Book Review: The Wicked King by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air #2)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I usually don’t like the middle books of a series as much as I like the first book, but The Wicked King was an exception. This book was all around perfect, and such a good read. I simply flew through this book.
Fair warning: There will be spoilers for the first book, just in case you haven’t read it.
Synopsis: You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.”
Jude has played her cards well. She has an official position in The High Court, and the wicked king is under her command, but only for a year and a day but sooner than she realizes, time will be up and what will she do to make sure Cardan doesn’t betray her until Oak, her younger step-brother and heir to the crown, comes to age. Speaking about Cardan, he sure isn’t happy with Jude since she tricked him into becoming the High King of Faerie. Jude’s aware of both this and how the fae she thought hated her guts so much turned out to actually be helplessly in love with her. But she insisted he didn’t–he couldn’t possibly- love her and that she didn’t love him as well. Among this are other problems like her father, Madoc, who’s angry that she betrayed him as well but now wants to team up, Queen Orlagh, ruler of the undersea, who wants her daughter, Niccissa to marry the King and become Queen of Faerie or have war instead, and Balekin who’s a prisoner in a tower, trying to get his way out. Later on, things escalate between Jude and Cardan, romantically ;), and you’d think these two would be on the same page and realize they both love each other but nooooo, that’d be too easy. Anyways, a lot of things happen . I can’t state any of the major points about the ending of the book because I don’t want to spoil anything. Tip: have the third book on hand and beware, the ending will evoke anger that you never thought was in you.
“Kill him before he makes you love him.”
First, let me address how much both Jude and Cardan have changed compared to the first book. Jude has become so much more like the fae, more mischievous, more deceptive. Though because she is still human, she feels sympathy and is caring. I was just amazed by how much Jude has developed and has gained skills to try and fit into this dangerous world around her. Cardan has also become different. He’s still his devious self, but he isn’t outright cruel and torturing innocent people for fun, which I found was crazy compared to how he was when in the first book, younger, more immature.
“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”
Their romance throughout the book was the best example of enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers-and so on. The beginning of the book, Cardan’s not the biggest fan of Jude after she deceived him and made him become High King of Faerie as a placeholder for her younger step-brother Oak until he was old enough to rule properly. This made Jude convinced any feelings he had for her had probably vanished, right? Wrong. I don’t consider that as a spoiler because Cardan doesn’t try hiding his feelings real well, for the most part. Especially when he’s drunk. As the story goes on, romantic things occur after Jude riles Cardan when talking to him about Nicissa, but of course these two act like nothing happened afterwards and it means nothing. Highly annoying, but things get better though I won’t be the one to spoil the details for you.
The plot of the book was very gripping and quite fast-paced. There were so many plot twists and betrayal, oh my god the betrayal seriously made me want to throw the book across my room. I never saw any of them coming and left me so disappointed in those characters. There were more scenes that were, obviously, cruel to Jude because of course we can’t go a book without poor Jude being humiliated in some way. Though, compared to the first book, I didn’t find them as bad and never crossed the line of mortifying like that one scene did in the first book. The ending scenes were really unexpected, quick-paced, and evoked tons of various emotions. The author really left us on a cliffhanger after dropping multiple bombs, it had me reaching for the third book instantly.
“Pain makes you strong, Madoc once told me, making me lift a sword again and again. Get used to the weight.”
There were multiple antagonists in this book Jude had to watch out for. Our most obvious one from the first book being Blaekin, who is trying everything he can to get out of the tower he’s imprisoned in. Niccissa also informs Jude that someone close to her will betray her so that's anything Jude has to worry about. Speaking of Niccissa, her mother, the Queen of the Undersea, insists that either Cardan marries Niccissa, making her the High Queen of Faerie, or war. Both equally awful options to consider. Jude’s relationship with her step-father, Madoc, is also kind of…complicated. He’s not pleased Jude betrayed him but he’s impressed. He starts to insist they work and come up with plans together though Madoc isn’t the most trustworthy guy, Jude’s aware he just craves power, war, and bloodshed.
I really don't have any critique to give on this book, I devoured this book in a day and it definitely didn't disappoint. It has so many elements and aspects to it, whether it be romance, action, mystery, which made this book such a fabulous read.
“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.”
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