My Review of 'The Wicked King' (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black

July 07, 2021

My Review of 'The Wicked King' (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black

My rating: ⭐ 5 of 5 stars

"Yes, my great villain, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can"

ALL BOW BEFORE JUDE AND CARDAN, THE SUPERIOR ENEMIES-TO-LOVERS COUPLE OF YA.

I CAN'T EMPHASISE ENOUGH HOW MUCH I AM INVESTED IN THEIR STORY. AND JUDE, YOU EVIL GENIUS! Still my favorite character. Jude brings her A-game to whatever she does, whether as a spy in the Court of Shadows or the seneschal to the High King himself. There is nothing that daunts her, and I love that about her.

Synopsis

This book picks up where the last one left off. Jude is the seneschal to the High King. And with great power comes significant responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is to hold on to the power she has acquired and make sure Cardan stays on the throne of Elfhame. Unbeknownst to all, Jude is the puppeteer controlling the strings manipulating the High King, and he's only a pawn in this game of thrones. But nothing is what meets the eye. There is unrest in the Undersea and tidings of a war if the High King refuses to swear allegiance to the mighty power of the sea. Jude's time is ticking since she only has control over Cardan for a year and a day, and she is scrambling to find a way to extend their deal. Jude is still trying to figure out her growing feelings for Cardan while having conflicting thoughts about whether to kill him before he makes her fall in love with her or keep him safe from harm's way.

My thoughts

~Let me start by saying that the Jude-Cardan smut was non-existent and was a huge letdown and I was rudely left in want. But, oh, the tension, you could cut it with a knife. But besides that, the whole book lived up to my expectations.

~This book was the equivalent of a hedge maze, with its many confusing turns and dead ends. There were surprises at every corner and distracting and misleading stuff at every other corner. I enjoyed reading it thoroughly, and there wasn't a dull moment in the entirety of this book. This was way better than the first book in the series, more complex, and more bad guys to tackle.

~I loved how every character in this book was grey, which made it more interesting. You don't know how much they are willing to go in the other direction for the sake of power. You can't trust anyone, and there are so many traps to evade, either in the form of clever bargains or geases. There's danger at every turn, and people always want their debts paid.

~This book made me realize deception is independent of truthfulness. You don't even have to lie to betray and deceive someone. It's all about weaving a few words together very smartly, so the other person won't know what got them.

The characters

~Cardan, you cute, charming, endearing, puppy dog-human, if your idea of romance is to exile your beloved, and then it leaves a lot to be desired. He emerges as the unlikely underdog of the story with his macabre backstory. I feel indignant on his behalf for the way his family treated him since he was a kid.

~Taryn, UGHHHHH! HOW OBTUSE CAN A HUMAN BEING GET? Her behavior is so puzzling to me like, girl; what is it that you want. Where do your priorities lie? What is it that you want out of your life? She perversely refuses to act like the twin and always ends up betraying Jude, in some way or the other.

~Madoc, you did not just pull that shit! Oh, Jude's going to get you bad for this one. What were you thinking? Being a traitor gets you nowhere; you should've learned from dear ol' Balekin's experience.

~Locke is still a reprehensible human in this book, too, not that I'm surprised. Someday he's going to get bitch slapped so bad, and I'm not going to be able to do anything about it.

What could be better

1. I wanted more character development for Taryn and Vivi and, basically, all the characters apart from Jude and Cardan. Some characters didn't seem logical at times, and it got hard to comprehend what motivated them to do stuff in the first place.

2. Characters didn't seem consistent when comparing how they were in the previous book.

3. I wanted more detailed descriptions of the setting. It got hard to picture certain things at times.

Conclusion

I highly recommend it and urge everyone to read this series. Trust me, you won't regret it.