Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over 30 fantasy novels for kids and teens. She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award and the Lodestar Award, and the recipient of the Mythopoeic Award, a Nebula, and a Newbery Honor. Her books have been translated into 32 languages worldwide and adapted for film. She grew up in New Jersey, but now currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Holly Black's work, you can find them all here.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power. Now, as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is left reeling from Cardan's betrayal. She bides her time, determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril. Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines, she becomes ensnared in the conflict's bloody politics. And when a terrible curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity.
Jude is a character that continues to rise in favor, as far as fantasy characters go. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on what Jude can and can't do, and the knowledge she does or doesn't have at specific points during the plot. Jude has become a quote-on-quote "murderess queen" which makes her look unrelatable. In fact, the opposite is true. Whereas (hopefully) many readers can't relate to Jude's murdering activities, they can relate with her feelings of power, or the lack of it, and of knowledge, or the lack of it. Jude is completely certain and powerful in some things, and yet helplessly clueless and powerless in others. No one knows everything, or can do everything, and Jude is no exception. This is an insight I don't feel like readers see often in heroines of fantasy, if only because it's not as clearly articulated in those books as it is in The Queen of Nothing. Black continues to set new and higher standards for what fantasy heroines should teach readers, or what these heroines should represent for readers. Despite the fantasy setting, I found myself relating to Jude in ways I couldn't even relate to young adult fiction heroines. Black is in-tune with the insecurities of young adult readers, and applies them to different fantasy worlds to postulate the necessity of fantasy as a genre. It is, indeed, one of the most fascinating things Black succeeds in with The Folk of the Air series.
One of my immediate reactions while reading this novel was how awesome and unexpected the plot twists were. I especially enjoyed the part where Book 1 ended and Book 2 began -- if you've read the book, you know! There were no lulls in the plot, as something was always happening to propel the story forward. This is one of the reasons the read is so addicting. New subplots are always branching off, and you can't help but want to follow it and see where it leads. That being said, Black does a magnificent job tying up all loose threads by the end, and sometimes they even get a bow! Black excels at the timing of new subplots and the tying off of others, which is another reason the plot is so engaging, especially if you couldn't always relate to the main characters and their shady activities.
This is a story with themes of power, ambition, cruelty, mercy, types of love, ruthlessness, and the extend/reach of all these things. That might sound a bit overwhelming, but Black plays a wonderful balancing act game to keep all of these themes in check and prevalent. Without just one of these themes, this series would be totally different, and same if we tried to add one more. These are themes that obviously resonate with the world we live in, but also resonate intimately. Who hasn't wanted some type of power, or the ability to grant someone the mercy of forgiveness? While Elfhame and Jude are completely fictional, it is these themes and questions that tie readers to the fiction. These themes and the way they're implemented throughout all the characters means that readers will inevitably find a character they relate to, or correspond with, despite the politics and murder.
As I was reading this series, I couldn't help but notice how consumed I was by the series, and how much I kept wanting more. So, I was worried about the ending -- would it be satisfying enough for a series that had this power? Luckily, I didn't have to worry. Like I mentioned above, Black does a great job of tying the loose threads of a story together in a satisfying way, and the ending was no different. I did have some questions (like, how were the characters changed by the events of battle? What will they do next?), but none of these questions were pertinent to the ending itself, and all related to what I know now as a wish for the series to keep going. My verdict is that the ending was worthy to the series, and paralleled beautifully to how the story began. I would also like to add a note about the ending, and the intense significance of it. (If you don't want spoilers, now is a good time to just jump to the next paragraph!) There is no big battle, because all the tricks and sneaking around was the battle -- the battle for Jude to stay in Elfhame, to stay in power. No, for Jude at the end, it was down to choice -- either for her baser need for power, or her new instinct to protect this person she now knows she loves. Which will she choose, and how will she choose it? These questions yield a beautiful answer, which represents and reflects on all the other choices Jude made throughout the series to get her to this most important one. Beautifully written, the ending has to be one of my favorite moments of the whole series.
This finale was highly anticipated and jaw-dropping. I almost didn't want to read it because I didn't want the story to end (and I know some of you know the feeling)! Luckily, Holly Black isn't done with the kingdom of Elfhame, as she recently announced a new illustrated installment. Titled, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, it is set to release November 24th, 2020. I'm not going to miss it, and neither should you! Stay tuned for my review!
