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A review by entirelybonkerz
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
3.0
I wish Good Reads allowed me to give 3.5 stars. But Ill stick with 3 stars since I don't have that freedom and I will explain why.
I enjoyed the plot immensely. I was gladly surprised by multiple turn of events, I did remain entertained for most of the book and I finished it feeling very curious and excited for the next one which I hope is better than the first once since it has a higher rating. I do not understand the hype though. I think Holly made many mistakes when writing this that were easy to correct if someone had just pointed them out. My biggest problems with this book are mainly two things: 1. mixing all this fantasy with the modern world and 2. the lack of substance and development of a few characters. I read fantasy to get out of my comfort zone, to experience things I would not possibly be able to experience in the real world and every time Holly would mention things like a CVS, an apple store, target it just threw me off and made me roll my eyes to the back of my head. I believe fey culture is so magical and ancient that it only has a good combo with older human days. Like medieval times. I hated when she would make me travel to a distant time where magical creatures are playing dangerous political games for a monarchy and then immediately mention something like a television, cartoons or a fucking Prius car. It is like being jerked awake from a really good dream that would take you a lot of effort to go back into on your own.
The second thing is I felt like even though the plot is very exciting, she did not develop the characters well. I do not care for any of them, nor do I hate them. They don't have much substance. I wouldn't waste my time trying to defend any of them, some things felt a little bit rushed. By the end Cardan is the only one who I believe brings a little bit more to the story than anyone else. I am interested to see what happens next and I will finish the series. I was surprised by the ending and I believe curiosity is the only thing that is keeping me going for now. So my rating is a 3.5 because there were some good parts but a lot of very very annoying mistakes that could have been corrected with some fact checking and basic editing and writing organization.
I enjoyed the plot immensely. I was gladly surprised by multiple turn of events, I did remain entertained for most of the book and I finished it feeling very curious and excited for the next one which I hope is better than the first once since it has a higher rating. I do not understand the hype though. I think Holly made many mistakes when writing this that were easy to correct if someone had just pointed them out. My biggest problems with this book are mainly two things: 1. mixing all this fantasy with the modern world and 2. the lack of substance and development of a few characters. I read fantasy to get out of my comfort zone, to experience things I would not possibly be able to experience in the real world and every time Holly would mention things like a CVS, an apple store, target it just threw me off and made me roll my eyes to the back of my head. I believe fey culture is so magical and ancient that it only has a good combo with older human days. Like medieval times. I hated when she would make me travel to a distant time where magical creatures are playing dangerous political games for a monarchy and then immediately mention something like a television, cartoons or a fucking Prius car. It is like being jerked awake from a really good dream that would take you a lot of effort to go back into on your own.
The second thing is I felt like even though the plot is very exciting, she did not develop the characters well. I do not care for any of them, nor do I hate them. They don't have much substance. I wouldn't waste my time trying to defend any of them, some things felt a little bit rushed. By the end Cardan is the only one who I believe brings a little bit more to the story than anyone else. I am interested to see what happens next and I will finish the series. I was surprised by the ending and I believe curiosity is the only thing that is keeping me going for now. So my rating is a 3.5 because there were some good parts but a lot of very very annoying mistakes that could have been corrected with some fact checking and basic editing and writing organization.