Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Blurb:

Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

My Review:

I wanted to love this book. I really did. The blurb sounded amazing, the cover is gorgeous, the genre is right on... so what's the problem?

The book started out well enough, although I'm used to fantasy novels set entirely in fantasy worlds, not set in the "normal" world them brought into the fantasy world. I really don't want to read about microwaves and tv shows and Target when I'm reading a fantasy novel, but I pushed past that. 

I got about sixty pages in and while the writing wasn't bad and the world building was decent, I just absolutely hated the characters and there is the problem. The story can be expertly crafted but if I hate the characters reading a book becomes torture. 

Jude whines, Taryn is weak, Vivi is an obnoxious, spoiled brat type trying to get back at her dad, and Cardan is the textbook example of romanticizing relationship abuse. 

I tried skimming ahead but this book dragged and reading was a chore so I dropped it. I'm sure some people will love this book but it's not for me. I prefer my fantasy to be pure fantasy unless it's urban fantasy which is not what this book was promoted to be. 

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟

3 of 5 Stars

(And that's mainly because I like the cover)