With winter drawing closer, I’ve been eager to read more fantasy, and The Cruel Prince was perfect to get back into the magical lands of fairy princesses and their acorn tea sets. Although Holly Black’s newest novel is set in a magical land with fairy princesses and acorn tea sets, the world created in The Cruel Prince is something entirely different than your average cheery fairy tale.

The Cruel Prince follows Jude Duarde, a couple of years after her stepfather murdered her parents and whisked them away to Faerie. Jude is by now accustomed to living with her parents’ murderer and is part of Faerie just as much as the goblins or nixies around her. As we begin to learn more about Jude’s life in Faerie as a human, we also learn more and more about the twisted world it really is, and the sugarcoated bliss of the royal family. As Jude prepares to try for knighthood, politics in the kingdom change and her arch-enemy gets a whole lot worse. Jude must quickly make
decisions to save herself and the future of the Faerie world.

I cannot describe how much I enjoyed this book; I flew through it without even noticing I was nearing the end. From the very beginning, I was absolutely hooked on Jude Duarte, mortal, living in Faerie alongside her bloodthirsty stepfather and cruel classmates. Her character is fierce and beautiful, and she brings the entire book to a new level. I loved The Cruel Prince for so many reasons, mainly because the description of the tranquil Faerie combined with the scary folk of the island and the unjust rules of the fictional kingdom created an amazing story jam-packed with just the right balance of love and violence. The ever-changing situation of the magical land of Faerie really puts together a fantastic story that I will definitely read again. Holly Black’s wild imagination is brought to life by her incredible skill to illustrate with words and fill pages with an almost terrifying tale of magic and murder.

I highly recommend The Cruel Prince to fans of books like Knife by R.J. Anderson or Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.