Book 12 The Queen of Nothing

 

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black fulfilled the category “Book with Something Broken on the Cover” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. The novel has a broken crown on the cover. This crown has been featured on all the stories and only cracked in half on the third.

Yes, this is another Young Adult book. I apologize for two in a row. I had a different romance read for this week, but then I would have two LGBTQIA books in a row. Since The Queen of Nothing was in a different genre (or arguably in another sub-genre of romance), I went with it.

And yes, it’s the third installment in a trilogy. Kinda a tough sell to give you the last novel as a review, but hopefully, it will inspire your reading choices. Plus, we all know I’ve done it before. LOL

The Queen of Nothing is about a faerie kingdom that lives parallel to our world. Humans and faeries cross over all the time for good or bad. Jude Duarte finds out her mother had lived in Faerie for many years and her older sister was of the folk. She discovers this when Vivi’s father, Madoc, comes back for her. He kills Jude’s parents and kidnaps her, her twin, and Vivi back to Faerie. Jude grows up there and lives the life of a noblewoman, except she’s human. She must protect herself at all times from the folk who trick and coerce but never lie. Jude becomes entrenched in a political plot in the first two books that leaves her (spoiler) the Queen of Faerie but exiled to the human world.

I love a good fantasy book, especially one with a romantic subplot. But… faeries, man. They are cruel. (The first story was The Cruel Prince, so there ya go.) Every tale I read with them, they are just jerks the entire time—always, every installation I’ve seen of them. And yes, I get this is the folklore around faeries but geez. It’s tiresome to never know if you can trust a character. Even at the happy ending, I still didn’t trust those faeries. To me, that’s not romantic to fall for the faerie prince because he’s going to trick you, cheat on you, and then outlive you by a billion years.

Another problem I’ve had with recent Young Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi is the scope of these books. It seems sometimes these authors have bitten off more than they can chew. It seems to stem from a realization that royalty actually has to rule. The authors add political sub-plots, complicated government, and high-stakes concepts. Jude must fight for the true king of Faerie to be put on the throne. Cinder must rule over an entire moon of her people. Harry must battle the most powerful dark wizard since Slytherin. (Of course, in Harry’s case, there wasn’t as much political stuff he had to deal with.) Readers don’t want the simple “princess woken with a kiss” and then happily ever after anymore. But these fairy tales are morphing into political games. Not my cup of tea. It’s too big of a story for one young woman to stumble into.

I say all this, and you probably think I didn’t love these books. I do. But with some hesitation. Holly Black is a fantastic writer. She’s written all over the genre, and I adore her stories. Some days, I long for that young woman just to get her shoe back and be the princess. And no more mean fairies. They make me sad.

I give The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black Four Ragweed Ponies for a ride over the ocean.