The Wicked King: A Compelling and Toxic Romance

I recently finished reading The Wicked King by Holly Black, and I must say that it was a truly engaging read. One of the things that drew me to this book was the complexity of its characters, particularly Jude, the main protagonist. As I delved deeper into the story, I found myself drawn into Jude's world, where she is struggling to navigate her relationships with those around her.

One aspect of Jude's character that I appreciated was the backstory that Holly Black wove throughout the narrative. It seemed like every time I thought I knew a bit more about Jude, she would reveal something new that added depth to her personality and motivations. This made me feel like I was getting to know her on a deeper level, which was incredibly satisfying.

Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the portrayal of Slytherin students as being inherently evil. In this world, it seems that anyone who is not good can be considered "bad," which made for an interesting dynamic. Even characters who were not necessarily malicious were still shown to have flaws and weaknesses that made them more nuanced than your average fantasy protagonist.

The relationship between Jude and Cardan was another aspect of the book that I found fascinating. What struck me about their dynamic was how it didn't fit into any traditional fairy tale tropes. There was no love triangle or insta-love, which was refreshing in a world where those things are often overused. Instead, Jude and Cardan's interactions were fraught with tension and anger, making their complicated relationship all the more compelling.

I also appreciated how Holly Black subverted expectations when it came to romance in this book. While Jude and Cardan's relationship was undoubtedly toxic, it was still undeniable that there was an attraction between them. I found myself drawn into their world, even as I knew that things would likely end badly for both of them. The fact that they were aware of the toxicity in their relationship only added to its allure.

One thing that did strike me about this book was how Holly Black handles the concept of time passing. While it's common in fantasy novels for time to drag on interminably, I found that this book didn't feel like it was stuck in a time warp. Perhaps it was because I'd become invested enough in the story to not notice, but whatever the reason, it felt refreshing.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Wicked King and would highly recommend it to fans of fantasy and romance. While it's certainly not for everyone – especially those who prefer light, fluffy reads – there's something about this book that will appeal to readers who enjoy complex characters and morally ambiguous themes.

Reading Experience

Holly Black has a real talent for crafting stories that are both dark and alluring. As someone who had been out of the fantasy genre for a while due to anxiety flare-ups, I found myself drawn back into it through The Wicked King. This book was exactly what I needed – compulsively readable and engaging without being too overwhelming.

One aspect of this book that struck me was how well Holly Black knew her audience. By releasing Queen of Nothing in the same series, she's managed to create a sense of anticipation around Jude's story that feels genuine rather than manufactured. Whether or not you'll get to read it before the middle of next year remains to be seen, but I'm hoping for Christmas.

Spoiler Gush

As much as I hate admitting it, The Wicked King is a book that demands to be discussed. I know many readers will have strong opinions about Jude and Cardan's relationship, and I'm eager to share my own thoughts with you all. If you'd like to discuss the book further, please feel free to leave your comments below.

