstrate that she is as good as a fae. Jude attracts the ire of the sixth son of the High King of Elfhame, the Prince Carden, who is the ‘cruel prince’ of the title. She must try and find her own way within Faerie, whilst gaining power in any way that she can.
My Rating – 7/10. This book had a fully immersive story line and lots of interesting world-building, which I really enjoyed. The realm of Faerie was really well described and I enjoyed the trips that the main characters made back to the mortal world as a demonstration of the differences between the two worlds. The story was good, and I really enjoyed the twists at the middle and the end – they were both ones that I had not seen coming and I was impressed by how author managed to keep us guessing right until the end of the book. There was quite a bit of violence in the book, but it was well approached and was necessary for the story line of the rest of the book.
I think the main reason that this book isn’t scoring higher is that I did not find the main characters particularly likeable. Carden is cruel (see title!), Taryn is a bit of a wimp, Locke is manipulative, and Jude, whilst strong-willed and intelligent, isn’t particularly good or kind. The only character I did like was Vivi, Jude’s elder sister. I know that this was probably what the author was going for – a twist in the genre of YA Fantasy fiction where you don’t have a ‘hero’ or a pure and virtuous main character – but I did find the lack of sympathy that the main character produced a little jarring. Nevertheless, I got through the audiobook in a couple of days and enjoyed hearing about the intrigues of the Faerie Court. There are two sequels to the book, which I am looking forward to listening to!
Would I listen to it again? Not for a while, but I am looking forward to listening to the next book in the series (The Wicked King).
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