The Cruel Prince Review and Lessons

There will be spoilers in this review.

I was so excited to see The Cruel Prince by Holly Black on a shelf in the bookstore in Oxford.

Spending summers at Hollins for grad school, Holly Black has become one of those names you say with adoration and respect—she's one of the greats.

She's one of the greats but I'd never read any of her books. Well, NOT ANYMORE!

That being said, I finished The Cruel Prince in about three days, staying up late into the night after the baby was in her crib.

A quick summary:

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

From Good Reads.

The Set Up:

The Cruel Prince begins with two sentences that are immediately attention grabbing.

"On a drowsy Sunday afternoon, a man in a long dark coat hesitated in front of a house on a tree-lined street. He hadn't parked a car, nor had he come by taxi."

I have so many questions, as many readers do with great opening lines.

Why a long dark coat?

If he didn't come by taxi or car how did he get there?

Who is he?

Black shows us a world that sometimes we forget. The world of Fairie is a dark and whimsy world, reminding us that fairies are troublemakers and do things for their own enjoyment rather than the sweet fairies we imagine as little children.

The world building is great but even more so because with each new creature we get a small description of what they are or what they do. For someone who is not familiar with fantasy books, or doesn't read them often, it was helpful to have these small glimpses so I didn't have to constantly Google. I felt welcome and comfortable in this world Black created for me.

Black also sets up the best transition I've seen on a long time. In the prologue, our characters are young children.

After the kidnapping, we get to chapter 1, which is just one simple sentence, "In Faerie, there are no fish sticks, no ketchup, no television."

This one chapter gives us all the childhood we need to be prepared for chapter 2, which begins with a teenaged Jude. That's good writing, and writing I hope to teach to my own students!

What stood out:

The relationships in this book are very complicated but I LOVE IT. 

Jude is pretty upfront with how she feels about Madoc and even though he murdered her family, she loves him. She knows that he has raised her out of an obligation of honor, even though "Taryn and I are the evidence of Mom's betrayal, by the customs of Faerie, we're his wife's kids, so we're his problem,"(11).

He even reads them to sleep, the books are on battle strategy, but you still see a sense of love between these characters.

Jude makes it very clear that this is "not a comfortable kind of love." She also later says, "I love my parent's murderer, I suppose I could love anyone."

She loves him and Fairie even though she shouldn't because she's human, while Vivi hates Fairie but shouldn't because she's Fey.

There's a huge theme of belonging here (a theme I plan to use in the classroom) and while Jude and Taryn want to belong, Vivi just wants to leave even though she already belongs.

I did question Taryn and Jude's relationship because it changed so drastically from the beginning to the end and would have enjoyed seeing a bit more unwinding.

In the beginning of the story they seem very bonded, but then in the ends, it's easy for these two to be taken apart and work against one another.

I think part of this can be explained because of Taryn's needing to belong and wanting to find love. We can all relate to a guy messing with our heads right? Either way, as a teacher I firmly believe it's okay to ask questions of all books. It's also okay to have a student say they don't like a book, as long as they can back it up with a reason other than "I hate reading."

Jude is ruthless, impulsive, and easy to love and follow throughout this story. There were a few times where I was waiting for her to snap, but knew she was about to Shut. It. Down.

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

 “If you hurt me, I wouldn’t cry. I would hurt you back.”

I really would have liked to see more training with Ghost for Jude rather than the quick gloss overs. I feel like I could somehow get a foreshowing for her personality, which changes a great deal by the end of the book. I just want more! More more more! Maybe that's me being a selfish reader but I'm not ashamed.

Discussion Topics:

Abuse

There a great deal of abuse in The Cruel Prince from a bullying aspect to an abusive brother beating his younger sibling. I've read several reviews that feel this is problematic, however, as a teacher, I see this as a huge discussion point and a way of opening up conversation in my classroom.

These are topics I've added into my lesson plans to discuss the effectiveness of the writing, but also give an opportunity for students to discuss if these abusive situations give us reasonable cause for the cruelty we see from some of these characters.

One scene that truly struck me and stuck with me well into the evening was when one of our villains, Valerian, who is nothing but cruel, shoves faerie fruit into Jude's mouth, which causes any human to lose control of themselves despite any geas they may have.

This scene is slowed down in such a way that the tension literally made my stomach hurt.

We see our strong main character begin to quickly unravel and think, "I feel like. I am unwinding. I am unfurling like a banner,"(97).

We watch at the faerie discuss what they should do with her and ask her embarrassing questions like who Jude would most like to kiss and even go as far as convincing her to take off her dress in front of all of them.

Comparisons

I plan to teach this book alongside A Midsummer Night's Dream and draw comparisons with Puck, the idea of manipulation, and the rules of each of these worlds.

I really want to explore Puck's trickster ways vs. Carden, Locke, and Valerian's trickster ways to see how they are similar and different. Who do we like more? Who can we make excuses for? Why?

Desensitization

How do all of the gruesome political deaths truly effect the faerie? Is it easy for us to turn these pages? Why or why not?

Have you read The Cruel Prince? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

For a lesson plan for Teachers Pay Teachers visit my shop here!

To purchase The Cruel Prince go here!

To learn more about Holly Black and her awesomeness go here and here!
To preorder the next book in the series go here!