The Cruel Prince (2023)
The Cruel Prince is a 2023 young adult fiction book written by Holly Black.
Jude was seven when her parents were killed and she and her sisters were carried into Faerie to be raised by the man responsible. Ten years on, she is mortal in a court that prizes cruelty and beauty in equal measure, and she wants to belong there anyway. Holly Black writes the fey as gorgeous and vicious, none more so than Prince Cardan, who makes a sport of tormenting her. To earn a place among them, Jude learns to lie, to fight, and to trade in the deceptions that keep Elfhame's throne standing.
Quick answers
What is The Cruel Prince about?
Jude was seven when her parents were killed and she and her sisters were carried into Faerie to be raised by the man responsible. Ten years on, she is mortal in a court that prizes cruelty and beauty in equal measure, and she wants to belong there anyway. Holly Black writes the fey as gorgeous and vicious, none more so than Prince Cardan, who makes a sport of tormenting her. To earn a place among them, Jude learns to lie, to fight, and to trade in the deceptions that keep Elfhame's throne standing.
When was The Cruel Prince published?
The Cruel Prince was published on 24 October 2023.
Who made The Cruel Prince?
The Cruel Prince was written by Holly Black.
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The Cruel Prince in our writing
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A few thoughts on The Cruel Prince
Faerie has rarely felt this dangerous. Pan's Labyrinth shares the beautiful and brutal fey, plus a girl caught in their rules. Labyrinth gives you the same seductive, capricious court and a mortal refusing to bow. For a darker fairy-tale mood in a game, Hollow Knight wanders a gorgeous, merciless kingdom that would suit Elfhame.
Gorgeous, vicious fae courts worth getting lost in
Elfhame's court runs on beauty and cruelty in equal measure, and Jude spends the book learning to survive inside both. Hollow Knight builds its own gorgeous, dangerous kingdom to explore, Pan's Labyrinth and Labyrinth both stage a human child navigating a fae world that is equal parts wonder and threat, and A Court of Thorns and Roses drops its own mortal heroine into a fae court just as merciless.
More of Jude and Cardan's faerie world
The Cruel Prince is only the opening move in Jude and Cardan's story. The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing carry Jude's court games all the way to their reckoning, Tithe returns to Holly Black's own faerie world from a different mortal girl's side, and Once Upon a Broken Heart pairs its heroine with a beautiful, dangerous prince cut from the same cloth as Cardan.
Enemies-to-lovers romances with a genuinely cruel love interest
Cardan makes a sport out of tormenting Jude before either will admit what's happening between them. Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight pair a deadly heroine with men who start as her obstacles, Serpent & Dove binds a witch to the man sworn to hunt her, and A Court of Mist and Fury lets its heroine choose the fae she was supposed to fear.