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A review by lpcowling
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
5.0
This is the book you're looking for if you're after Fae-Fantasy. I have read of a lot of it, and most of it is garbage in comparison to The Folk of the Air series. I know this series inspired a lot of authors to try and recreate the magic that was built here, but if you can read the original, and haven't yet, why not?
It's not one single thing that makes the series good. It's not one thing that is done well. The difficulty in writing any book, and specifically fae-fantasy, is going it all well, without one aspect suffering for the shining of another.
The world-building is solid, for those nerds like myself who read books for the fictional-lore. But the other facets do not suffer for this, because it is woven throughout cleverly. You have the romantic plot twisted throughout, the internal family plot intertwined, and the higher stakes overarching sprinkled in well too.
If you haven't read the series yet, it will dwarf those that came after that perhaps you have read, in comparison.
Simply put, and the highest praise I can give, Holly Black is the standard for fae-fantasy.
It's not one single thing that makes the series good. It's not one thing that is done well. The difficulty in writing any book, and specifically fae-fantasy, is going it all well, without one aspect suffering for the shining of another.
The world-building is solid, for those nerds like myself who read books for the fictional-lore. But the other facets do not suffer for this, because it is woven throughout cleverly. You have the romantic plot twisted throughout, the internal family plot intertwined, and the higher stakes overarching sprinkled in well too.
If you haven't read the series yet, it will dwarf those that came after that perhaps you have read, in comparison.
Simply put, and the highest praise I can give, Holly Black is the standard for fae-fantasy.