mealsymi's reviews
90 reviews

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I never expected to love this series as much as I did. The last book in the main series is everything I ever wanted in a fantasy novel and more.

Picking up a few months after Jude’s banishment, we find our heroine back in Elfhame at the request of her twin sister. Taryn seems to be following in the family business and has murdered her husband, and needs help to escape being caught. This moment slingshots Jude back exactly where she wants to be: facing her husband. From there, Jude finds herself reclaiming her throne and breaking a powerful curse she never knew existed.

Perhaps what is so unique about this series is it’s departure from the typical love interest. Cardan Greenbriar isn’t the prince charming in every other young adult book. Jude loves him and he most definitely loves Jude but in no way does he ever overshadow the heroine. Instead, Cardan becomes a damsel in a majority of the situations. They’re not equals in any shape. Cardan’s rise to power comes as a part of his birthright and Jude’s forceful hand, while Jude’s comes as a result of her quick thinking and her political intrigue. While Cardan shows his own prowess for politics and skills in other areas, he’s never once seen overshadowing Jude. And perhaps that’s what makes him lovable. I could write analytical essays about how Black does a phenomenal job of switching traditional gender roles in this series, all under the feminization of Cardan. But I will spare you in that regard.

Family is a major theme throughout the series and the last book is no different. Jude finds herself confronting not only the actions of Cardan, but her adoptive father Madoc, and her sisters. Taryn, who seems to do anything to feel like she belongs in Elfhame and Jude, who just wants to find some purpose in this place. The two seem be constantly pushing away from each other like twinned magnets, only to find themselves together again when they’re desperate. For the first time in quite a while I didn’t have to read about how one sibling gives up a part of themselves for the other or comes to a massive understanding about the other.

While the play on family dynamic is a major win for this series, it is also missing in someways.

Jude and her twin still seem at odds by the end of the book. For the problems that they have had the entire series, I would have at the very least hoped to have seen a resolution in the final pages.

Now, one can’t expect decades of family trauma and strained relationships to be cleared up in a few hundred pages. However, some sort of understanding between the two that suggested they were working on their relationship would have been nice. That being said, it seems Black has already provided a solution with her book The Lost Sisters. I haven’t read it but it is on my TBR for the year.

As a close for the series, I have never been so happy but such a complex story being closed in such s simple and lovely way. A true fairytale at its core.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced