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A review by xcrissy67x
The Wicked King by Holly Black
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The Wicked King is the second book of Holly Black’s The Folk Of The Air trilogy. Though the first book had me questioning the hype, the second book was slightly better. Hype worthy? Not too sure about that but it was much more sufferable than the first book by far.
After tricking Cardan into the throne and having him under her control, Jude is trying to find a way to implement her plan of getting Oak on the throne. However, for this to work, she needs Cardan to stick around longer than the original year and a day. While she tackles that dilemma, she is also having to battle to save her life as well as struggle to comprehend her feelings for the man she's supposed to hate.
Okay, once again, I think the concept of this trilogy would have been absolutely amazing if it was actually well done. As with the first book, the characters are unbearably irritating, with none of them seeming to have a single moral bone in their body, and therefore I didn't like a single character. At least in the second book, they're (mostly) consistently terrible people, unlike the first book where they kept flipping back and forth confusingly.
Similar to the first book, the writing is also very shallow and very much reminds me of Wattpad writing. There's no depth to the writing and because of this, there's no connection with the characters or the world building, which makes it rather dull when something happens and you're supposed to be all shocked and heartbroken. When I found out who was betraying Jude, I really didn't care. And to be honest, I don't think I would have cared if it was a different character either.
The plot felt rushed, once again, like the first book. However, this time, I actually felt like the plot had a direction. The first book of the trilogy was so directionless that I was just confused the whole time. This book on the contrary, actually had some goal that it was reaching for, though it kept diverting and made me think “why is this even relevant?”.
Some character choices also seemed rather silly to me as well. For example, who on earth goes to a masquerade ball (which can I point out is supposed to hide your face and was the goal of the character) with the mask she had chosen. It makes absolutely no sense and apparently no one recognised her? I rolled my eyes so hard at that but whatever works works I guess.
I think the book having slightly more direction with the plot made this book better than the first. And the consistency of the characters also made it slightly easier to read, even if they are all just bad characters in my opinion.
It definitely wasn't the best read by any means, but I've managed to finish it. I think this is very much a book to avoid if you want a bit more depth in the writing and want to connect emotionally with the characters. I am, however, two books into this trilogy out of sheet stubbornness and so I will be finishing the third and final book of this trilogy.
After tricking Cardan into the throne and having him under her control, Jude is trying to find a way to implement her plan of getting Oak on the throne. However, for this to work, she needs Cardan to stick around longer than the original year and a day. While she tackles that dilemma, she is also having to battle to save her life as well as struggle to comprehend her feelings for the man she's supposed to hate.
Okay, once again, I think the concept of this trilogy would have been absolutely amazing if it was actually well done. As with the first book, the characters are unbearably irritating, with none of them seeming to have a single moral bone in their body, and therefore I didn't like a single character. At least in the second book, they're (mostly) consistently terrible people, unlike the first book where they kept flipping back and forth confusingly.
Similar to the first book, the writing is also very shallow and very much reminds me of Wattpad writing. There's no depth to the writing and because of this, there's no connection with the characters or the world building, which makes it rather dull when something happens and you're supposed to be all shocked and heartbroken. When I found out who was betraying Jude, I really didn't care. And to be honest, I don't think I would have cared if it was a different character either.
The plot felt rushed, once again, like the first book. However, this time, I actually felt like the plot had a direction. The first book of the trilogy was so directionless that I was just confused the whole time. This book on the contrary, actually had some goal that it was reaching for, though it kept diverting and made me think “why is this even relevant?”.
Some character choices also seemed rather silly to me as well. For example, who on earth goes to a masquerade ball (which can I point out is supposed to hide your face and was the goal of the character) with the mask she had chosen. It makes absolutely no sense and apparently no one recognised her? I rolled my eyes so hard at that but whatever works works I guess.
I think the book having slightly more direction with the plot made this book better than the first. And the consistency of the characters also made it slightly easier to read, even if they are all just bad characters in my opinion.
It definitely wasn't the best read by any means, but I've managed to finish it. I think this is very much a book to avoid if you want a bit more depth in the writing and want to connect emotionally with the characters. I am, however, two books into this trilogy out of sheet stubbornness and so I will be finishing the third and final book of this trilogy.