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

Ironside

It's time for Roiben's coronation to be made the offical king of the depraved Unseelie Court. Kaye, who is just getting used to her pixie state after being raised as a human, is having trouble fitting in to the court. During the celebration, Kaye drinks more faerie wine than she should and drunkenly declares her love for Roiben in fae tradition. It's customary for him to give her some sort of trial, an easy one if the love is returned, and she can't see or speak to him until the task is done. His task is for her to find a faerie who can lie, which is completely impossible. Shocked and reeling, Kaye returns to her home and goes into a shame spiral, resulting in telling her mother that she is a changeling. When trying to retrieve her human counterpart, Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court, attempts to ensare Kaye into her plan to take the Unseelie throne from Roiben. How can Kaye hope to beat the ancient queen of the faeries at her own game?

I seriously love this series so much. I have no idea why I waited so long to read it. It combines so many things that I love: dark faeries, realistic characters, twisty plots, unconventional romances, sword fights, and games of wit. While there is one fairly one dimensional villain, both sides of the conflict are largely in shades of grey where both do good and evil for different reasons. How they appear is not usually how they actually are and it has led to many surprising and turns in the series. This installment also merges the characters from Tithe with those from Valiant, but I felt they were underutilized considering an entie book was spent building up their characters. I especially loved returning to Kaye and Roiben and seeing that the events of Tithe didn't magically make all of their problems go away.

Kaye is still lost as a newfound pixie and Roiben still holds all his feelings inside without sharing all of himself with Kaye. Now that Kaye knows what she is, she no longer truly belongs to the faerie world or the human world. Faeries view her as ignorant, socially inept, and someone to play tricks on, as close to human as a fae can get. She sticks to the human world most of the time because she can at least glamour herself to fit in even though she knows she doesn't belong there anymore. As before, she's prone to drowning her sorrows in booze instead of facing them head-on. This paired with her eagerness to be accepted into fae society as Roiben's mate drove her to declare herself to Roiben.

Roiben also has a lot of baggage. He feels similar to Kaye about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. While the depravity and cruelty of the Unseelie Court disgusts him, he has found that the Seelie Court isn't much better after being blind for so long, especially since he has seen his former Queen and former beloved Silarial's true colors. Kaye is his escape from all of it and he didn't want to endanger her by putting a big target on her forehead as someone to torture or kill to get to him. While his reasonings aren't terrible, he doesn't share anything with Kaye. leading to her spiral after he very publicly and soundly rejects her declaration.

Ironside is an amazing end to a strong series. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the end since I couldn't figure out how Roiben and Kaye would get out of their predicament. The clever thinking and faerie logic that leads the story in unexpected places is unparalleled. Holly Black is the queen of faerie stories as far as I'm concerned and I can't wait to read The Cruel Prince when it comes out. She always writes unexpected stories with engaging characters and I will read every book she writes, especially if it's in the fae world.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Dead Set

* spoilers *

Zoe's life is in turmoil. Her father just died and her mother dragged her to a big city to start a new life. Unfortunately, their place is small and in a much poorer area than she lived before. Money is tight due to her father's life insurance paperwork being lost or filed wrong. Her mother struggles to find a job and isn't home much, leaving Zoe alone to dwell on the past and escape in her dreams to spend time with her brother Valentine. Coincidentally, something sinister invades her dreams at the same time as she finds a strange record shop with a hidden room featuring souls for sale rather than records. The proprietor isn't interested in money for her father's soul and asks for a lock of hair, then a tooth, then some blood. Her father's soul leads her into Iphigene, a world where souls stagnate and are stuck for eternity. Can Zoe help the souls of Iphigene or are they doomed to stay there forever?

Richard Kadrey writes wonderful dark fantasy novels with a healthy does of horror and I couldn't wait to read his first young adult novel. Dead Set tells the transitive story of Zoe. When we first meet her, she's stuck in many ways. Her mother is struggling to get a job and her father's insurance is in limbo due to misfiled paperwork, so she's stuck financially and with her relationship with her mother. They don't have time to have a real relationship because they only see each other in passing if at all. School passes by in an unmemorable blur. The only two small shining moments are Zoe's biology class with a fun, enthusiastic teacher and a tentative friendship. All of these things are overshadowed by Zoe's father's death. Her entire life stands still and she's close to being overwhelmed by feelings of helplessness, depression, and sadness. Her whole life has been turned upside down and she's lost interest in living and moving forward. Her only solace and voice of reason is Valentine, her brother who visits her in her dreams.

Then Zoe turns self destructive. She finds the record store with her father's soul and barters to see through her father's eyes in the past and then meet him. Consumed with the need to see her father, Zoe ditches school many times, blows off her new friend, and doesn't think about Amut the proprietor's motives or the effects of her behavior. She's so desperate to see her father that she doesn't stop to think about anything else. After stumbling into Iphigene, the city where the dead should be moving on, Zoe finds it dilapidated and broken down. The inhabitants are as stuck as her because of Hecate, the terrible ruler who took away the sun and prevents the souls from moving on. Iphigene is a frightening place in constant darkness, filled with desperate, broken souls, hungry creatures, and refuse.

Iphigene acts as the liminal stage for Zoe and embodies of her mental state. It also allows her find out who she really is, overcome her obstacles, and move forward with her life. She consistently does what she thinks is right, even if it isn't the easiest thing. Her resourcefulness and fighting spirit allow her to be independent and she doesn't wait around for someone else to save her. Her kindness and compassion also guide her and lead her to help those who would otherwise be cast aside. Her decisions lead her to release the sun, defeat Hecate, and restore Iphigene to its former state as a passing point for souls rather than an eternal purgatory. Her trial doesn't come without sacrifice as she was bitten, attacked, and shot in the chest with an arrow along the way, as is typical for rites of passage. She also restores her own life by ensuring her father's and brother's future so she can move on and make her own future. When she returns to the real world, things get back to normal. Her two week disappearance starts a dialog and she's finally honest and open with her mother. Her mother gets a job and the insurance finally goes through. She looks at the world through different eyes, understands her peers better, and stands more confident and self aware.

I love this story. It's a dark, twisted hero's journey with a dash of Egyptian mythology, magic, and horror. Iphigene is a singular place that Kadrey filled with glorious details that set it apart. I was surprised and pleased by how much horror was in the novel. The flying snake creatures and wolves that serve Hecate were particularly disturbing. The journey is exciting and kept me interested throughout. I also like that Dead Set is a complete story in itself, unlike so very many young adult books. I highly recommend Dead Set and all of Kadrey's other works.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins