The Cruel Prince

This series is one of my favorites. Holly Black is a masterful storyteller. She reveals both the beautiful and terrible in her world with excellent detail, efficient prose, and well-timed, natural dialogue. The world comes out to you from the page with lovely description and color.

Jude, our main protagonist (or, it could be argued, anti-heroine), is immediately likable and understandable: she's wickedly clever, ambitious, and sometimes kind. But Black doesn't write a banal coming-of-age character who allows herself to be swept away in the games of others, nor does she give us a girl who wants to be rescued. Jude battles her way through her world, trying to take what she wants, always becoming stronger, and fights for what she cares about. All the while, the reader is painfully aware of how Jude's upbringing has scarred her, and how the circumstances she's been borne to (not a typo here - hehe) continue to limit her heart and mind. She's not perfect; she's vicious and strong and scheming and desperately blind to her desire for love and praise. She's fully human, and I love her for it.

The Cruel Prince (and its sequel, which was just released) is a superior example of fantasy fiction that refuses to play on tropes. Its subject matter is Faerie, but its heart shows us just what it means to be human, to be a daughter, and to be a young woman who has grown up in a merciless world, and what that world ultimately pushes her to become. A must-read for sure.