Overall, I give The Wicked King four out of five stars. While it has its flaws, this book was an absolute delight to read, and I'm so grateful to have had the chance to immerse myself in Jude's world once again.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is my spoiler free review of the wicked King by Holly black this is the second book in the folk of air trilogy the first book being the cool prince which I've already on a full spoiler free review on as well and I will link that on the screen so while this review won't feature any spoilers for this book it might for the first book so I definitely recommend checking that review out if you haven't started the series this book takes place five months after the events of the first book after Jude and Cardin made their bargain which is rhyming and not intended so if you've watched my cool prints review you know that I wasn't a big fan of cruel prints I read it after much liked this book I read it very far after the hype so I had all this hype for it and then didn't really get quite the appeal like it was a fun book but I didn't love it but I had pretty high hopes for the rest of the series and everyone has been telling me for months to read this second book and I do plan on reading the third book as well but I have not read it yet so please don't even like make any comments images anything in the comments about it only talked about this book if you talk about the like next book I'm gonna be angry and I'll delete your comments and maybe block you I don't know I don't know so for this first one we talked about the world-building this was similar world-building to the first book but I wasn't as angry about it because I kind of expected it like I said in the first review of cruel prints I like this world kind of being just like eclectic and very like traditional fairy and like the hobgoblins and like just the Fae that look like magical Fae and not the Fae that we've necessarily always seen in like Sarah J Maas books and stuff where they're just like pretty elf people basically like I like that Cardon like has a tail and like is very pretty but also has these like Fae like features so I really enjoy that and that there's just like an assortment of Fae races in here but I also do think the world-building is still not as strong as it could be in kind of where I do sort of dock points from this series because it could be a little more fleshed out as far as like the magic and the world and some of the political stuff like a lot of things are just very glossed over and that was okay like I didn't get mad about that in this book it was something that I sort of expected and so it wasn't a disappointment but it is something that I still kind of think critically about I don't really think this series is for the world-building or anything like that I think the major focus is obviously the characters and the plot above all else let me get to the characters I liked Jude more in this book I think it was some distance from her that made me like her more because in the first book I felt like I didn't quite see the arc that we were getting from her like there's not a lot of explanation this book series just goes by very quickly I don't really feel the passage of time so I didn't really believe some of the things that she had like learned and the short amount of time that we had with her where this book since there was a time jump I felt like better about where she was in the world and could sort of like come up with backstory of like how she's gotten like some more power that she has and just things that have happened in the background so I was better with her and she felt like more of that sort of wonderful southern character that I wanted in the first book I also just really appreciate speaking of just like Slytherin s in this book every one in this book is bad that's what is sort of nice about it because you don't really have any like morality politics when talking about this book because it's just like they're all Fae and bad like there's the obviously characters that are like more on the like good spectrum generally but like even some of the characters who are seen as like less bad are still like tricky fate or just like their lack of humanity is shown frequently and I sort of enjoy that I also enjoy that with the relationship between Jude and Cardon I kind of like that there's no obviously like love triangle there's no alternative that people could be like oh but that one nice fairy smiled at her one time and she should really go for him like there really is only gardens so it's kind of nice that you don't have any of that like oh what she should be like going for someone else it's just like it's her garden and like that's it and even that is not like at all a stable relationship and it's very like toxic and problematic but it's very compelling an interesting dynamic it is a real hate to love romance and the moments that you have with them in this book are actually so few and far between like there's definitely there's a lot of them or a lot of like at least her like thinking about him or like wondering what he thinks of her but not an overly like pining over him she's like I hate him and they hate each other but there's still this attraction and I enjoy it I enjoy the dynamic is it toxic af yes is it supposed to be yes like I don't think anyone is fooling themselves that like this is not a healthy relationship at all or even like actually an established relationship like obviously like they're not like together they have a connection but like they're not together and I just I kind of like it and I want more like I wanted more of those scenes of them together because when I got told this book I was like there's really only like three scenes of them like interacting really so that was gonna just say definitely wanting more and I enjoyed that dynamic with them more than the first book is the first book they barely interact at all and that was one of my complaints so this book they definitely had more of a dynamic and relationship that I found fun to read lastly we talked about the plot like I mentioned earlier I don't think Holly black in this series does a good job of kind of showing us the passage of time like I really don't feel like a lot of time passes so I'm really not sure like how long people are in certain situations but I was sort of okay with that in this case because one I was prepared for it from book 1 and 2 there's some parts of this book and I'm like I wouldn't have wanted to be in a traditional fantasy book where we were in that part forever so I'm kind of okay with it this book even more than the first book in my opinion is very compulsively readable and just what I wanted because I've been getting obviously back into fantasy more after my like anxiety flare with the fall the great anxiety flare of 2019 and so this just being like compulsively readable and like fluffy in a way by having like a dark tinge to it but nothing like scary was just what I wanted compulsively readable do I want to read queen of nothing like fairly soon yes I hope that I do I put this off for so long because I was so like Matt velcro prints but I'm hoping to read queen of nothing before the middle of next year I just know how it works awesome gives myself such a long time frame but I am asking for it for Christmas it's on my Amazon wishlist so there's a good chance I'll get it I don't know so I end up giving the wicked King four out of five stars and I will be doing a spoiler gush on this because I know you guys want to hear my feelings and I miss doing gushes because I feel like I haven't done a lot of gushes lately because I haven't read a lot books that have like stuff you can discuss like this book and that I've thought were like gush worthy so I'm doing one so I'll link that on the screen so comment below let me know what you thought of the wicked King I know you