The Laughing Listener
August 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Caitlin Kelly
Length: 12 hours & 36 minutes

Story Rating: …….. 3.5 Stars????????
Performance Rating: 5 Stars
Overall Rating: 4 Stars

……… *Holds mouth open to speak like a gaping fish for five minutes*


Me questioning everything after this book shoved me into an existential crisis.

This is, legitimately, one of the hardest reviews I’ve ever had to write. I finished this book weeks ago and can’t find anymore valid excuses to put it off. I definitely have feelings, I just… don’t understand what they are???? I know there’s a ton of hype surrounding this, so please don’t throw tomatoes at me, but I absolutely hated the beginning and LOVED the end. Where does that leave me now?? Excellent question. I wish I could tell you.

First of all, let me start this by mentioning that I JUST finished rereading the Modern Faerie Tales series, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because when Roiben and Kaye showed up towards the end, I could fully appreciate how EPICALLY AWESOME THAT SCENE WAS. Seriously guys. Best part of the whole freaking book was just Roiben and Kaye casually eating Chinese food. But it was a curse because I went into this already comparing it to Tithe and they are NOTHING alike. The Modern Faerie Tale books deal with a lot of heavy, adult themes—Kaye dropped out of high school to support her mother, Corny is taken and abused by an evil faerie, Val is homeless with a serious drug addiction… You get the idea. I was expecting more of those heavy themes in The Cruel Prince, but it was sooooo different.

In the beginning, watching Jude and her sister felt like the Mean Girls, teen angst version of The Modern Faerie Tales and I wasn’t a fan. I wanted that dark grittiness back that was so prevalent in Holly Black’s other series and it all just felt so shallow for a while. A girl in school who struggles to find herself and fit in—what a novel and original idea for a young adult book. *Rolls eyes* I couldn’t even really appreciate the villains Cardan, Nicasia, Locke, and Valerian because I didn't get why they were so horrible. They just seemed to be terrible because they could, which is totally LAME. For a while, the only characters that had any real depth to them were Viv and Jude, and even then I struggled with Jude. She was the worst spy ever guys.

And her relationship with Locke was a total joke. It was so completely obvious he was using her, I had no patience for it.

But somewhere along the way there was a subtle shift and I found myself captivated by this mess of a faerie court. I think it was around the coronation ball. There was just so much drama and political intrigue that I couldn’t stop myself from wondering how it was all going to end. No one ever did what I was expecting them to (besides Locke. I saw that douche coming from a mile away). Plus, the more I got to know Cardan the more I liked him and Jude. They both can be completely awful, but I love that they embrace that evil part of themselves. And that ending?? HOLY. CRAP. I WAS SO UNPREPARED.

FINAL WORD

I hated this and then I loved it, so I broke even I guess??? But I’m soooooo here for the drama that’s going to happen in the next book and I NEED to find out what happens.

#1 ↦ The Cruel Prince ↦ ✦✦✦✦✦
#2 ↦ [b:The Wicked King|26032887|The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2)|Holly Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520620414s/26032887.jpg|45959180] ↦ ???