Holly Black - The Queen of Nothing.

Holly Black – The Queen of Nothing.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.

Hey Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas. I personally had a lovely time with my family and having a break from work was great too. I forced myself to take some time off writing articles too. I really enjoy doing this but I needed a break from everything. I am back though. And hopefully I will be posting more frequently now.

My first post back is a review for The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. This is the final book in The Folk of the Air series. I truly loved reading these books. They were missing that oomph that a 5 star book has to have for me, but that’s more my personally preference than the greatness of Black’s writing. There will be spoilers for the end of The Wicked King in this review but there won’t be any for the Queen of Nothing.

Synopsis:

‘His voice is soft, and I make the mistake of looking into his black eyes, at his wicked, curving mouth.

‘But your beauty will fade,’ he continues, just as softly, speaking like a lover. ‘And all you have and all you are will rot away to nothing. You will be nothing. You are nothing.’’

As the exiled mortal Queen of Faeire, Jude is reeling from Cardan’s betrayal and is determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose life is in peril. Jude must return to the treacherous Faerie Court and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan.

But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing, and she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics. When a terrible curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing Jude to choose between her ambition and her humanity. . .

A Little About The Author:

Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over thirty 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 Newberry Honor. Her books have been translated into 32 languages worldwide and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son.

A Little About The Story:

The third book in this series follows Jude after the events of The Wicked King. At the end of The Wicked King, Jude and Cardan got married, Jude killed Cardan’s brother and then Cardan exiled her to the mortal world. She didn’t expect a single one of these things to happen but everything she had worked for and achieved fell apart before her eyes. This book watches as Jude returns to Faerie and attempts to reclaim everything that was taken from her in the end of The Wicked King.

The main characters in this book were Jude and Cardan of course. The story to me was about them finding their places in Faerie despite the people that raised them. Honourable mentions go to the members of the Shadow Court, Madoc and his army and Jude’s siblings. All of which hold massive roles in the telling of this tale.

The main characters in the story did everything they possibly could to keep hold of the crown and rule Elfhame fairly. The villains of the story throughout the series were those who wanted the crown for selfish reasons, and not for what’s best for the people. This is the same in this book. They were doing all of this while trying to navigate their complex family situations and growing feelings towards each other.

The main problems the characters run into is that none of them trust anyone else. Faerie’s can not lie. But they do twist the truth around in circles. Because of this they really don’t trust each other. They are all isolated and alone because they refuse to trust. If there was more trust in pretty much every relationship in the book – a lot of the problems would be easily solved.

The other problem is people trying to take the crown, but this happens in all of the books. People are power hungry and trying to grasp at it with everything they have.

My favourite character in this installment is Cardan. He grew on me. I really disliked him in the first book. The more I got to know him, the more I felt bad for him and the way he was raised and understood him a little more. This book was the cherry on top of the cake in regards to his character development. All credits go to Black for this. He is such a three dimensional character, everything he said and did had reason behind it.

A close second favourite is Jude of course. She is fierce and strong and loving and just. I loved everything about her. I think she was hot-headed and irrational a lot of the time, but when considering the way she was raised and who she was raised by it makes sense. In this book though all of her personality kind of falls into place. It forms a Queen. Another perfect character development by Black.

I loved this book. I love the world that Black has created. It takes someone special to form up a whole new world. A whole new set of rules, and a hierarchy and bring it to life and Black succeeded with this. I felt like I was transported into the world. If I close my eyes right now I can see Elfhame. I can see everything and everyone that Black wrote about. I loved the characters and how we watch them grow as people. It is such a wonderful series and I’m so glad I took the time to read it.

My favourite part of the book was when Jude and Cardan were reunited properly at the end of chapter 16 and then again at the start of chapter 18. It made me so happy. I’m not going to spoil it, but this is where they finally see each other. You can feel how nervous and slightly afraid they both are. You feel the confusion and the relief and all of it.

I also loved the ending. When the book was about two thirds through, I had an idea of how it was going to end and it wasn’t particularly well. So the way it ended made me very happy. It tied everything up really nicely. I mean I would still love to have another three or thirty books on these characters, but the ending we have right now is amazing as it is.

My least favourite part of the book is still any mention of Cardan’s tail. I don’t know what it is but I really don’t like it. This isn’t something negative about the writing, it is just something that I don’t like personally.

I would recommend this book to those who particularly love young adult fantasy. For example, I love Cassandra Clare and the Shadowhunter series, and this is one that I loved for very similar reasons.

And that is it, my review and recommendation for The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. After the mixed reviews I have read before on this series, I was so unsure about reading it. I didn’t want to hate it. Reading a book and not liking it sucks. It sucks because it is someone’s art and hard work. So I’m really glad I liked this book and the world that was created. If you have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. If you haven’t read this series I hope this review encouraged you to pick up the book.

Stay Curious!

J x