Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.
Cruel Prince
Holly Black
Folk of the Air, book one
Harcover, 370 pages
Kindle edition, 385 pages
Published January 2, 2018
ISBN 9780316310277
ASIN B071XQ6H38
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
I may be cruel, a monster, and a murderer, but I do not shirk my responsibilities.
Well there you go. Words to live by, ladies and gents.
The fan art made me pick this one up. I was so not prepared.
Seven-year-old Jude was just watching her cartoons and munching on fish sticks with ketchup on the night her mother's redcap husband, Madoc, finally tracked down his wife.
Tracked her down, shoved a sword into the gut of Jude's father, and then threw said weapon into the woman's back.
How's that for a prologue?
Madoc had come for his daughter, Vivienne, Jude's older sister, but left the mortal home with also Jude and Jude's twin, Taryn, in tow, back to Faerie.
Ten years later, the real story unfolds as Jude and Taryn are whisked off to the palace for a royal party by Madoc and his wife, Oriana. Vivi? Like hell if she'll be attending. Total rebel that one.
And so the parade of characters begins. High King Eldred and his six heirs: thorned Balekin, the firstborn; lark Elowyn, the eldest daughter; third born Dain, part deer and leader of the Falcons; their younger sisters, Rhia and Caelia...
And the youngest of the bunch: Cardan, whom Jude proclaims is the absolute worst of them.
And the way my jaw dropped at what happened next. Nope. Won't get an argument from me in that regard. Cruel prince, indeed.
I stand in front of my window and imagine myself a fearless knight, imagine myself a witch who hid her heart in her finger and then chopped her finger off.
Jude, thou art a glowing a red flag.
Jude is tortured by her classmates in an endless barrage of bullying from Cardan and his trio: Nicasia, Valerian, and the lesser aggressive of the beasts, Locke.
And then Dain recruits her to be his spy against Balekin as rumor of the king's impending abdication slowly comes to fruition. She accepts his bargain in exchange for his protection against being glamoured, controlled, and likewise.
It's during her first mission that she stumbles erroneously into Cardan's bedchambers, intentionally steals his copy of Alice in Wonderland, and unintentionally witnesses his suffered abuse at the whims of his brother, Balekin.
She'll kiss Locke. She'll stab Valerian. Bury a body. Then ultimately stand in the center of a coup.
And my, what a savage coup it was.
These aren't the Fae of our beloved romantic fantasy. Here dwells the classics, the fey, the little shites that steal babes and make wicked bargains.
This is akin to the boy who pulls on a girl's braids in class and pushes her down on the playground. It's annoying and wrong but allowances can be made if we stop holding others to our own predisposed standards. Perception does not dictate intention. Her truth isn't his truth. And so on and so forth.
Have I mentioned I was ill prepared for this? For Cardan!? Absolutely flabbergasted at the cretin. No idea whatsoever what to do with him. He and Jude are their own mood. And Madoc? Live long and prosper, you monster. The way he handled Jude dueling with Taryn—chef's kiss. I could not hate him. Wouldn't trust him, but still couldn't hate him.
4 out of 5 stars.
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