Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Title: The Cruel Prince

Author: Holly Black

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: January 2, 2018

ISBN: 9780316310277

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

This book takes me back to so many of the books that shaped my young reading life. It’s been years since I’ve read a Fantasy novel that’s captivated me in such a way. I love the beautiful and cruel world of the faeries and Black doesn’t disappoint.

The Cruel Prince takes the reader into a world that operates under a completely foreign set of rules, fraught with murder, betrayal, kidnapping, slavery, lies, deception, and more. Black weaves a plot thick with intense and heart-stopping moments. She does not shy away from the awful and the cruel, but presents them in such a way so as to expose the startling nature of the world of Faerie. It is not a place that is governed by traditional human laws. It is a place, wild, free, and untameable.

Jude is a feisty character who defies all expectation. She is full of rage and confusion, coming of age in a world that views her as an entirely different species. As a human, she is not natural to this place and nearly everything about it is set up to kill her. Having been raise here, she no longer belongs to the human world either. One sister is part Faerie and another does what she can to accept her fate and find some semblance of belonging by shunning the human realm. Jude seeks to find her place without losing herself. At the cusp of becoming an adult, Jude asserts her independence and finally begins to make decisions for herself, altering the course of her fate forever.

The Cruel Prince is the first in a series of books and is a fierce start with tons of promise. I can’t wait to see where this story goes and how Jude develops. Very excited to read more!