guys will have a lot of thoughts this is very popular so thank you all for watching and I'll see all the guys soon byehey guys it's Sam and this is my spoiler free review of the wicked King by Holly black this is the second book in the folk of air trilogy the first book being the cool prince which I've already on a full spoiler free review on as well and I will link that on the screen so while this review won't feature any spoilers for this book it might for the first book so I definitely recommend checking that review out if you haven't started the series this book takes place five months after the events of the first book after Jude and Cardin made their bargain which is rhyming and not intended so if you've watched my cool prints review you know that I wasn't a big fan of cruel prints I read it after much liked this book I read it very far after the hype so I had all this hype for it and then didn't really get quite the appeal like it was a fun book but I didn't love it but I had pretty high hopes for the rest of the series and everyone has been telling me for months to read this second book and I do plan on reading the third book as well but I have not read it yet so please don't even like make any comments images anything in the comments about it only talked about this book if you talk about the like next book I'm gonna be angry and I'll delete your comments and maybe block you I don't know I don't know so for this first one we talked about the world-building this was similar world-building to the first book but I wasn't as angry about it because I kind of expected it like I said in the first review of cruel prints I like this world kind of being just like eclectic and very like traditional fairy and like the hobgoblins and like just the Fae that look like magical Fae and not the Fae that we've necessarily always seen in like Sarah J Maas books and stuff where they're just like pretty elf people basically like I like that Cardon like has a tail and like is very pretty but also has these like Fae like features so I really enjoy that and that there's just like an assortment of Fae races in here but I also do think the world-building is still not as strong as it could be in kind of where I do sort of dock points from this series because it could be a little more fleshed out as far as like the magic and the world and some of the political stuff like a lot of things are just very glossed over and that was okay like I didn't get mad about that in this book it was something that I sort of expected and so it wasn't a disappointment but it is something that I still kind of think critically about I don't really think this series is for the world-building or anything like that I think the major focus is obviously the characters and the plot above all else let me get to the characters I liked Jude more in this book I think it was some distance from her that made me like her more because in the first book I felt like I didn't quite see the arc that we were getting from her like there's not a lot of explanation this book series just goes by very quickly I don't really feel the passage of time so I didn't really believe some of the things that she had like learned and the short amount of time that we had with her where this book since there was a time jump I felt like better about where she was in the world and could sort of like come up with backstory of like how she's gotten like some more power that she has and just things that have happened in the background so I was better with her and she felt like more of that sort of wonderful southern character that I wanted in the first book I also just really appreciate speaking of just like Slytherin s in this book every one in this book is bad that's what is sort of nice about it because you don't really have any like morality politics when talking about this book because it's just like they're all Fae and bad like there's the obviously characters that are like more on the like good spectrum generally but like even some of the characters who are seen as like less bad are still like tricky fate or just like their lack of humanity is shown frequently and I sort of enjoy that I also enjoy that with the relationship between Jude and Cardon I kind of like that there's no obviously like love triangle there's no alternative that people could be like oh but that one nice fairy smiled at her one time and she should really go for him like there really is only gardens so it's kind of nice that you don't have any of that like oh what she should be like going for someone else it's just like it's her garden and like that's it and even that is not like at all a stable relationship and it's very like toxic and problematic but it's very compelling an interesting dynamic it is a real hate to love romance and the moments that you have with them in this book are actually so few and far between like there's definitely there's a lot of them or a lot of like at least her like thinking about him or like wondering what he thinks of her but not an overly like pining over him she's like I hate him and they hate each other but there's still this attraction and I enjoy it I enjoy the dynamic is it toxic af yes is it supposed to be yes like I don't think anyone is fooling themselves that like this is not a healthy relationship at all or even like actually an established relationship like obviously like they're not like together they have a connection but like they're not together and I just I kind of like it and I want more like I wanted more of those scenes of them together because when I got told this book I was like there's really only like three scenes of them like interacting really so that was gonna just say definitely wanting more and I enjoyed that dynamic with them more than the first book is the first book they barely interact at all and that was one of my complaints so this book they definitely had more of a dynamic and relationship that I found fun to read lastly we talked about the plot like I mentioned earlier I don't think Holly black in this series does a good job of kind of showing us the passage of time like I really don't feel like a lot of time passes so I'm really not sure like how long people are in certain situations but I was sort of okay with that in this case because one I was prepared for it from book 1 and 2 there's some parts of this book and I'm like I wouldn't have wanted to be in a traditional fantasy book where we were in that part forever so I'm kind of okay with it this book even more than the first book in my opinion is very compulsively readable and just what I wanted because I've been getting obviously back into fantasy more after my like anxiety flare with the fall the great anxiety flare of 2019 and so this just being like compulsively readable and like fluffy in a way by having like a dark tinge to it but nothing like scary was just what I wanted compulsively readable do I want to read queen of nothing like fairly soon yes I hope that I do I put this off for so long because I was so like Matt velcro prints but I'm hoping to read queen of nothing before the middle of next year I just know how it works awesome gives myself such a long time frame but I am asking for it for Christmas it's on my Amazon wishlist so there's a good chance I'll get it I don't know so I end up giving the wicked King four out of five stars and I will be doing a spoiler gush on this because I know you guys want to hear my feelings and I miss doing gushes because I feel like I haven't done a lot of gushes lately because I haven't read a lot books that have like stuff you can discuss like this book and that I've thought were like gush worthy so I'm doing one so I'll link that on the screen so comment below let me know what you thought of the wicked King I know you guys will have a lot of thoughts this is very popular so thank you all for watching and I'll see all the guys soon bye\n"