Title: The Wicked King
Author: Holly Black
Genre: Fantasy, YA
“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.”
Hello and Welcome!! 🌹Today I am doing a review on The Wicked King by Holly Black, a heart-wrenching novel that totally and utterly messed me up. Queen of Nothing, COME FASTER!! I recently wrote a review for the previous book, The Cruel Prince and knew I had to review this one as well!
To sum up the series quickly; there’s faeries, enemies to lovers, royalty, family feuds, a king who doesn’t want to be king and a mortal who wants the power of being king, oh! and MERMAIDS!
Okay, I can’t even control myself when talking about this book, like WHAT? Holly Black has made me cry and has yanked my heart of my chest. What was that ending? WHAT A TWIST HOLY HECK. My heart has shattered and now my book hangover is killing me. I am so glad Queen of Nothing is being published a couple months early but IT ISN’T EARLY ENOUGH.
I am literally dying from how hurt I am about the ending.
The characters are so important in this story (and in every story now that I think about it *cue nervous laughter*) and are so unique! I am just going to point it out that I absolutely HATE Taryn and I despise Locke with a passion. I literally hate them 1000 times more than I did when I finished The Cruel Prince. I love love love Jude’s personality and ambition and I love nearly all her team in the Court of Shadows. Two characters in this novel hard-core shocked me with the plot twists and turns near and at the end of the book!! Betrayal and heartbreak really got to me *sobs uncontrollably*.
In the first book, I didn’t really like Cardan at all. I thought he was insufferable and so petty and rude but in this book? I definitely loved him so much more and loved the side we saw in the second book compared to the one in the first. But considering the ending, I have no words on how I feel about Cardan in general. Like whaaaat? (If you have read TWK please message me on instagram @ slothreading so we can rant together!!)
Honestly, when I was reading the first couple of chapters I was a little confused in what was happening and where the plot was heading but it gradually cleared up as I read on and it ended up being so damn intriguing!! I read it in one day I was so into it!! I LOVED IT!!
Not spoiling anything but the whole ocean/under the water section of the novel was super awesome, creative and such an interesting part of the book! I love the ocean being involved with fantasy and fae!! Hence why I love Song of The Current so much!!
The characters were super complex and had so much depth, it was incredible to read. Holly’s writing is amazing and I can’t wait to delve deeper into this world.
Basically, I just need QoN right now. Dear Holly Black, please please please publish it now!! I BEG YOU.
TL:DR: I am shook and recommend the Folk of The Air series so much!!
Please share your thoughts in the comments
below so we can rage together!!
