Intro
Hey guys! I hope you all are doing well! I recently started the Folk of the Air series and finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I had seen a lot of people really like this series and this book, and I was somehow able to go into it without knowing too many spoilers. If you haven’t read it yet, I would recommend you wait to read this until after you finish the first book since this will contain spoilers.
( You have been warned.)
The cruel Prince starts off with Jude and her two sisters, Taryn ( her twin) and Vivienne, who are living in the mortal world. When Jude was only seven years old, she had to watch her parents get killed by a fae named Madoc. He claimed that Jude’s older sister Vivienne was half-fae and that he was her father. After he killed Jude’s mother and father, he felt bad leaving the three girls alone, so he decided to take them with him to Faerie.
Growing up was very difficult for the girls, especially for Jude and Taryn. Vivienne had her own struggles with learning her abilities and powers. She also still resented Madoc for bringing them to Faerie. She would constantly act out and cause issues. The three girls also had to adjust to Madoc’s new wife and their son Oak. Meanwhile, Jude and Taryn tried their best to be on everyone’s good side. They learned early on how cruel the fae can be, so the best way they knew to deal with the situation was to fly under the radar as much as they could.
This all started to change as Jude started getting older. She was sick of being treated as less than just because she was a mortal. There was an upcoming tournament that would allow her to potentially become one of the Faeire people. The only way to do this was option A: marry a Fae. Or option B: earn one’s favor enough to be included. Jude had no interest in marrying anyone, so she decided she would go for the tournament. She had been training with Madoc for years and figured this was her chance to finally belong.
The upcoming days to the tournament, however, proved to be very difficult. Jude and Taryn were subject to vicious bullying at the hands of the fae, one of which was Cardan. Cardan is one of the princes whom no one really talks about. He has two brothers Balekin and Dain. Dain is attempting to become the next king. In Faerie, the only ones who can take the crown are those with the direct bloodline of the previous ruler.
After a particularly rude and demeaning act of bullying, Dain sought out Jude to work for him as a spy. All she would have to do was spy for Dain and not tell anyone about what she was doing. For this, she was given the ability to resist being mind-controlled by the Fae. This was a big advantage for Jude, and after all of the bullying and the constant want to belong and so she accepted.
She soon learned that being a spy was relatively easy for her. Since mortals were never really looked at for more than a few seconds. She just had to pretend to be a servant or a maid, and she could pretty much get wherever she wanted. Jude was finally happy. Working for Dain, and slowly started to feel that sense of belonging that she had been looking for.
All of this changed on the crowning day when Balekin slaughtered Dain and all of his sisters. The only other surviving member of the family able to crown Balekin is Cardan. Through all of the chaos, Jude managed to find him under a table and snuck him out of the hall. She took him back to where all of Dain’s spies met and kept him there as a prisoner. She didn’t know what the alternative was because, as of right now, either Balekin or Cardan were the only ones left who could take the crown.
After thinking things over, she got confirmation from Madoc’s wife that Oak actually wasn’t Madoc’s child. He had the royal bloodline, and, therefore, was able to bestow the crown and take the crown himself. That is when Jude came up with the plan to make Cardan king and send Oak to the mortal world so he would be safe. They won’t stay like this until Oak is old enough to take the crown and not get murdered beforehand. Cardan also had to vow himself loyal to Jude for a year and a day. Just as insurance that when he became king, he wouldn’t kill Oak or Jude himself. Cardan had no interest in being crowned king, and when he was, he vowed that he would get his revenge on Jude.
Overall Thoughts
I ended up giving this book four out of five stars. I really did enjoy the over all story, but I did have a few struggles that prevented me from giving it the full five stars. The first is the fantasy elements. I really enjoy fantasy as a genre, but I normally find the first books in a fantasy series to be a bit overwhelming with all of the world-building and magical elements. So, I was overly surprised that I felt a little overwhelmed. I also was a little taken aback by all of the bullying. I don’t know how this wasn’t somehow spoiled for me since I had seen a lot of posts about this book on TikTok, but I was shocked by how much bullying there was. I think this will start to lessen in the other books, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
