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A review by maddiemoiselle
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black
4.0
HTKOELTHS (wow that’s freaking long lol) is a good addition to The Folk of The Air series. I enjoyed reading from Cardan’s perspective and seeing more Jurdan action. I also enjoyed the little fairytale Aslog and Cardan share.
I finished it within about an hour and a half of distracted reading. It is shortttt, which comes to my first complaint.
I so, so, so desperately wish this was like ~400 pages. I was disappointed by the lack of real “character development”. I say this understanding how ridiculous this sounds, we’ve already had three books of character development, we know how these characters act!
Yes, yes, yes—I agree! BUT the short length did not lend itself to fleshed out characters. It almost felt like a retelling of the stories from The Folk of The Air, which we already knew! I wish we could’ve seen more from Cardan’s childhood. More of Cardan falling in love with Jude and HIS perspective on certain events (the queen of mirth scene, Jude’s imprisonment and exile, his mother’s release from the Tower of Forgetting, etc.
So, did I enjoy what we were given? Yes!! Do I think it was enough? No!! Hence the 4 stars.
Some favorite quotes: “Hate that was so bright and hot that it was the first thing that truly warmed him. Hate that felt so good that he welcomed being consumed by it. Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire.”
“The odd curve of her ear was what he had noticed first. A roundness echoed in her cheeks and her mouth. Then it was the way her body looked solid, as though meant to take up space and weight in the world. When she moved, she left behind footprints in the forest floor. Because she didn't know how to glide silently, to disturb no leaf or branch. He felt smug to see how bad she was at even such an easy thing.
It was only later that it disturbed him to think back on the shape of her boot in the soil, as though she was the only real thing in a land of ghosts.”
I finished it within about an hour and a half of distracted reading. It is shortttt, which comes to my first complaint.
I so, so, so desperately wish this was like ~400 pages. I was disappointed by the lack of real “character development”. I say this understanding how ridiculous this sounds, we’ve already had three books of character development, we know how these characters act!
Yes, yes, yes—I agree! BUT the short length did not lend itself to fleshed out characters. It almost felt like a retelling of the stories from The Folk of The Air, which we already knew! I wish we could’ve seen more from Cardan’s childhood. More of Cardan falling in love with Jude and HIS perspective on certain events (the queen of mirth scene, Jude’s imprisonment and exile, his mother’s release from the Tower of Forgetting, etc.
So, did I enjoy what we were given? Yes!! Do I think it was enough? No!! Hence the 4 stars.
Some favorite quotes: “Hate that was so bright and hot that it was the first thing that truly warmed him. Hate that felt so good that he welcomed being consumed by it. Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire.”
“The odd curve of her ear was what he had noticed first. A roundness echoed in her cheeks and her mouth. Then it was the way her body looked solid, as though meant to take up space and weight in the world. When she moved, she left behind footprints in the forest floor. Because she didn't know how to glide silently, to disturb no leaf or branch. He felt smug to see how bad she was at even such an easy thing.
It was only later that it disturbed him to think back on the shape of her boot in the soil, as though she was the only real thing in a land of ghosts.”