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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
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What Members Thought

Dec 07, 2019 Vanessa Gayle ⚔️ Fangirl Faction rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, young-adult, favorites, fantasy, own-physical-read, reviewed, romance

This short story absolutely delighted me. I loved seeing more of Kaye and Lord Roiben together. They are such a darling, albeit a strange, couple. I can only hope that Holly Black will write more about them in the future. I really liked Kaye's perspective about Cardan and their conversation was enlightening. I also loved the gift that she sent to him. Just perfect. ...more

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Nov 20, 2019 Brian Anderson rated it really liked it

Obviously there's already plenty of reviews on this one, so I'll keep it brief. Did you watch Labyrinth as a kid and love it? Okay, then this book is Labyrinth for older kids and grown-ups. By that I mean it's Holly doing what Holly does best, giving you a gritty, wild trip into the Fae world. Loved the main character and her sisters. Wanted to see more of the other two sisters but I'm hoping that comes in the next two books. We'll see.

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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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May 23, 2019 Katrina Forest rated it it was ok

I like the setting of The Cruel Prince quite a lot. Fairies are some of my favorite magical creatures, but they often get imagined as super small, super cute, and pesky at their very worst. I liked how the fairies in this world weren't delicate but powerful, easily able to overcome humans. The book opens on a violent attack on Jude's family, an event that has a profound effect on her for the rest of the book, and I assume the series as well.

In general, I'm also intrigued by characters with mind I like the setting of The Cruel Prince quite a lot. Fairies are some of my favorite magical creatures, but they often get imagined as super small, super cute, and pesky at their very worst. I liked how the fairies in this world weren't delicate but powerful, easily able to overcome humans. The book opens on a violent attack on Jude's family, an event that has a profound effect on her for the rest of the book, and I assume the series as well.

In general, I'm also intrigued by characters with mind-control or suggestive powers, and this was one part of the world I feel could have been fleshed out even more. The fairies always got a dark, gleeful pleasure out of using their powers on Jude and other humans to humiliate them or use them as slaves. But what about characters with some contrast? I would have loved to see more fairies who detested controlling humans but found it necessary for society to prosper.

I confess, some character motivations were fuzzy to me. We're told Jude wants to be a fighter, but there's not a lot of fighting spirit in her until the book is almost over. She doesn't approach situations from a tactical angle, and she tends to pull away from conflict rather than pursue it, keeping all the things she wants to do in her head. We're also told Jude wants to be like the fairies, yet she seems to hate most of them and thinks some of their powers (the aforementioned mind-control) are horrific. It's more Jude wants the immortality and attractiveness, but her interests in being a fairy stop there.

But enough of our protagonist. Let's talk antagonists. I have a thing with bullies in fiction. I know in real life people are mean and nasty to each other for little to no reason. I get that. And I get that social pressure can make peers join in with awful behavior. But sometimes you want fiction to defy convention a little bit. The Cruel Prince didn't. Jude is different from everyone else, and Jude is predictably picked on by everyone else. Especially Prince Cardan. It takes until almost the end of the book for the dynamic to shift. Cardan is an interesting character when things suddenly aren't going his way, and his willingness to compromise was refreshing. I wish Jude would have had a little more agency in getting him there. Instead, a few outside forces just so happen to work in her favor. When Cardan is questioning how he got in one particular situation, Jude replies, "Because your luck is terrible, and my luck is great." Let's face it, if you're a character in a novel, "good luck" really boils down to "the author likes me." Which is fun in wall-breaking humor books but less fun during a serious situation in a high fantasy adventure.

Overall, I loved the world, but Jude wasn't my favorite character in it. The ending packed an exciting twist, and so far, Prince Cardan in his end-of-book state is the most intriguing member of the cast. I plan to read book two, and I'm curious where the story goes. ...more

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Jun 20, 2018 Monalisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed, buy

I'll admit when I started reading I was having a hard time. When a book is placed in your hands and you aren't quite ready to read it, you can convince yourself you have to....thats how it started with The Cruel Prince. I wasn't in the beat frame of mind going into the read. That didn't last long though. I found the entire world building fun and the complexities of the the characters, along with reading the meaning of words behind words like a fun puzzle to work through. I can say I was still pl ...more

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