Hello friends! I am back with a new book review today. Thank you for taking the time and visiting my blog, today’s book is undoubtedly one of the most famous books of the past few years and is actually a very lovely second book of the series. The Wicked King did not disappoint me and I liked it more than the first book, The Cruel Prince, embedded with politics, slow burn enemies to lovers trope and fantastic side characters intertwined with the plot. Let’s get into the review, shall we?
Before I start talking about the book, I want to mention the song I’ve kept listening reading this book. Thunder by RY X was the perfect match for me and it complimented the general feeling of the book, so if you think of reading The Wicked King at one point, give this song a chance! Another thing I want to tell is that since this is the second book, you will see some spoilers from the first book so be aware! 🖖🏻
Holly Black has a beautiful way of writing, her language is so rich yet not overwhelming. I felt it from the first book as well, but the second book felt even more mature and well written considering the first one. Her characters have depth, they all have their reasons and whether we know what they are or not, their bare existence gives so much meaning to the book. Now that Cardan -our amazing cruel prince- is the High King of Elfhame and Jude as his seneschal. However, after he vows to her, she literally has the king in her hands and rules the throne behind him. I usually hate seeing characters get lost in power at one point or another however Jude impressed me by not becoming one of those useless scraps. Everything she has done was to protect those she loved, his brother Oak and sisters Viv and Taryn. Though she doesn’t show it too much, she fought her way among the immortal beings with hundreds of ways of deceit, and she made her way through the crown. She is selfless in every possible way and her portrayal of a “mortal” in faerie was so well done. No matter how much power she had, the way her fragility kept coming to her over and over again was so great to read. Of course, I don’t like what happened to her throughout the book but the reality of it is perfect to read.
Cardan on the other hand, impressed me even more than Jude. I felt like he was shadowed a bit by the plot itself and at some points in the book, his absence was too obvious to ignore but I loved how his character developed. From the toxic and ruthless princeling to a real king with power? We love some cruel development! He has every right to not trust Jude and everyone around him, seeing him suffer from his thoughts and possible decisions gave a great depth to his character as well. The slow-burn romance thing also got tenser, though their dialogues and interactions remained less steamy (except a few times oh god), their thoughts of each other and Jude’s attraction towards him were so good. I truly want them to be together, I will be broken if this series ends without them being happy one way or another. I don’t care if they have to destroy the Elfhame but please, please let them be happy because they both had suffered so much in their lives. They deserve it. They truly do.
The politics that I mentioned in the first book also got even better. We’re in a story full of deceit and greed, and every character you can imagine -except for Cardan, he truly is a pure soul and anything said otherwise will not be taken seriously by me- has something in their minds and whether it is the crown itself as power or love, they all show that they are not really human. No matter what they do, Holly Black made it incredibly clear that these characters do not share our morals or ethics, and guess what? I LOVED THAT. I hate when authors change characters who are not human to gain some sort of sympathy from the readers but the truth is that they are not human and they never will be, even though they can understand how we feel or think to some extent, there are no reasons for them to be like us. It makes no sense and again, Black did a phenomenal job in portraying fae folk as fae folk.
I hate that Jude had to be alert at all times but I guess this is required since she is a mortal in their realm and also a strong figure for the crown. The plot of Undersea and Queen seemed a little too easy to see, and though they are the ones with actual power, they were outwitted by our precious little human. I was shocked to see Cardan in the last chapter and I am so proud of him for doing what he needed to be done for the sake of his people. His world. His land. He truly has grown too much and I am proud of him.
I am quite thrilled to say that this book was incredible and I cannot wait to finish the series. I will do my best to read the last one soon. Have you read The Folk of the Air series? What do you think about it? Let me know in the comments and I will see you in my next post, BYE! ❤✨
Luster of Books 