The Cruel Prince
Holly Black
After witnessing the brutal murder of her parents at age 7 by her older sister’s Fae Father Madoc, Jude and her sisters have been taken to the land of Faerie and raised amongst the Gentry there. Despite being mortal and hating the man that has raised her, Jude cannot help but feel the alluring tug of magic and cruel beauty within the world of the Fae. But mortals, especially mortals with free will as she and her sister possess, are often despised by the Fae they live with, and no one hates Jude more than Prince Cardan. Assured of her desire to stay with the Fae, Jude sets out to carve a place for herself, and she just might do anything to make it happen.
Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince is in every way a masterfully woven tale of betrayal, suspense, and surprise.
Black lures you in with flowery verbiage and then, like her Fae characters, strips away the glamour until you are left with a twisted story that you are compelled to continue reading. I found myself trying to sneak in paragraphs, even sentences, during the time I was on Reference Desk duty before heading home. I could not stop reading. Regardless to say, it passed the Lunch Hour Rule.
I had read a few of Black’s work previously, most notably Tithe, when I was an actual teenager and beginning the crawl through my library’s tiny YA section alphabetically. I remember enjoying it, though I don’t remember much of the plot, but not quite feeling like I was ready to continue reading stories about faeries as a teen. Thankfully, I outgrew that. It was a sheer pleasure to see how her work has evolved (and probably my tastes too).
The first thing that struck me about the book as I read it was the character of Jude. As the protagonist, she is the first heroine that I didn’t find myself actively rooting for to succeed. I didn’t want her to fail, but I found her refreshingly unlikable. Jude wouldn’t give a damn about my opinion of her anyways. She is driven by a yearning for power, to prove herself, and to feel a sense of belonging in a world that doesn’t fit her, and Black gives her the agency to make the hard decisions that don’t always have good consequences.
The other thing that struck me was how much this story was unapologetically meant for people who have relinquished their Disney-fied illusions of faeries. Black assumes the reader has a base knowledge of Fae, and more than Tinkerbell. Red caps, hob goblins, imps, and more. It’s a lot to take in if you’re not familiar, but Black helps readers parse out the important bits of a characters’ Fae-type if more explanation is needed. I knew a decent portion of creatures used, but Black’s world relies and builds heavily on existing Fae-lore. It isn’t inaccessible, but she makes no concessions either. This is a book for the people who like fae-centric stories.
The beginning of the book is well-executed, pace and plot-wise, but the critical climax was a bit of a let down. I wasn’t surprised by any of the actions taken by Jude, save one final twist, so it felt a little annoying to not have been included in Jude’s plotting thoughts and plan sharing.
[spoilers] The other part of the book that, while it had the potential for being triggering, was written with care to have the danger without the trauma (for the reader), had to be the scene with the faerie fruit. An apple, I believe. Jude is, essentially, force fed a fruit that, due to her being mortal, makes her a variation of high/drunk and lose the ability to make decisions for herself that the fae take immediate advantage of by forcing her to do embarrassing things. Taking her clothes off being one of them. It is cringe-worthy and anger-inducing, but skillfully written so as not to glamorize what is being done to Jude, nor make it any less terrible than it is. [/spoilers]
The romance, for once, serves a point in the book. While it’s a subplot, it is important, and that made Jude all the more compelling (even if I still didn’t like her as much), because it made her feel real. Jude’s desire for power, while almost the only singularly consistent part of her throughout the book, sometimes gets in the way of making her feel real to me. The romance not only humanizes her, but shows off her propensity for taking action, damn the consequences. And there are plenty of consequences.
Ultimately, The Cruel Prince is a story about a girl who has been used as a pawn her whole life, looked down upon by those she considers peers, and how she decides to become a powerful agent in charge of herself.
My only other issue with the book, and it is a small one, so let me be petty for a moment, is the drug store scene. Jude and her twin need to pick up tampons- there’s even an explanation given for why faeries don’t have tampons, but at no point does one of them pick up a deodorant despite Jude saying that they smell terrible because of body odor. It just seems…. unlikely that they don’t know, or that someone hasn’t told them (even rudely) that deodorant exists.
Overall, this book isn’t for everyone, but the niche readers will find it. I’d be hesitant to recommend it to a younger YA reader for the same reason that I had when I was that age: I’ve been reading about faeries (because it’s “girl literature” *gag*) for years no, I want something completely different. Yes, while The Cruel Prince is different from other faerie stories, it’s still faeries. I’d say, once someone expresses an interest in the fractured fairy tales, or wants something similar to them, bring them to The Cruel Prince for a sure-fire home run. Otherwise, I think it will be hit or miss.
Related reading
- Jackaby by William Ritter
- The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano
- Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Little Book Witch 
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