The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3)
God, my thoughts on this trilogy are a true maelstrom. I hated the first book for a variety of what I still think are very viable reasons, but I was nonetheless indubitably intrigued. Meanwhile I found the second book to be the utter highlight of characterization, scheming, and toxicity, and then the third book I went back to hating.
Quite the journey, right? I certainly do feel like I’ve been duped with poison or stabbed by Madoc himself along this journey from Jude being an inconsequential little mortal to ruling them all. The last few books I’ve read (aka The Toll by Neal Shusterman) have been very long and detailed and descriptive and thought-provoking.
Queen of Nothing was none of those things.
I was so incredibly excited for this book, excited to see how Jude would handle her exile, how long being banished from Faerie would last, her resolution with Cardan, the battling with Madoc and the Court of Teeth-all of it was so sumptuous and deep and complex and I was ready.
Instead of delivering on this beautiful concoction of plot and characters, what Holly Black produced instead came across like a first draft edition of what should have been a measly outline of her book instead of the actual book.
In other words, the book was short and shallow. Half of the moments we don’t even get to see (*cough cough Locke being murdered by Taryn-which by the way seems incredibly out-of-character), Cardan going to the human world and a slew of others. It was like Holly Black got tired of writing about Jude and was like, “Eh, let’s end this as quickly as possible so I can move on to other things.”
That was essentially the tone of the whole book to me. Things didn’t make sense, the plot was all over the place, motivations for characters were skewed, other characters were shafted or you just had no idea who Black was even talking about, the action was short and pointless, the dialogue was tacky, and there were several parts where Jude as a narrator just came across as an emotionless robot as things would happen and we would get absolutely no insight into how she was feeling or why.
Now. I think Jude has grown a lot as a character since book one. If you read my first review on The Cruel Prince I outline why Jude is a terrible immoral character and how she lacks all redeeming qualities that make even antiheroes desirable to read about.
Then, in The Wicked King, she gained some traction. I felt like the ice in her heart was melting, that she was coming alive with spring and mercy and love and then. Well. We get this book, Queen of Nothing, where I feel like Jude has completely reverted to her past self, that she had gained nothing, if you will.
Jude is not a good person. I feel like in the first installment she doesn’t even try to hide it while in the second installment she’s generally trying to be better. In this one, she either stagnates or reverts.
When it comes to enslaving the man she loves and putting herself into eternal power and control, Jude legitimately considers this the correct form of victory for a good portion of the book despite her so-called love for the lovely Cardan. I just can’t back a character that I can’t find even a shred of humanity and dignity in.
In addition, this book, in a lot of ways, makes the first two books meaningless. Many of the big relationships, plot points, and intricacies are just tossed out the window in this novel, like Holly Black was trying a slew of New Year’s Resolutions and failing at all of them. The fact that Cardan betrayed Jude without her knowledge and exiled her to the mortal world is treated like this:
“Hey, Jude. I didn’t mean it. I love you.”
“Cool. Thanks, Cardan. I love you too.”
I’m not even kidding. That’s essentially how it was summed up in the novel. And the whole things with Lady Asha, and oh! The Ghost actually didn’t betray you, it was all Madoc’s fault hahah, and oh! Taryn is good again lol. And oh! Madoc is just banished to the mortal world where he can live a happy life, coolio. And oh! Fairies hate humans, but they’ll totally accept one as queen, that’s fine, that’s chill, that makes sense.
In essence, everything that Holly Black built up, for her characters, her world, her plot, was just completely dismantled and disregarded. The whole book came across as lazy and unrefined and uninteresting to me, which is a shame after the second book and all the positives that came with it.
Honestly, the most well-thought out and descriptive parts of this entire novel were the food and what the characters were wearing. I never knew what was going on or how Jude emotionally and psychologically was doing, but I always knew what food was on the table and what everyone was wearing, which obviously are very, very important details.
This actually reminds me of the infamous horrid fanfiction My Immortal, which if you don’t know, is an absolute terror of a Harry Potter fanfiction notorious for its abhorrent writing and nonsensical plot, but with very clear details about what the main emo character is wearing at all times.
Queen of Nothing is the My Immortal of the YA world. And with that statement, I will conclude the review here.
Recommendation: Take the title to heart. This book takes everything good about the first two and compacts it into a pile of nothing. Nothing that has happened matters, nothing that people say or do matters, and nothing but Jude’s wardrobe is given any kind of thought or consideration.
Score: 4/10
