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

Holly Black

Start date: August 1, 2025

Finish date: August 31, 2025

Discussion: BOTM Currently Reading

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for August's Re-Read…more
[close] Won the poll for August's Re-Read

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What Members Thought

Jul 13, 2018 Veronica245 rated it it was amazing

It has been a while, since I’ve read something worthy of writing down a few words about. This one is good. Read this one. :)

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Mar 06, 2019 Kitty Marie rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-finished, 2019-books, series-to-follow

Would give this a 3.5 if the option were available. I like the juxtaposition of a beautiful and colorful fairy land that is also dangerous and hateful. The human main character belongs to an underclass in a world of beautiful fairies and Wonderland-like creatures. Her life and even her personality is in danger of being warped or snuffed out by them. The world here is pretty interesting and distinctive. The mix of alluring and awful is explored in most of the characterization with how the cast re Would give this a 3.5 if the option were available. I like the juxtaposition of a beautiful and colorful fairy land that is also dangerous and hateful. The human main character belongs to an underclass in a world of beautiful fairies and Wonderland-like creatures. Her life and even her personality is in danger of being warped or snuffed out by them. The world here is pretty interesting and distinctive. The mix of alluring and awful is explored in most of the characterization with how the cast relates to the heroine, Jude. The cruel prince for which the book is named hates her but is captivated by her. Her father (who is revealed in the first chapter to be a murderous kidnapper) is doting. Her little brother should by all means be cruel and violent toward the mortals he lives with after being raised in this environment and fathered by a monster, yet he is one of the most pure and effervescently sweet characters.

I adore this sort of thing, having characters with conflicting shades that can’t be described simply. Even Jude herself battles with a sort of mealy-mouthed weakness but also has a desire to work her way to the top within that impossible culture and be accepted as strong. That said, I felt like the attitudes and ways of the world were a little too human-like. Rather than seeing the fae as otherworldly, I mainly saw them as mean and annoying variations of humans.

The heavy transitions seemed clumsily handled, if ambitious. Jude going from kind of helpless to strong(er) and cunning was kind of abrupt. The enemies-to-lovers slow burn (super slow burn) going on with the romance wasn’t as natural as it could be.

The most unfortunate problem I had, and this is mostly subjective, is my ultimate lack of interest in most of the characters and how they relate to each other. For a book like this that does have good ideas behind the characters, it was unfortunate to not be very enthusiastic about their actual conversations. I am mainly here for character interactions and those seemed stilted and lacking in flavor. Also, I became tired with the amount of time spent on Jude being tormented. Cinder (from the Lunar Chronicles series) has similar issues. Imagine if in Harry Potter, Harry spent another hundred pages with the Dursleys at the beginning of the first book. That’s what the longer, earlier portions felt like. But hopefully the sequel shouldn’t dwell on such things.

Overall, I was very engaged while reading despite all those issues. This book is a little longer and denser (and honestly, more substantial) than a lot of other fantasy YA out there and I flew through it, immediately open to reading the sequel. There is potential. ...more

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Oct 20, 2019 Min rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Although I felt a bit lost at some points, but this was a very enjoyable read. It was good to experience the stay-up-until-one-am reading again. :) The plot was compelling and I quite like Holly Black's writing style. ...more

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Mar 19, 2018 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-romance, fantasy, enemies-to-lovers, amazing, faeries, audible-purchased, amazing-audiobook-version, unusually-scrappy-heroines

An amazing read. (Plus, fae!) Great world-building and complex characters who have both good and bad tendencies that the author doesn't feel the need to tidily resolve. Can't wait for the next book! ...more

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