After being in the biggest book slump of all time, I finally picked up a book and that book was The Wicked King by Holly Black. I've been anticipating this release since I finished the first book in the Trilogy, The Cruel Prince, and it did not disappoint! So, I wrote a review because I needed to update my blog but also because I NEEDED to unpack this one!! Onwards my friend!
as this book is a sequel, this review does contain spoilers, so read on with caution!
Author: Holly Black
Edition: Aus paperback
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Synopsis (taken from Goodreads):
"After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished."
Star Rating:✯✯✯✯✯ 5/5 stars!!!!!
My Review:
"Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to"
The Wicked King by Holly Black is an excellent addition to the Folk of the Air trilogy, perfectly picking up right where The Cruel Prince left off and builds an even brighter and bigger world than before. Throughout the book I was constantly entranced by everything; the world, the writing, the characters and everything in-between. The Wicked King starts us off with Jude half-way through her year-and-a-day contract with, now, High King Cardan and tensions are at an all time high within the Court of Elfhame and those surrounding, especially with the new-found threat of the Undersea and Queen Orlagh. What will Jude do against this threat? What about her rising, and complicated, feelings for her ex-tormentor-turned-unexpected-'ally' Cardan and, of course, can she hold onto the power she grappled for when everyone is out for blood?
I guess you'll have to find out by picking up the book!!
I absolutely love how consistent Holly Black is with her characters, though The Wicked King is a different book than the first with tone and plot and the characters have obviously 'grown' and developed, they definitely were not lost in translation. You might be confused, but sometimes this happens with authors and second books but this definitely was NOT the case with this series!!
I said it in my review for The Cruel Prince and I'll say it again, I love Jude Duarte. She is such a perfectly imperfect character which makes me love her all the more. Also, she's so relatable; she's driven, fiery, a little bit impulsive and solid in her opinions and her flaws are even more relatable; she's sometimes too independant, refusing help from others even if she really needs it and of course, her fear that if she drops this perfectly perfect façade everything will be destroyed. Of course, that might just be me that reads into her that way, but overall she's just an awesome female lead and I just relate so much.
Now, let's not forget our supporting characters; Cardan, Nicasia, The Ghost, Queen Orlagh, Taryn, Oak + so much more. They're all great, they're the perfect supporting characters; present enough that we know they exist but they also don't take over the story or not exist in the story, they compliment the story and they're just all so fun. (Basically, they don't pull a 'Riverdale'; forgetting their side-characters and then putting them in an episode when they remember they exist, then magically pushing them to the shadowed sidle-lines once again. Agh, the contempt I have for that show.)
The plot of this book was so nicely paced, just as every Holly Black novel is. Not too much, not too less, just enough. There's always just enough 'filler' or 'fluff' before something major happens and Holly Black knows the perfect balance. I especially love how nothing seems repetitive in her books. I really loved the world-building of the undersea, something we hadn't seen yet until now, it was so perfectly described and laid out that it seemed to me like a real memory or a real place in my mind. I was thinking, The Little Mermaid meets Aquaman meets Barbie in Mermaidia (please, you cannot judge me for remembering old-school barbie movies. The early ones were great and still held in high regard in my memories. ((also Barbie sing-alongs are frequent in my family)).
Now, Holly Black's writing is just phenomenal. Literally. I say this so many times but her writing is seriously so good. She just knows how to make places, people, things seem so real; as if you could reach into the book, pull something out and voilà, something real will pop out. Her writing isn't just like this in The Wicked King, but in everything she writes; Spiderwick, The Darkest Part of the Forest etc. It's magical, just like her books.
To the part I've been waiting for, let's discuss the spoilery stuff that happened in this book!!! As in, the twist, the turns, the betrayals and the romance!!! Well, I just want to put it out there, I'm trash for Jude and Cardan, seriously, I don't think I've shipped a ship this hard for a while. I live for the tension between those two characters and just when I thought I was going to get what I wanted... everything hit the fan. Cardan betrayed Jude, right in front of the convoy from the Undersea and like, everyone else and it made me so mad and sad!! How dare Cardan betray Jude, and make a fool of her when they are CLEARLY soul-mates but also, it seems that he's just gone right back to his old ways. I bet Jude's going to have a great time getting her revenge, and then ruling all of Elfhame like the savage queen she is.
Alrighty, that's the end of this review! I hope you enjoyed and i really encourage you to pick up this series if you haven't already, seriously if you know me in real life I'll lend you my copy because I want everyone to read it! Get on it!!
Thank you so much for reading my review and supporting my blog! I know I'm not very reliable with my posting but I swear I still have so much passion for this blog and I have so many ideas and plans for this that's so much bigger than just this blog! I just don't know how to execute it all yet haha. That's all for now,
Kindest, Chloe ♡
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