The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude used to live a normal life with her family until her parents are killed in front of her. She and her siblings are spirited away to Elfhame, the world of beautiful and cruel faeries. Jude and her twin sister Taryn are treated by society as if they are fae, which enrages the petty youngest son of the king, Cardan. He and his cronies torment Jude because she won't back down or admit defeat. When her father makes it impossible for her to ever truly be accepted by fae society, the king's most likely heir approaches her to be his spy, entrenching her further in Court of Fae drama and the underhanded fight for the throne.

I waited years to start this series and thought the hype wouldn't live up to the book. I was totally wrong. The Cruel Prince is so different than I expected. The world of Elfhame is detailed and dark. The fae view humans as temporary lovers at best and playthings or beasts of burden at worst. Jude and Taryn would never be seen as equal in this society's eyes no matter how hard Jude tries to show her abilities. The fae can't lie, but don't hesitate to skirt around the truth or lie by omission. Each creature type is varied in anatomy, behavior, and diet. Jude's stepfather is a redcap who needs to bathe his cap in blood every so often, leading to a hot temper and a love for war. Humans are fooled quite easily into slavery or being playthings until the inhuman creatures get bored or hungry. Every interaction with them puts humans in danger, making living with them inspire constant terror at doing the wrong thing. It's even worse that Cardan has decided to torment Jude and no one will do anything to help her unless it goes too far.

The first and second halves of the book are starkly different. The first half establishes Jude and her situation, not quite fitting into either Elfhame or the human world. With the way she is cruelly treated by almost everyone around her and how she will never truly fit into fae society as a mortal, you would think she would just run back to our world. Wrong. Jude loves Elfhame for everything it is. It's her home and she can never be truly satisfied living away from it knowing it's still there. Her narrative is at times very frustrating to read because I can see how her decisions will turn out so terribly, but she does what she thinks is right. Jude wants to prove that she is equal to if not better than the fae. Taryn, her twin, is perfectly happy taking whatever the fae will give her, tries to fit in wherever she can, and taking it with a smile. She will turn her back on literally anything to just keep them from tormenting her. While she is also frustrating to read, the constant torment would be hard to live with and I don't blame her for doing what she has to for survival. I thought this book would stay as a conflict between Jude and various fae, but the rest is very different.

The second half of the book is much more about the inner workings of royalty and who is going to be crowned prince. Jude has plans, but multiple other parties have their own who are more powerful, well connected, and older than her not to mention essentially immortal. I didn't expect the book to delve so deep into the politics side. This twist upends the status quo of the first half and redeems Cardan somewhat which I thought was impossible. The end is an insane series of twists and turns that I never saw coming. The Cruel Prince proves to be deeper and darker than I expected. While there is a romance (as is annoyingly required in YA), it doesn't take away from the story and adds another complication to an already touchy situation. I can't wait to read the next in the series plus the Cardan novella was just announced.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

The Replacement

Mackie Doyle is a strange boy, but no one around wants to admit how strange he really is. He’s prone to fainting at the sight of blood, which isn’t too odd, but he also can’t stand being near steel or iron and can’t tread of consecrated ground. He is a changeling, left in the place of the human child that was stolen. No one in the town wants to face that these children are stolen by creatures that they don’t want to believe exist. The townspeople aren’t above making Mackie feel like a freak and an outsider. Then two things happen: a mysterious man tells Mackie he’s going to die; and Tate, a girl from his class whose sister had just died, keeps accosting him and asking him where her real sister is. Can he find her sister and save her from a horrific death or will he even survive long enough to try?

This book came highly recommended to me by my sister. She said it was one of the best horror young adult books that has come out in a while and I completely agree. The overall tone of the novel is very dark and descends as it goes along into an inhuman realm of undead children, gruesome murders, and ancient supernatural beings. The city of Gentry is odd and disjointed: there’s the normal, mundane world that regular people live in and then there’s the sinister world of the fae that serves as a constant undercurrent to the normal one. The inhabitants of the town are aware of the fae world and children are stolen from them, but they don’t really know why or for what purpose. It has to be horrible to live in a town where the truth is glossed over and denied while children are put in danger “for the greater good.” The way these two worlds interact and feed off of each other is fascinating.

Mackie is an interesting character because he’s relatable and interesting without even being human. He’s pretty miserable throughout most of the book both because of the physical pain that comes with living in the human world and the emotional pain from being the creature that replaced his parent’s real son. His relationship with his family is beautiful because even though he isn’t really even related to them, they decide to embrace him and make him feel loved anyway. They all work so hard to protect him, especially his sister Emma. It would have been so easy for them to resent and hate him. Mackie expresses his feelings through playing his bass, which I can totally relate to. There’s a scene where he plays in onstage with a band; the music, the way the band feeds off the energy from the crowd, and how the band members interact are described in electric detail. I really loved Mackie as a different kind of hero because he stopped being satisfied with glossing over the truth like everyone else. I enjoyed seeing his growth and change throughout the novel.

The Replacement is a wonderful young adult book that creates a creepy, eerie atmosphere. The world Brenna Yokanoff has created is brilliant, yet disturbing. I would definitely recommend this to any fan of horror fiction.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins