The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1)

I honestly have no idea of where to begin with this book. There’s so much to say, probably too much to even get on the page without alienating people.

This book has a lot wrong with it, and yet, yet, it was a highly addicting, almost fervent read with an ending that left me trembling and wide-eyed. I guess there’s no other solution than to just jump right in. Holly Black is giving us a thumbs up so here we go. 

Holly Black. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, helps old ladies cross the street and brings casseroles to her sick neighbors and everything, but she’s one of the few YA authors that have made it onto my X-list. While this may sound dangerous and elite-ooohhhh, an x-list, it’s really quite simple and judgmental on my part: I read a book I don’t like from an author and that author is banned.

It only takes one time.

That being said, I love books. If it wasn’t obvious with the whole reading and writing book reviews thing. It takes a gargantuan effort to get me to hate a book. Almost always I can find something good, a character I liked, a scene that was memorable, a charming line of dialogue. Almost always without exception do I finish a book. If, and only if all of these are missing, the author will make it onto my x-list and I’ll ditch the book midway through. 

Holly Black was one of those authors up until this book. Honestly, I’m struggling with deciding if I should keep her on the list or not, but that’s neither here nor there.

I only decided to pick up the book because of its position on the New York Times Bestseller’s List, because it deals with fairies, which I love (The Wicked Lovely series any one?), and because it’s been a few years and I decided to give Holly the benefit of the doubt. But enough about me, let’s get on to the story.

So, why do I hate it? And why do I hate that I kind of like it?

The biggest reason: Jude Duarte. Our protagonist, main character, and female heroine. Arguably. I don’t think I have ever read a YA novel centering around a main character with less empathy, connection, or conscious.

She murders, fights her sister, fights her surrogate father, fights the other fairy teens, fights pretty much everyone actually and never seems to learn anything?? 

I was honestly baffled. She spent chapter after chapter making horrible decision after horrible decision and seemed to get rewarded for it at the end? She gets the boy (in a messed up very unhealthy kind of way), gets the power, and gets the recognition, but at what cost?

Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher, or maybe it’s simply because I’m a decent human being, but Jude is a monster. I cringed when my students asked me what the book was about because I didn't’ want them reading it.

They learn nothing from it: no morals, experience, or difficulties. Jude just does what she wants when she wants and it’s awful (although you wouldn’t be able to tell from Holly’s expression in the picture below). 

In a way, I think Jude is entirely how Holly Black planned her out to be. She mentions on almost every page how she’s broken, how something is wrong with her, and how she isn’t human, justifying all of her behavior on the murder of her parents and her traumatic backstory. 

It’s horrendously disconcerting to read about a human being who is more of an abomination than a person. And she’s the only notable character in the book, you can’t get away from her if you tried. No one else has the same amount of attention, page count, or insight.

Outside of Jude, there are very few characters whom you empathize with or even like as a reader. There is one character that I liked throughout the whole novel and he’s still awful.

The title of the book is named after him if that gives you any ideas. So with no empathetic or likable characters, what else could go wrong?

A lot actually. Quite a myriad things that are presented to the reader. There are several plot points that left me mystified and confused-who is Dain again? Why is he worse than Balekin? Or Orlaugh? Or Roiben?

Black introduces you to so many political figures in such a short amount of time that it’s impossible to keep track of all of them without a chart and pictorial representation. Game of Thrones can pull it off with incredible storytelling and intricate meshing, but Holly Black can’t, and it gets frustrating not knowing what’s going on a lot of the time.

Another frustrating part is the world of Faerie as a whole. Holly almost expects her readers to know that riding toads is normal or what will happen to mortals when they make bargains, but most of this information is highly specialized and very uncommon public knowledge. 

She also includes details that are completely ridiculous: I never needed to know what Jude does when she gets her period. Ever. It has no relevance to the story and it was more disturbing as a tidbit than a fascinating aspect of world building.

Lastly, the thing that bewildered me the most was Jude’s unflinching decision to stay in Faerie. It is a place that loathes her, wants her dead, and scorns her at every turn.

It is a place that despises humans and everything they stand for (which also rankled. It stings to be be told how horrible and inferior you are as a human-which all of Holly’s readers are-at every turn of the page). 

But Jude is adamant about staying in Faerie because it’s her home. Who in the f*** actually cares? I’d leave a home that tried to murder me every day, that was excruciatingly dangerous, and not all that great from what Holly has to say about it.

So her decision to remain in Faerie over and over and over again even when she is given an out by her sister is truly insane. It’s lunacy that I cannot even comprehend and that bothers me (although it doesn’t seem to bother Holly. She looks like she sleeps soundly at night after all that grinning). 

So. All that in mind, why was this an addicting read? Why did I finish it in a week? Why did I go to Holly Black’s book signing last Friday? The ending was very entertaining. The whole book was damn entertaining. I loathed Jude, but I wanted to see what happened to her. I hated Faerie and all the people in it, but I wanted to see how the political quagmire would unravel and unfold.

 I care about none of the characters except for Cardan (begrudgingly-and only a little) and yet, the ending was this dark, twisted dystrophy of madness, bloodshed and scheming that I couldn’t help but be sucked into and spat out in the end leaving me wanting more.

Either this was exactly what Holly Black wanted, and greatly succeeded, or this was not at all what she was going for, and yet, resulted in anyway. I can’t make up my mind about it, but I suppose I don’t have to just yet seeing as books two and three of The Cruel Prince trilogy are in the works. I’ll bide my time in both agony and anticipation until then.

Recommendation: If you can stomach a vile protagonist, poor plot points, repugnant side characters, and confounding choices in order to experience a truly intriguing ending that promises more offbeat and gritty situations, then pick up The Cruel Prince and leave your regret behind (as I did before going to meet her and Susan Dennard). 

Score: 7/10