Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

130 reviews

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Blood, Alcohol, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Slavery, Classism, and Child abuse

cloudysky123's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

The book is a must read for fantasy lovers my fav fantasy read so far this year this is epic shit really!!! Pls I'm begging everyone to read this atleast once guys

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Pregnancy, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Cursing, War, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Slavery, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Violence

orakuruno's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Fantasy politics is some of the hardest stuff to write about, but this book series is doing it beautifully.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Slavery, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Gore, Grief, and Cursing

_ao_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I wanted to give up early on, but told myself I'd give it until the end of the first third. It picked up right around 1/3 of the way through, and wound up being better than I had expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Torture, and War

fannehsm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood and Slavery

carrot2025's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Holly Black is the queen of ya fantasy books and this book truly proves it. It's a wonderful read that leaves you wanting more each time you have to put it down. The first book of a series can be difficult to love since it's often filled with too much exposition and not enough story. But this book manages to beat that in so many ways. When there is exposition, it's done in a way that woves into the story and doesn't make the reader feel stupid. It leaves so many questions that a second book is obvious but it also works as a wonderful stand alone book that gives the readers the chance to play with an open ending. 

Overall this book is amazing in so many ways and works as a great introduction to someone who has never read or been interested in fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery, Bullying, and Classism

Death, death of a parent, and murder are pretty major themes in the books.

The book literally starts with Jude parents being murdered/spoiler>. I wouldn't say any of it is tasteless or done for no reason. Everything is done to define the character and world build. The bullying is also for the most part mild until you get towards one scene where it goes a little too far but it's nothing that feels tasteless and just shows what the world is. The slavery and classism more so has to do with the book containing myth accurate fae. Anyone who has researched the fae knows of stories of them stealing humans to make their servants. I don't think it's truly needed as there's other ways to show the evil of the world Jude lives in but I also don't think it's done in a necessarily evil or malicious way.

stewartj0421's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It took 85 pages for me to become invested in the story. The beginning feels clunky and aimless, and then all at once you’re swept up into this magical world of lies and dishonor.

I found Black’s fondness of obscure vocabulary to be at odds with the modern time period the story takes place in. I suspect her intention was to portray Faerie as more elegant and otherworldly, but the juxtaposition was jarring and, at times, unsettling in a way I can’t explain.

Despite my dislike of the writing quirks, the book eventually captured my attention. I also found it to be really well suited for the young adult genre. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Murder, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, and Slavery

Minor: Grief, Infertility, and Infidelity

pocketspoon's review

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I still enjoy some YA books, but I am definitely too old for this one. A host of the problematic bully-lover dynamics that I can't stand. Seriously, putting that shit in YA books is irresposible. And a really disinteresting and weirdly unsympathetic narrator/mc. Maybe it's just laying groundwork for somebody to actually have growth in later books, but... I do not care. It also moves so slowly. I got so bored of waiting for the story to actually progress that I read the synopsis on wikipedia to convince myself to keep going (and usually I hate spoilers). Would not have finished the book at all if it hadn't been a recco, but now I'm wishing I hadn't so I wouldn't have to tell the recommender how I feel about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Slavery, Suicide, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Alcohol, Death, Violence, Bullying, Torture, Slavery, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

pelb's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was so much better than I expected it to be. I’m not all that into fantasy so I didn’t think I’d enjoy it but had to give it a try because of all the hype, and WOW. I’m speechless. That was such a wild ride of twists and turns. It’s so well written, with a beautifully crafted world and deeply complex characters. If you’re coming into this just for the enemies to lovers plot you will be disappointed, because it’s a bit different than that, but personally I loved it. It’s more political intrigue with a side of bully romance than a typical enemies to lovers romantasy. But even though the romance is a subplot it’s SOOOO GOOOD like you will be confused at first and hate it but do not fear. They call it a slow burn for a reason. That’s really why I fell in love with it. The main character Jude is morally grey, incredibly clever, and really,  really cool. I usually end up hating female leads (esp in fantasy) but I LOVE her. Anyway if you want your life changed for the better, read this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Slavery, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma

Minor: Vomit