The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black plunges into the land of fairies and magic. As a piece of young adult fiction, the story revolves around Jude, a teenage mortal girl, stuck in Faerie. Jude, along with her two sisters, Taryn and Vivienne, lived in the mortal world until their parents were murdered by Madoc, the general of the High Court of Faerie. Madoc takes the three girls back to Faerie where they grow up alongside many magical species. After ten years, Jude struggles to find her place in society and decides that her future lies as part of the knights of the High Court. Because she is mortal, Jude faces bullying, violent attacks, judgment, and prejudice from the fairies, especially from Prince Cardan and his followers. As she trains harder to reach her goal of knighthood, she is approached by Prince Dain, who is expected to be crowned as the next king, and becomes one of his spies. Jude’s journey as a spy involves many plot twists from her enemies, Madoc, and even her own sister. As the story grows more and more intricate, Jude ends up completely immersed in the politics of the High Court of Faerie. In the biggest plot twist of the story, it is Jude that ends up crowing the new King of Faerie, becoming a part of the High Court as she always dreamed.

The book is intended for young adult audiences, specifically age 15 and up. While there is a substantial amount of violence involved, the fantastical elements of the story minimize the seriousness of these issues, making it appropriate for teenagers. Accordingly, the major strength of The Cruel Prince is its genre. The book is a complete work of fantasy, involving fairies, enchantments, and an invented world with magical vegetation. Because of this, teachers can use the book as a read-aloud during creative writing workshops or lessons on the elements of the fantasy genre. The book does have several flaws in the aspect of world development and vague character development, but teachers and students can fill in missing details in a whole-group activity, in order to create a stronger setting and develop character progressions.

Personally, the book was not particularly intriguing to me. I felt it lacked necessary details in order for the reader to be fully immersed in the world of fairies. I frequently had to reread parts, fill in plot holes through inferencing, and reflect on the uncharacteristic choices made by Jude, Taryn, and Cardan. If readers can take anything from this book, it is the power of principles. Throughout the story, each character has strong principles that either strengthen them or lead to their demise. Hopefully, students understand the reflection and consequences of one’s values.

For those that have become enchanted with the land of Faerie, Holly Black has written a sequel to The Cruel Prince! The book titled, The Wicked King, will be released in early 2019.

Since Holly Black is known to write in the fantasy genre, a fan asked about her love of fairies. Holly Black retells one of her favorite stories about fairies in the video clip below:

Black, H. (2018). The Cruel Prince. New York City, United States of America: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Black, H. (2019). The Wicked King. New York City, United States of America: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. – out in January 2019