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A review by xcrissy67x
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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
2.0
I finished this book within a few hours only because I wanted it to end. The issue with hype is that you never know whether there's a good reason for the hype. I always check the reviews to decide whether a hyped book might be worth it and it was rated 4 stars on Goodreads, so I took a chance. I very much regret that.
The story follows Jude, a mortal human who's mother and father were slain by her half-sisters father before they were whisked away to a magical land called Fairie at the age of 7. She has grown in this magical world where mortals are looked down upon and where she had never felt like she fit in.
The first chapter was interesting. From then on, it went downhill. Let's start off with the fact that this entire book was rather dull to read.
The writing has absolutely no depth or… well anything for that matter. You are thrown into a random world with random people that you seem to be expected to know and feel a connection with. I didn't really care for the world nor the characters because of the complete lack of development that should bring these things to life.
The plot for the first half of the book was directionless and pointless. I was wondering the whole time, what is the point and why do I care? The second half is slightly better as it seems to have a direction, however that does not make is any better than the first half. Actually the second half was much worse than the first.
As a reader, I want to feel connected to the character and love them and get emotionally attached to them. All of that was absent in this book. You learn the characters names and that's about it. All the characters seems extremely inconsistent - it's like having multiple characters and them muddling all their personalities throughout the book. One point they'll be the most horrendous character ever, the next they are the sweetest, kindest person ever. Honestly, I was so tired of the switching personalities that I just ignored them all.
The main character, Jude, was one of the most frustrating main characters to follow. She was selfish, rather stupid, and arrogant. And this got worse the further on you went into the book. It's like she got a God complex the further in you got and suddenly she think she's all high almighty. I kind of wanted to slap her half the time but instead I stuck to slapping the book.
The love interest of the book was, to put it bluntly, abusive and arrogant. At some parts of the book you are meant to sympathise with him but because I had no emotional connection with any of the characters, I didn't care one bit. The romance between them and the main character was very rushed and made literally NO sense at all. It's probably the worst enemies to lovers trope I've ever seen.
I made the stupid decision of buying all 3 books in the trilogy because it was in a box set and so I'm going to push through the last two books. I've heard the second book is better though I don't have much hope. If those books are anything like this book, I will probably speed read it like I did with this one.
The story follows Jude, a mortal human who's mother and father were slain by her half-sisters father before they were whisked away to a magical land called Fairie at the age of 7. She has grown in this magical world where mortals are looked down upon and where she had never felt like she fit in.
The first chapter was interesting. From then on, it went downhill. Let's start off with the fact that this entire book was rather dull to read.
The writing has absolutely no depth or… well anything for that matter. You are thrown into a random world with random people that you seem to be expected to know and feel a connection with. I didn't really care for the world nor the characters because of the complete lack of development that should bring these things to life.
The plot for the first half of the book was directionless and pointless. I was wondering the whole time, what is the point and why do I care? The second half is slightly better as it seems to have a direction, however that does not make is any better than the first half. Actually the second half was much worse than the first.
As a reader, I want to feel connected to the character and love them and get emotionally attached to them. All of that was absent in this book. You learn the characters names and that's about it. All the characters seems extremely inconsistent - it's like having multiple characters and them muddling all their personalities throughout the book. One point they'll be the most horrendous character ever, the next they are the sweetest, kindest person ever. Honestly, I was so tired of the switching personalities that I just ignored them all.
The main character, Jude, was one of the most frustrating main characters to follow. She was selfish, rather stupid, and arrogant. And this got worse the further on you went into the book. It's like she got a God complex the further in you got and suddenly she think she's all high almighty. I kind of wanted to slap her half the time but instead I stuck to slapping the book.
The love interest of the book was, to put it bluntly, abusive and arrogant. At some parts of the book you are meant to sympathise with him but because I had no emotional connection with any of the characters, I didn't care one bit. The romance between them and the main character was very rushed and made literally NO sense at all. It's probably the worst enemies to lovers trope I've ever seen.
I made the stupid decision of buying all 3 books in the trilogy because it was in a box set and so I'm going to push through the last two books. I've heard the second book is better though I don't have much hope. If those books are anything like this book, I will probably speed read it like I did with this one.