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A review by my_corner_of_the_library
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
1.0
Unpopular opinion time…
I HATED this book. Where do I start…
The Writing
This had to be the worst part of the book for me. The writing was incredibly mechanical and felt very immature. Often times I would forget that the characters were supposed to be ~17 because the whole thing felt like it was aimed for 13 and under. There was no emotion in the writing and often times things were repetitive and redundant. Such as the line… “I have done the thing, and now I must live with what I have done.” Which is a word for word quote from the book.
Also, the dialogue felt extremely forced and actually made me roll my eyes or cringe SEVERAL times. It often felt like we were being given a line by line script of a HORRIBLE teen movie.
SPEAKING of teen movies…What in the WORLD was that school bullying??? If you replaced the Gentry with jocks and Fairie with a high school this could literally be a PSA for school bullying that kids make fun of. In the beginning they are actually pulling Jude’s braids and telling her that she’ll never be as pretty as they are so why bother…
This book felt like a child who is writing for the first time and had an original idea but no original content, so they filled it with EVERY cliche they could think of.
The Characters
This will probably be short, because for the most part…I didn’t care.
Jude
I honestly despised Jude. I felt as though she never thought anything through and everything was the absolute end of the world, only to be forgotten two seconds later. We spent how long focusing every thought and breath on the tournament? Only to never think about it again the moment it was over. She would jump to the most outlandish conclusions on the barest evidence but not piece together the most obvious shit. A letter that we don’t know the writer or recipient that has absolutely NO reference to Locke’s mother we instantly decipher, but having one of Madoc’s spies used as a diversion is so vague that we not only can’t piece together that he’s a part of things but that we might want to tell someone??????
Taryn
Did nothing but whine. That’s it.
Vivi
Ok, I actually kind of liked Vivi. SHE was the independent rebel that deserved to be the Heroine of this book. Unfortunately, we barely got a look at her and she wasn’t fleshed out at all.
Cardan
Maybe I read a COMPLETELY different book than everyone else, but….EWWWWW!!!! Dude….he was very very very clearly unhealthily obsessed with Jude. He tormented her for literally no reason, angrily wrote her name over and over and over again, and then had the audacity to basically tell her, “I hate you because I love you.” This is not a broody bad boy, this dude is f*cking creepy and abusive.
Madoc
Ok, he was kind of interesting. Though I could have done without Jude’s repetitive analysis of, “He loves me. He loves Oak. He loves all of us. He’s just evil, so it’s ok.” Because that is a HORRENDOUS message to be giving literally anyone of any age.
The Plot
Oh dear God…this plot was everywhere. It felt like a dozen half thought out plots that were all smashed together into one storyline. When we would burn through one another would pop up with no explanation. First we are obsessed with the tournament, then that’s over in a minute flat, so then we are being offered a job as a spy, but that’s not interesting enough so then we have a fling with Locke. But not a real fling, because it lasts for 3 days and we didn’t really like him anyway. And then…and then…and then..
The “Romance”
I do not understand this part of the book at all. There….was none? And yet it is always dubbed as an amazing enemies to lovers. Um….where? She spends like 3 total pages with Locke where they kinda kiss and maybe flirt I guess and that’s most of the romance. Until she kisses Cardan and then….that’s our romance? There wasn’t even a build up to Cardan and Jude. They were hating each other for no real reason I guess? Cardan was mad because Jude was good at school….mad enough to let his friends try and kill her…and then he’s like, “Well, of course. I hate you because I love you.” And then they kissed and that was the entire romance? Ok…
In conclusion: My husband is asking if he can burn this book because I made him listen to some of the audio with me.
I HATED this book. Where do I start…
The Writing
This had to be the worst part of the book for me. The writing was incredibly mechanical and felt very immature. Often times I would forget that the characters were supposed to be ~17 because the whole thing felt like it was aimed for 13 and under. There was no emotion in the writing and often times things were repetitive and redundant. Such as the line… “I have done the thing, and now I must live with what I have done.” Which is a word for word quote from the book.
Also, the dialogue felt extremely forced and actually made me roll my eyes or cringe SEVERAL times. It often felt like we were being given a line by line script of a HORRIBLE teen movie.
SPEAKING of teen movies…What in the WORLD was that school bullying??? If you replaced the Gentry with jocks and Fairie with a high school this could literally be a PSA for school bullying that kids make fun of. In the beginning they are actually pulling Jude’s braids and telling her that she’ll never be as pretty as they are so why bother…
This book felt like a child who is writing for the first time and had an original idea but no original content, so they filled it with EVERY cliche they could think of.
The Characters
This will probably be short, because for the most part…I didn’t care.
Jude
I honestly despised Jude. I felt as though she never thought anything through and everything was the absolute end of the world, only to be forgotten two seconds later. We spent how long focusing every thought and breath on the tournament? Only to never think about it again the moment it was over. She would jump to the most outlandish conclusions on the barest evidence but not piece together the most obvious shit. A letter that we don’t know the writer or recipient that has absolutely NO reference to Locke’s mother we instantly decipher, but having one of Madoc’s spies used as a diversion is so vague that we not only can’t piece together that he’s a part of things but that we might want to tell someone??????
Taryn
Did nothing but whine. That’s it.
Vivi
Ok, I actually kind of liked Vivi. SHE was the independent rebel that deserved to be the Heroine of this book. Unfortunately, we barely got a look at her and she wasn’t fleshed out at all.
Cardan
Maybe I read a COMPLETELY different book than everyone else, but….EWWWWW!!!! Dude….he was very very very clearly unhealthily obsessed with Jude. He tormented her for literally no reason, angrily wrote her name over and over and over again, and then had the audacity to basically tell her, “I hate you because I love you.” This is not a broody bad boy, this dude is f*cking creepy and abusive.
Madoc
Ok, he was kind of interesting. Though I could have done without Jude’s repetitive analysis of, “He loves me. He loves Oak. He loves all of us. He’s just evil, so it’s ok.” Because that is a HORRENDOUS message to be giving literally anyone of any age.
The Plot
Oh dear God…this plot was everywhere. It felt like a dozen half thought out plots that were all smashed together into one storyline. When we would burn through one another would pop up with no explanation. First we are obsessed with the tournament, then that’s over in a minute flat, so then we are being offered a job as a spy, but that’s not interesting enough so then we have a fling with Locke. But not a real fling, because it lasts for 3 days and we didn’t really like him anyway. And then…and then…and then..
The “Romance”
I do not understand this part of the book at all. There….was none? And yet it is always dubbed as an amazing enemies to lovers. Um….where? She spends like 3 total pages with Locke where they kinda kiss and maybe flirt I guess and that’s most of the romance. Until she kisses Cardan and then….that’s our romance? There wasn’t even a build up to Cardan and Jude. They were hating each other for no real reason I guess? Cardan was mad because Jude was good at school….mad enough to let his friends try and kill her…and then he’s like, “Well, of course. I hate you because I love you.” And then they kissed and that was the entire romance? Ok…
In conclusion: My husband is asking if he can burn this book because I made him listen to some of the audio with me.