Previsouly on "Collective Review": Solene and Eponine had just finished with Infinity Son. Our main characters were feeling downhearted. Will our protagonists have more luck with The Cruel Prince by Holly Black? Find out, now !
Why did you decide to read this book?
E. : After the disaster that had been Infinity Son, I wanted to read fantasy again but with an author whose mainly writes this genre. One friend from school told me their favourite books was The Cruel Prince series so I had it in my Goodread’s list. When Solene and I were looking for a new book, we looked at the best rated books on Goodreads and The Cruel Prince was both on our list so we picked it.
S. : This book was highly recommended to me by everyone around me, my friend kept telling be this was the next big thing, so I decided to check it out and see if the hype was worth it.
Before reading it, what were your expectations?
E. : I was not sure if I was going to like it or not. I like enemies to lovers but without all the “I tried to kill you multiple times and bullied you for years because I love you”, especially with straight couples. The Cruel Prince was known for having this trope in the book and I was not looking forward to reading it. My expectations were not high.
S. : High. I expected something between a fairy tale and a young adult book, good world building and unexpected plot twists.
After the first chapter, did you wanted to read more?
E. : Actually, the prologue was SO GOOD. I texted Solene telling her how much I loved it. The third person narrative was giving me so much information. I was excited to read the rest. We started the story with death and hate, I was hyped for the rest.
S. : The first chapter was actually a prologue kind of situation, and it was really beautifully written. It had that fairytale sort of penmanship, and some really poetic undertones. I was definitely hooked.
Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10?
E. : Probably a 6/10 ?? I am still processing the entire book after 4 months.
S. : Given what I just said, this is quite surprising, but I’ll go with 4/10.
Favourite character? Most hated character?
E. : Weirdly enough, my favourite character was Valerian. He was the cruellest character in this book but at least he was not trying to hide it and the author did not try to explain his behaviour with a sad backstory. I also liked Vivienne because she was cool and had a cute girlfriend. All the other characters were just annoying and I also wanted to slap them. Gold star for Taryn for being the most annoying out of all of them. I could not relate to any of them, unfortunately.
S. : Jude was annoying, but I'm no stranger to annoying main characters, so I think I could have lived with it if it was the only problem I could find. I don’t really remember any character that I loved dearly unfortunately
Would you recommend this book?
E. : Probably not… It would depend on the taste of the person who wants books recommendation. I guess it's not a bad book, it's just not my type but I know that some people would really enjoy it.
S. : It’s not a bad thing to read, really, as long as you don’t enter it with high expectations. It’s a good young adult book, just not one that will blow your mind. Some people might actually really enjoy this, so i’d recommend it with care.
What could have been done by the author for you to enjoy even more the book?
E. : The change of narrative between the prologue and the first chapter really threw me off, like a bad surprise. The characters for me lacked some depth (this is just my opinion) and therefore I could not relate to nor root for any of them. I know the book is centred around the relationship between Jude and Cardan but I did not want to see them together. Them liking each other felt like it came out of nowhere, I do not understand. I needed more built up around that.
S. : I don’t know, really. It’s not a bad book, it’s just not to my taste. Too much romance going on, too many thoughts of the very annoying main character. The relationship between the sisters stopped making sense, everyone seemed to be serving their own personal agenda without really caring about anything else, and I stopped caring about them all as a result. The main ship also looses me. I'm just not here for it ?
Final thoughts:
E. : Not a bad book. It is well written and the world-building is actually pretty good. This book is just not for everyone. I might read the rest of the series to see if I can maybe get into the story.
S. : There were some good ideas overall, I like the final development, it's interesting because it opens doors for many possibilities. I just hope it's not destroyed by being the back story to the romance and the unnecessary pinning.
What next ?
After this, Solene and I decided to take a break from group reading and read different things.
S. : This made me want to read something more philosophical, more adult, more thought-inducing maybe. It ended up being We are the ants by Shaun David Hutchinson.
E. ; I ended up starting The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater because I had received them. I wanted to read something romantic that I could actually connect to, not like The Cruel Prince.
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