Holly Black’s Third novel featuring Roiben: The Cruel Prince Part 2, because otherwise this would be a long post. My sister gets to hit me if I let my boyfriend fool around with her unawares. I’d have to have said playboy boyfriend first, and not immediately dump him, but still. While the supporting characters in Tithe were already a little morbid, bent on ruining their innocence and accidentally ruining their lives (and the faries were very happy to help ), the characters in this novel? The inside cover let me know it was about to be a dark and weird ride. Within the first ten pages the patriarch of the family-you’re-supposed-to-hope-makes-it kills off the parents of a handful of little kids right in front of them. The oldest, nine, is his- the other two ( including the MC, Jude ) are brought along because he has honor. Great. Then, over time, it looks like they all develop a cute stockholm syndrome-esque affection for each other- except for the nine year old, Viviene, who isn’t that much older than her siblings ( as another rant pointed out ), and somehow has a better perspective on the murder of her parents. But, it doesn’t take long for us to accept this strange survival instinct the children now have. Because although the scenery is gorgeous, and it seems like he’s trying to make up for an unforgivable crime ( nice try though ), we get heavy reminders that this guy is not a hero in his own kingdom. He’s considered ruthless from the moment we meet him. There’s a check for me right here, because he never shakes it. He never gets forgiven for it, his kid hates him, and there’s a sense that everyone fears him at least a little. Oh, and he doesn’t die. That might have made the next story easier to write, but, there would have been some needed poetic justice to it. Now I’m just going to watch and see if someone doesn’t kill him in the next installment, because he’s bad for the MCs plans and a weird character to get around emotionally. Just die already so we can comfortably miss you, you sociopath. <3 Next on the list of characters I’m not drawn to, and really should be at the top of the list where I mentioned her: Taryn. Now, with a little bit pf perspective from the MC, we might have had some sympathy for her situation: she can’t defend herself; she needs protection; she had no other way of being in “faerieland”; she thought Locke might be the only faerie to ever think of marrying her; she understood something about her jealousy was twisted and wrong, etc. But that doesn’t give me any sympathy for how many times her heart is going to be toyed around with by this subversively evil boyfriend of hers. She has to know that he’s going to sleep around, right? She has to know he’ll never take her more seriously than other women, right? She knows that he likely wants a harem, right? She knows that out of everyone it isn’t fair to blame Jude for him being an asshole, right? Just- so many questions for this weak character. At least if she didn’t become jealous, there’d be hope that she was open to a polyamorous relationship. That seems to be a normal thing in Faerie ( never thrilled with the name, but I know it’s in the folklore ), and if she is supposed to be progressive and worth anything in this story, she should at least be unfazed. Psychologically strong at worst, perfectly paired with Locke at best. Just not this snobby, naively jealous, bratty courtesan she’s lining up to be. But, since these are two of the characters that actually live through the whole ordeal - I have to deal with them again in the next installment. I kind of hope they die and build up our main girl’s motivation. That’s the most backhanded thing to do to a character, right?
Part 1 { Here }, Part 3 { Here }
