Review: The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sooooooooooo...I think this is my third attempt at trying a different Holly Black book, and while I surely like this one better than the earlier books of hers I've tried (Tithe and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), that doesn't really say much when neither of those other books were anything special to me, and this one, while not a total failure for me, suffered from being equal parts infuriating and boring. Mostly because of the title character, an epic asshole cut from the same cloth as Rhysand back in the early ACOTAR days before character development really set in. Not that Black doesn't give him character development, but even that feels at times like a Rhysand rip-off - like, his cruelty is the result of constant abuse, that sort of thing. And...I mean, I've got a soft spot for a few bad boys of this type, most notably Kylo Ren (come on, the poor guy wants to be good but everyone else pigeonholes him.) But Cardan...I feel like Black wants to fill the void of "bad boy fae you can't help but love" that Julie Kagawa's Ash left open, and Cardan can't fill those shoes no matter how damn hard he tries.

That said, though, I loved Jude's character, if only because, flawed as she is, she ain't no damsel in distress, and you'll never forget it. Vivi was another standout for me too - I'd much rather have a book where she was the star of the show. And while the storyline tends to move very slowly in this book, when it's moving fast, it moves FAST. And bloody violent too - there's one scene in particular that owes a lot to the Red Wedding. No joke.

So this one's more of a 2.5 for me, but I'll round it up to a 3 and hope that if I pick up the sequel, Black will give us something bigger and better. With that ending, there's no reason why she shouldn't.

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