A review by onejadyn
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

adventurous medium-paced

2.75


Alright, I'm going to level with you. I expected this to be a nice casual, mildly unimpressive but engaging, YA novel. Generally, I aim to read those in between other works—books that let me rest my brain and get whisked into another world without much effort. The YA writing style is perfect for that and while I enjoy them a ton sometimes, YA books don't tend to stick with me quite as much. I have nothing against the genre at all, and I actually quite like it. That's just how I tend to go into reading them. 

So with that in mind, I don't even know how to begin to tell you my utter surprise when we stepped into the prologue and wow. I loved the writing style, fell deep in, and well, yeah. Amazing start and I'm very engaged.

Looking forward to seeing what else this story has to offer, but wow. What a start. 

-

"Faeries can't lie, so they tend to concentrate on words and ignore tone, epswcially if they haven't lived among humans."

That is so reasonable. An actual well thought out minor detail based on a piece of faerie lore. So far enjoying. 

-

It's enjoyable enough so far, though not at the highs of the beginning. But if I hear one more person say "I hate you because I'm jealous of you" and then "I hate you because I can't stop thinking of you"—I'm going to end a life. Ughhhh.

-

I wasn't particularly surprised by the ending. It really did seem to be the only way. Overall, I enjoyed this story. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd ever formed a connection with Jude, but I found that that never happened really. I didn't dislike her but I was neutral. 

I'm glad the Vivi wasn't the main character — she's a character I feel I've seen time and time again. Angry because she's angry, rebellious because she hates the ones in charge, determined to live a different life. I liked seeing her from the outside more than I would have the inside. 

Overall, I can say I didn't expect the spy angle. I'm not sure I know what to think of it. The conflict got so big that it made her personal problems feel small, and I'm not sure I liked that about it. A lot feels unresolved here and overall she feels very powerful somewhat out of nowhere. 

I liked the story but it was the beginning that entranced me, and I have to admit the remainder left me wondering where all that magic went.