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acuriousreader 's review for:
The Queen of Nothing
by Holly Black
Actual Review
I honestly do not even know where to start… Queen of Nothing was one of most anticipated reads, I was so excited to finally read the epic conclusion of what could have been one of my favourite trilogies. But, to say this book was a disappointment is an understatement.
First and foremost, spoilers ahead , you have been warned.
What is this book about?
Queen of Nothing is the third and final book to The Cruel Prince trilogy. It follows our main character Jude who has gotten quite the taste of power in the last two instalments but finds her self exiled from Elfame and shoved back into the human world and it was done by none other than Cardan, High King of Elfame. But, the kicker? He had just made her his Queen.
What I Liked
Let’s start off with some positives shall we? In the simplest, I am Jude/Cardan trash… anything to do with them, together, i will enjoy and never feel satisfied.
.
.
… well that’s about the end of that list! Oh, wait. I liked the cover too, I guess.
What I Disliked
Oof, have a seat Gentlefriends, grab a snack, we could be here awhile.
But no, seriously, I just felt like everything felt off in this book. Let’s begin with the pacing. It was atrocious. there were so many conflicts throughout this entire ordeal that were summed up and solved almost immediately and in the most convenient of ways that it all felt rushed. This honestly read more of on outline to what the book should have been/ could have tackled. There needed to be more depth and to dive into the problems and lore and background of the events with more detail and care.
Can we take a minute and talk about the major plot holes surrounding Taryn? Are you telling me after all the crap she pulled, we are just gunna redeem her in a two second sob story of “oh, poor me, everything anyone told me of locke is true, but I’m an idiot, wah-wah”… ugh. and THEN in that particular scene where the folk are questioning Jude as Queen, Taryn is the one that steps in and is like “the land healed her, we saw it, it chose her”, and the entire court is like *gasp* “My Queen!”… wait wait WAIT. They are going to believe TARYN.. the mortal girl who can lie, the mortal girl who is CURRENTLY not in good standings with the court… yeah okay, sure.
I could honestly go on and on but lastly I want to talk about how the characters weren’t themselves. And look I know many people are like “HoW cAn ThEy NoT bE tHeMsElVes, TheY aRe HoLlYs ChArAcTeRs” and the greatest one “ItS ChArAcTeR DeVeLoPmEnT”. Look, I’m down for soft boi Cardan just as much as anyone else, but babes… that wasn’t character development. That was a personality switch so fast I’m still suffering from whiplash.
Overall
In conclusion, i think it had potential to be an amazing ending to a phenomenal trilogy. But, it was rushed out too quickly, it should have just come out next year. It was way too short for the amount of detail needed to pull off a lot of the plot points. And finally, in the rush of getting the book out and all of the ups and down in the plot twists, the characters were lost and attention to detail was missed.
Queen of Nothing gets an extremely sad 2 out of 5 stars from me, and I think I’m going to pretend it is just a duology with a banger of a cliffhanger.
-----------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: after sitting with it for a few days, it's a 2 star
-----------------------------------------------------
I——- don’t even know what to think. Disappointing, predictable, pacing was off and felt like the entire thing was rushed. I honestly don’t know if this is a 2.5/5 or a 3/5
It’s only got this high of a rating cause I’m a Jude/Cardan whore.... and I could read anything with them in it and stay entertained. *sigh*
I honestly do not even know where to start… Queen of Nothing was one of most anticipated reads, I was so excited to finally read the epic conclusion of what could have been one of my favourite trilogies. But, to say this book was a disappointment is an understatement.
First and foremost, spoilers ahead , you have been warned.
What is this book about?
Queen of Nothing is the third and final book to The Cruel Prince trilogy. It follows our main character Jude who has gotten quite the taste of power in the last two instalments but finds her self exiled from Elfame and shoved back into the human world and it was done by none other than Cardan, High King of Elfame. But, the kicker? He had just made her his Queen.
What I Liked
Let’s start off with some positives shall we? In the simplest, I am Jude/Cardan trash… anything to do with them, together, i will enjoy and never feel satisfied.
.
.
… well that’s about the end of that list! Oh, wait. I liked the cover too, I guess.
What I Disliked
Oof, have a seat Gentlefriends, grab a snack, we could be here awhile.
But no, seriously, I just felt like everything felt off in this book. Let’s begin with the pacing. It was atrocious. there were so many conflicts throughout this entire ordeal that were summed up and solved almost immediately and in the most convenient of ways that it all felt rushed. This honestly read more of on outline to what the book should have been/ could have tackled. There needed to be more depth and to dive into the problems and lore and background of the events with more detail and care.
Can we take a minute and talk about the major plot holes surrounding Taryn? Are you telling me after all the crap she pulled, we are just gunna redeem her in a two second sob story of “oh, poor me, everything anyone told me of locke is true, but I’m an idiot, wah-wah”… ugh. and THEN in that particular scene where the folk are questioning Jude as Queen, Taryn is the one that steps in and is like “the land healed her, we saw it, it chose her”, and the entire court is like *gasp* “My Queen!”… wait wait WAIT. They are going to believe TARYN.. the mortal girl who can lie, the mortal girl who is CURRENTLY not in good standings with the court… yeah okay, sure.
I could honestly go on and on but lastly I want to talk about how the characters weren’t themselves. And look I know many people are like “HoW cAn ThEy NoT bE tHeMsElVes, TheY aRe HoLlYs ChArAcTeRs” and the greatest one “ItS ChArAcTeR DeVeLoPmEnT”. Look, I’m down for soft boi Cardan just as much as anyone else, but babes… that wasn’t character development. That was a personality switch so fast I’m still suffering from whiplash.
Overall
In conclusion, i think it had potential to be an amazing ending to a phenomenal trilogy. But, it was rushed out too quickly, it should have just come out next year. It was way too short for the amount of detail needed to pull off a lot of the plot points. And finally, in the rush of getting the book out and all of the ups and down in the plot twists, the characters were lost and attention to detail was missed.
Queen of Nothing gets an extremely sad 2 out of 5 stars from me, and I think I’m going to pretend it is just a duology with a banger of a cliffhanger.
-----------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: after sitting with it for a few days, it's a 2 star
-----------------------------------------------------
I——- don’t even know what to think. Disappointing, predictable, pacing was off and felt like the entire thing was rushed. I honestly don’t know if this is a 2.5/5 or a 3/5
It’s only got this high of a rating cause I’m a Jude/Cardan whore.... and I could read anything with them in it and stay entertained. *sigh*