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A review by emzareads
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
this book was SOO GOOD!! i literally forgot how much i forgot i love reading fantasy books, so after reading the secret history this was such a nice, refreshing change. (although to be honest, literally anything would be refreshing after the rollercoaster that was the secret history)
holly black's writing is so nice to read, it's the perfect balance of description and characters and plot for me. i also really enjoyed the way the writing felt like it was a perfect balance of describing jude's inner thoughts and why she did what she did, without just spelling out exactly what was happening and making it way too obvious. also, the plot twists in this book were so good - i kind of predicted them all, like the thing about who liriope's child was, but not the final one at the end about cardan which was so exciting. i also didn't even mind being able to predict the plot twists because it made me feel so excited when i got round to reading it and i turned out to be correct. this was one of those books that had me giggling and kicking my feet in bed when i was reading it because it was so good, i loved it.
the development of the relationship between jude and cardan was also SO GOOD, i hate to say it because he was so horrible to her at the start of the book but the end of it, the way they were working together was sooo good to read about. all of the ending of this book was just really good actually, kind of surprising as the whole book was really good so i didn't know how much better it could get but it really did!
overall, i'm going to give it a provision five stars but i have a hopeful feeling that i'll have to rate it down later purely because the other two books in the trilogy will be comparatively better. cannot wait to read more books by holly black!
holly black's writing is so nice to read, it's the perfect balance of description and characters and plot for me. i also really enjoyed the way the writing felt like it was a perfect balance of describing jude's inner thoughts and why she did what she did, without just spelling out exactly what was happening and making it way too obvious. also, the plot twists in this book were so good - i kind of predicted them all, like the thing about who liriope's child was, but not the final one at the end about cardan which was so exciting. i also didn't even mind being able to predict the plot twists because it made me feel so excited when i got round to reading it and i turned out to be correct. this was one of those books that had me giggling and kicking my feet in bed when i was reading it because it was so good, i loved it.
the development of the relationship between jude and cardan was also SO GOOD, i hate to say it because he was so horrible to her at the start of the book but the end of it, the way they were working together was sooo good to read about. all of the ending of this book was just really good actually, kind of surprising as the whole book was really good so i didn't know how much better it could get but it really did!
overall, i'm going to give it a provision five stars but i have a hopeful feeling that i'll have to rate it down later purely because the other two books in the trilogy will be comparatively better. cannot wait to read more books by holly black!