I am thankful for a happy ending to this trilogy, because I do care desperately about these characters. But for a series which has taken EVERY opportunity to highlight how dangerous, gruesome, ugly and manipulative The Folk can be, I actually feel a little upset that we got TOO happy an ending. The epilogue is just pure, Disney channel levels of cheese.

And I'm angry over how short the book is. A short book can be tight and well-written, "brevity is the soul of wit", and all that. But when you're talking about an epic, multi-elemental, multi-/dimensional/, three-way war for the crown, it seems kind of careless to wrap-up the inevitable clash in two pages. There were more details of Jude getting dressed and undressed, or taking a bath, than there were of factions campaigning or fighting. And SPOILER ALERT the only major character death we got happened between books, off-page; absolutely nobody of consequence died in the battle. Seems unlikely, and therefore unearned, that EVERYBODY made it out of this conflict unscathed, given the BLOODBATH which was the first book. I had my expectations raised, and I don't feel like I was rewarded. Much as I don't /want/ my favorite characters to die, you have to do right by the world you build. You promised me a murder book... where's my murder...

There were some loose ends too, which I would love to see addressed in future books. First off, whatever becomes of Suren and Oak? But more importantly, WHAT was up with Taryn?! I never completely understood her character. Sometimes she was genuinely sweet and understanding of others, sometimes she was self-delusional and only wanted things to /seem/ nice and ignore ugly truths, sometimes she was a manipulative, wily, survivalist, as cunning as her foxy husband! I expected big reveals, like Locke wasn't the father of her baby, or she was using Locke to amass a fortune, or his death fueled a magic spell of some kind, or SHE didn't kill him! I want this series all over again, but from Taryn's perspective, so I can finally make sense of all her swings in characterization/motivation.

Also, while we're on the subject: Locke was done dirty. He was a secondary antagonist trying to become primary for the first two books, and then he was just... wiped out. Given Locke's reputation for scheming, and "crafting stories", I really thought he was going to have the last laugh. Maybe he wasn't really dead. Maybe he set a curse in motion with his death. Maybe his gifts, or his memories, or something get passed along to his son. SOMETHING! Seems implausible that the master of stories didn't have much of a story in the end.

And speaking of his son, I am annoyed that this book fell into some YA trope traps. Teenage romance is compelling, and a sex-positive story is important. But teen girls are spoon-fed story after story about how other teenage girls should desire marriage, particularly to a bad-boy they think they can change, and that they'll /immediately/ get pregnant after they tame said boy. I'm sad for Taryn, that she's a pregnant teen with a cheating husband. I'm sad for Jude, that she's emaciated and anxious ALL the time, and is /physically abused/ by the person who "loves" her, and that she ignores all her problems - or the merits of an honest conversation with Cardan - in favor of sex. Sex does not solve your emotional troubles, ladies. It doesn't make your boyfriend nicer, it only fleetingly makes you feel better... Sex is not medicine. Furthermore, I'm sad that - given the reputation of The Folk for growing bored with lovers or keeping multiple lovers - Jude and Cardan can't possibly be destined to last. I wish this story had taken the opportunity to build a multiple-partners-positive narrative into the tale, to show that Jude would be okay when, inevitably, another person comes into Cardan's orbit. If this book had been longer, and expanded upon the budding respect between Nicasia and Jude, maybe Nicasia could have been that person. And Jude would have made an excellent and entertaining bisexually lead character.

Finally, another word on tropes: PROPHECIES! Dear Authors, don't use prophecies. Just don't. I know your world is magical, and you have characters reading portents into everything from stars to bones. But don't. Telling your reader ahead of time what's going to happen takes ALL the surprise and emotional punch out of the conflict when it finally happens! And this book not only had a prophecy, but a story-within-a-story which tipped the big reveal at the climax of the book! I was told the story before the story told me the story. That's like when my sister yelled, just as I was turning to the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, "Hey, did you find out it's Professor Quirrel, yet?!" (I will never get over that, Mir! -_-). Don't tell the reader what to look for. Trust your reader! Words to live by, I promise you. Trust. Your. Reader.

So in summary: Well-written world, characters I care about, happy for a happy ending... But some problematic message for the target audience, some loose ends, and a heap of tropes, which leave Queen of Nothing only an average conclusion, instead of an epic one.

PS - I love Cardan, but he /did/ nearly kill Jude in The Cruel Prince, and I'm not sure that it's okay to handwave the extreme depths of his cruelty with, "Well, he had a rough childhood." I mean, sure he did, and it's sad. But ladies, we don't have to forgive our abusers just because they're going through something rough. I feel like Jude is owed an apology :/.