Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

95 reviews

carolncc_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death and Drug use

emilyburton30's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I loved this. Jude is such a badass character and she is far too good for most of the people closest to her. Prince Cardan was a character I hated at the start and now I have a crush on him I can’t lie. The twists were amazing, with certain characters not being who the reader thought they were in terms of personality. The ending was a little rushed in terms of it ending quite abruptly, which is the only criticism i really have for this book. This was highly, highly enjoyable and I really enjoyed it despite it not being my typical choice of genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Alcohol

bookishnatalia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide

faitherslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Suicide, and Murder

indianagranger's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had a really fun time reading this book, and once the plot really took off I had a very hard time putting it down/not thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it.  

I love Jude as a protagonist, I found her entertaining, interesting, witty and all around bad-ass.  Her character development and unraveling as the story unfolds was spectacular.  

I think the reason I can’t give this book 5 stars is because there are a lot of themes of “loss of control” centered around Jude and I found them incredibly difficult to read.  Mixing that with the fact the Jude has no one and nowhere safe so we as the reader also never get to rest meant I was tense and actively anxious for the first 2/3 of this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

_piercingwords_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I've heard a lot about this book and so I was having very high expectations. Truth be told I was a bit disappointed.

Let's start with the positive: Towards the end of the book the plot became very interesting and there were quite some plot twists I didn't expect. The edition I have also looks absolutely gorgeous, I love books with maps.

But I don't know if it's the writing style itself or the perspective, but I just couldn't really get into it.
Jude as the narrator started to annoy me at some point.

I've seen a lot of people talk highly of the character development, but somehow I couldn't really grasp the characters. I didn't really get attached to any of them. They felt like characters, not like people, how I usually feel when reading a really good book. 

I guess that can be attributed to the fact that the focus is really on the huge flaws of the characters. Which is understandable, but you hardly get a glimpse of positive characteristics or random stuff that makes them seem real or human. Like, what gesture does someone make when they're nervous, what food do they absolutely despise? That could be because most of the characters aren't human, but especially Cardan's friends seemed very caricature-ish. 

I was expecting to like Cardan from the tales I've heard and towards the end he actually seemed like he could be one the most likeable characters (along with Vivi and Oriana), which is telling of the other characters, when thinking about the first half of the book.

It's also very dark throughout the whole book. Now I love dark stories, but every now and again I need some joke to crack things up and break the tension.

Towards the end it definitely became better though and I can imagine Jude perhaps seeing the other side of certain characters and the perspective broadening in the other books, it is just the beginning of a story after all. 

Perhaps I will give the sequels a shot, but for now I am not convinced. It wasn't bad, but I expected better. I kept thinking of the Six of Crows duology and it just couldn't compare.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

seb4630's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The reading level is low and the world building is not great. The stream of consciousness writing of the main character took away from how descriptive the author could be. It would have been better in a third person POV and with stronger writing. I do not plan on reading the other two books in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

oliverreeds's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

eh. lots of straight peopled doing straight people things. the characters are repetitive and the situations are as well. the writing style is enjoyable but the plot was a little too predictable for my taste. sometimes it seemed as if there was just cruelty for cruelty's sake instead of actually being a motivator. i also didn't like how almost every character was white... they're fairies, mythical beings, and you choose caucasian? the fairy characters also don't act much different than humans. there's honestly nothing keeping them apart except for eternal life, and i wanted to see more from that. the conflicts seemed to be heavily teen drama centered instead of political conflict based, the actuality of saving a kingdom, or heavier themes. i feel like the author created an interesting world but then failed to adequately utilize it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

tays_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use

ieryka_magic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Not the worst, not the best. The second and the third books are better thought, so whort reading 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol