Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

50 reviews

bethane156's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Jude is such an icon, she simply does things that are kind of crazy and makes her unbelievable as a character but you are already reading about faeries anyways so you can suspend your disbelief a bit. 

I have read this before and it was better on the reread which is exciting. Very close to being a perfect book for me but sometimes its just a feeling that doesnt allow me to give the full 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

smileyfacey_jacey's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous hopeful inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Slavery, Torture, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

mrsaishamitchell's review against another edition

4.5

emotional 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol

ladyoftheblade's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I regret not finding this book sooner because my younger self would have been obsessed. I absolutely adore bloodthirsty girls and Jude is no exception. The Cruel Prince weaves together all of the psychotic and messy parts of faeries while also leaning into court politics and espionage. Somehow, Jude gets herself wrapped up into both when the current High King decides to step down and crown his third son as king. 

Jude has many different sides to her and that is seen in her relationships with her sisters, her "father" (the murderer of her parents...it's complicated), the other gentry, and Cardan. To me, Cardan has raised my expectations of a pathetic little meow meow of a man. I hate that I adore him.

Overall, this was an incredibly fun read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War

Moderate: Confinement, Pregnancy, Classism

Minor: Excrement, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail

chronic_listener's review against another edition

adventurous

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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who needs enemies when you have

a twin sister

like that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

chalkletters's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I must've picked The Cruel Prince up from a work book sale when it was about to be published, and then failed to read it for seven years. The reasons I finally got around to it are that I believe it's one of my friend Lindsey's favourites (so no pressure!) and that it had a public readalong to join on The Storygraph. As I explore new ways of reading and reviewing, I've been experimenting with the site's different features, including setting up a readalong myself for old favourite The Goblin Emperor. 

While it has a very dramatic opening scene, The Cruel Prince gets off to a bit of a slow start, especially if you're not a very visual reader or one who can be sustained by poetic descriptions alone. The antagonists, in particular, are given identifying physical characteristics but it can be hard to keep their names straight as they don't diverge in personality until a good way through the book. Despite that, Holly Black builds an immediately interesting world in which Faerie contains not just traditionally humanoid fae but also mermaids and redcaps and other mythical beings which aren't always counted. 

Character emotions are strong throughout, especially Jude's, and these were enjoyable even before the plot began to kick off. Holly Black writes about passion, jealousy and rage both beautifully and convincingly, in a way that's a little reminiscent of Legendborn. And while it takes time to get into, the story when it comes is extremely well-executed: by the 73 per cent mark, it’s hard to imagine not reading the rest of the series to see how the unfolding political scenario and character tensions play out.

As in much fantasy fiction, there's a theme concerning the importance of stories, who tells them and what they mean. This is always appreciated and though it's not a major focus of Holly Black's writing, what she does with it resonates and comes together nicely at the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Cruel Prince and I'll definitely need to look into the next book in the series. Maybe, now that I'm structuring my reading and reviewing a little differently, I'll get to it before another seven years have passed! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy

anndreya's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War

booktheory555's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

tmwarner_1994's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I am a sucker for any book involving faeries. That being said when I first started this I admit I wasn't sure that I would like it, but then I started writing out so many notes (to be included with Instagram review) and I started liking the characters and some of the romances and starting to feel for their situations that I knew I had to finish the book. Plus Oak was too cute to leave behind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage

jessi_lou95's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Violence, Pregnancy