The Wicked King by Holly Black

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Oh my god. There was a lot of screaming happening while I was reading this book, okay?
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CRUEL PRINCE: do that now. Also, the summary for wicked king has spoilers for cruel prince, so we’re going to skip that for now.
:)

Yet another addition to my list of favorite royals, Cardan remains just as rotten as always.

I think that my favorite thing about this book is how smart all the characters are. Everyone is scheming. NOBODY is helpless. I love their money moves.

Every character has something to contribute to the story, and being a love interest is not it. The characters have depth and development, and they are all very good at what they do. Still, Holly Black shows glimpses of their humanity as well, which just makes everything even more heart-wrenching.

The Cruel Prince was great, but I honestly think that The Wicked King was on another level altogether. The *situation* between Jude and Cardan makes their dynamic so interesting. The Cardan that we glimpsed briefly in Cruel Prince was gone by the end, but it’s something that the reader longs for. On the other hand, you know that he won’t forgive Jude that easily.

The plot of The Wicked King is woven together magnificently, even if I couldn’t remember some of the characters’ names (Balekin? Gimme a break, fam). The world building never gets overwhelming, and the problems are clear enough. The story focuses on political issues rather than random curses or quests, which I really enjoyed. Jude is still treated as an outsider, and she almost starts going off on the love-is-the-most-important-treasure tangent, but is fortunately forcibly shoved off that path.

While there are twists throughout the novel, the ending made we want to sue. The Queen of Nothing isn’t even coming out until November 19th, and I’m personally offended.

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