Haley's Book Haven's Reviews > The Cruel Prince

I gave this novel 4.75 stars. I am genuinely shocked that I absolutely loved this book. I generally avoid super popular YA fantasy books because I often find them disappointing. Additionally, faeries are not by any stretch of the imagination my favorite mythological creature. That being said, I enjoyed almost every character in this novel (human and faerie alike). Many of them were morally grey and that is a character type which I find to be intriguing and to have lots of depth. The novel very much focused on the politics of the court which I found to be fascinating. Black did a fabulous job of foreshadowing in this novel (something I've always been jealous of in other writers). The world building in this was very thorough even if it wasn't anything unique to faerie lore (from what I know of it, at least). The reason I deducted .25 stars is because the start of this novel was mainly back and forth between Jude and some faerie classmates who were bullying her. This felt very childish when compared to the rest of the novel. I will say that this novel got progressively better as it went along! Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised and intend to read the next book soon.

Please note that a very minor character commits suicide. Please be mindful if that is something which may trigger you!