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power. Now, as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is left reeling from Cardan's betrayal. She bides her time, determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril. Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines, she becomes ensnared in the conflict's bloody politics. And when a terrible curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity.
Jude is a character that continues to rise in favor, as far as fantasy characters go. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on what Jude can and can't do, and the knowledge she does or doesn't have at specific points during the plot. Jude has become a quote-on-quote "murderess queen" which makes her look unrelatable. In fact, the opposite is true. Whereas (hopefully) many readers can't relate to Jude's murdering activities, they can relate with her feelings of power, or the lack of it, and of knowledge, or the lack of it. Jude is completely certain and powerful in some things, and yet helplessly clueless and powerless in others. No one knows everything, or can do everything, and Jude is no exception. This is an insight I don't feel like readers see often in heroines of fantasy, if only because it's not as clearly articulated in those books as it is in The Queen of Nothing. Black continues to set new and higher standards for what fantasy heroines should teach readers, or what these heroines should represent for readers. Despite the fantasy setting, I found myself relating to Jude in ways I couldn't even relate to young adult fiction heroines. Black is in-tune with the insecurities of young adult readers, and applies them to different fantasy worlds to postulate the necessity of fantasy as a genre. It is, indeed, one of the most fascinating things Black succeeds in with The Folk of the Air series.
One of my immediate reactions while reading this novel was how awesome and unexpected the plot twists were. I especially enjoyed the part where Book 1 ended and Book 2 began -- if you've read the book, you know! There were no lulls in the plot, as something was always happening to propel the story forward. This is one of the reasons the read is so addicting. New subplots are always branching off, and you can't help but want to follow it and see where it leads. That being said, Black does a magnificent job tying up all loose threads by the end, and sometimes they even get a bow! Black excels at the timing of new subplots and the tying off of others, which is another reason the plot is so engaging, especially if you couldn't always relate to the main characters and their shady activities.
This is a story with themes of power, ambition, cruelty, mercy, types of love, ruthlessness, and the extend/reach of all these things. That might sound a bit overwhelming, but Black plays a wonderful balancing act game to keep all of these themes in check and prevalent. Without just one of these themes, this series would be totally different, and same if we tried to add one more. These are themes that obviously resonate with the world we live in, but also resonate intimately. Who hasn't wanted some type of power, or the ability to grant someone the mercy of forgiveness? While Elfhame and Jude are completely fictional, it is these themes and questions that tie readers to the fiction. These themes and the way they're implemented throughout all the characters means that readers will inevitably find a character they relate to, or correspond with, despite the politics and murder.
As I was reading this series, I couldn't help but notice how consumed I was by the series, and how much I kept wanting more. So, I was worried about the ending -- would it be satisfying enough for a series that had this power? Luckily, I didn't have to worry. Like I mentioned above, Black does a great job of tying the loose threads of a story together in a satisfying way, and the ending was no different. I did have some questions (like, how were the characters changed by the events of battle? What will they do next?), but none of these questions were pertinent to the ending itself, and all related to what I know now as a wish for the series to keep going. My verdict is that the ending was worthy to the series, and paralleled beautifully to how the story began. I would also like to add a note about the ending, and the intense significance of it. (If you don't want spoilers, now is a good time to just jump to the next paragraph!) There is no big battle, because all the tricks and sneaking around was the battle -- the battle for Jude to stay in Elfhame, to stay in power. No, for Jude at the end, it was down to choice -- either for her baser need for power, or her new instinct to protect this person she now knows she loves. Which will she choose, and how will she choose it? These questions yield a beautiful answer, which represents and reflects on all the other choices Jude made throughout the series to get her to this most important one. Beautifully written, the ending has to be one of my favorite moments of the whole series.
This finale was highly anticipated and jaw-dropping. I almost didn't want to read it because I didn't want the story to end (and I know some of you know the feeling)! Luckily, Holly Black isn't done with the kingdom of Elfhame, as she recently announced a new illustrated installment. Titled, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, it is set to release November 24th, 2020. I'm not going to miss it, and neither should you! Stay tuned for my review!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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