The Cruel Prince by Holly Black Review

Hello Again!

I have been really excited to write this review because of all the buzz surrounding this book. This book was at the top of my TBR but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to squeeze it into January but I did at the last minute. Read on to see if all the hype was true or not. Enjoy!

Synopsis

"Jude was seven years old 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.In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war 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."

-GoodReads

Review

The Cruel Prince was a new release for January and had a substantial amount of hype leading up to its release. Even after it was released, there was quite a bit of hype surrounding it still. I am always very skeptical of hype because I don't like to get any pre- conceived notions of a book before I read it, good or bad.

I want to start out by saying that The Cruel Prince lived up to it's hype and was really quite excellent. Reading the synopsis, I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, but found that it was quite different from what I expected and was more complex than I thought it would be.

One of the things I really enjoyed with this novel was the level of detail that the author put into the character development of the main character. We get a front row seat into her psyche and really get to understand what's going on from her view and it helps to shape the plot. For the number of secondary characters who were introduced, I thought the author did a great job of developing them even when some of them may only be seen or heard from once or twice in the book.

As this novel is written only from the main character's perspective, it made plot twists harder to pick up on (or almost impossible in this case) which really added a great layer to the story development. The creativity that went into the world building was excellent in my opinion, the world was not overly large but still detailed enough that I can't wait to see what other information we get to learn about it in the next novel.

I also enjoyed how the author didn't play into the damsel in distress character trope that even some of the strongest female characters sometimes find themselves in. This character really had to find a way to stand on her own feet and it gave me a certain sense of respect for Jude. She has to fight her own battles. The only thing that I didn't enjoy about this novel was the length, I wish it were longer. I could have easily read another 200 pages of this story.

Conclusion

Overall, this was once of the best books I have read in a while and definitely worth a read. The story features a great protagonist and supporting cast as well as a unique world.

Length: At 384 pages, I thought this book was on the lighter side and could have been longer!

Story Development: Excellently written and paced

Romance: Find out for yourself ;)

Protagonist Strength: Excellent

Re-readable? Yes!