The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black Series: The Folk of the Air
Publisher: Little Brown Books (2019)
Hardcover (308 pages)
Via: Library
Rating:
Also by this author: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The Darkest Part of the Forest
Reading Challenges: Read 2020
Synopsis
He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
My Review
The writing of Holly Black really has that ability to pull you in and to fascinate you with the world she has created. This book really does this so well. It shows the tension that Jude feels for being stuck in the mortal world away from Faerie as well as a different aspect of Faerie upon her return.
One of the themes of this book seems to be that of loyalty and where exactly Jade’s loyalties lie. We know that she is the High Queen of Faerie but that has not been acknowledged publically by Cardan. We see Jude learning about a plot against Cardan, dealing with the betrayal by her twin sister Taryn, intrigue with her adoptive father, and just the uncertainty of where she really fits.
Without giving too much away, I want to say that Jude has really grown as a character by and within this book. She is not simply on a power trip anymore and she is also not just out for revenge against the whole of Elfhame. We start to see that she actually has people she cares very deeply about and people she would be willing to do anything for. It is those people and those situations that start to make things more complicated for her life when Taryn asks her to return to Elfhame and pose as Taryn.
Obviously, we as the readers knew this was going to be a bad idea from the beginning. This is what really kicks off so much of the story and the plot. It is in Elfhame and Faerie where things happen. Alliances are made and broken, promises are extracted, new fae are met, old fae renter the picture, and so on.
It really gets dramatic and there is so much at stake in this story. Jude is literally trying to find a way to save herself, Cardan, Taryn, Vivi, Oak, and Madoc all without hurting those she needs to protect and that is a lot of pressure for her. But we already know from the pervious novels that Jude thrives under pressure and it is then that she makes some decisions that have extremely lasting consequences.
It is really up to Jude and her decisions which will determine if she really is the Queen of Nothing or maybe the High Queen of Faerie.
This book is a great conclusion to the trilogy by Holly Black and really made me want to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.
Jude is faced with incredibly hard decisions and has to find the answers for herself. When faced with difficult decisions, do you look to others for advice or make the decision by yourself?
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