Review for "The Wicked King" by Holly Black

If you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure. 



Rating: 3 stars

Jude Duarte has fought her way to power, and power over the throne of Faerie no less. Now she has to... do a bunch of stuff that I don't really remember. And that just about sums up my reading experience with this one. I can't even force myself to put much effort into writing this review, so it will be short and (probably not) sweet.

I found this book unmemorable. None of the plot really grabbed my attention, and I didn't feel ANY character development in Jude, or in fact any of the characters. I wasn't ever really bored while reading, but I just didn't really get the point of the book. The end of The Cruel Prince was so shocking that this book really should've just coasted off of that momentum, but I felt very "eh" about the final product.

Probably the grievance I feel most strongly about is the world building. I mentioned this in my review of the first book, about how I didn't understand the coexistence of Faerie and the mortal realm. My problems with the world building have since evolved. I just, to be frank, don't like the world. I don't find it whimsical or fantastical or intriguing. Even just the map of the world I find boring, and I feel like its style doesn't match the tone of the story. Also, I just need to say how much I hate the Royal Palace. The idea that it is built into a giant hill does not make any sense to me, and the drawing of it on the map is absolutely ridiculous.

There a few more things in this book I disliked. First, the introduction of characters that should've had more impact than they did. The author introduced characters in a way that made it seem like they'd be super important and interesting, and then it fell completely flat. The main example: Cardan's mother. I was so let down by the story surrounding this character and where she ended up in the end. It just felt like the author wanted a bombshell in the middle of the book, and then didn't want to deal with actually following through with it. Another example is Nicasia. Everyone kind of makes a big deal over Orlagh wanting Nicasia to marry Cardan, but then Nicasia is barely in the novel at all.

One very nit-picky thing I have to say is that I was annoyed by the constant restating previous quotes in italics. A character would say something with interesting implications/foreshadowing, and then later in Jude's internal monologue the statement is said again, verbatim and italicized. It just drove me crazy.

I liked some of the Cardan-Jude banter. I think if any character showed character development in the book, it was Cardan, although I'm not entirely sure if that's true given the twist at the end. I liked that the author set up some side-stories to revisit in future books, like the one about the Roach and the Bomb. I liked the scheming, and the out-maneuvering and some of the politics involved with that.

The book wasn't terrible. There were still some things I liked about it, but there are more aspects of the book that were worsened from Book 1 to Book 2 than aspects that were improved. I didn't dislike it, but I can't think of a single reason I would want to reread it, which really makes me not want to reread The Cruel Prince, which was much better. This sequel was fine, but not near as compelling as the first one.

As for continuing the series... if I even remember that this book exists in 10 months (when book 3 comes out), I might pick it up.