Edit: The longer I think about this book/ trilogy.. the more I realize how much I can’t stand it. It’s not 1 star worthy by any means, but I’m lowering my rating again.

“I stand in front of my window and imagine myself a fearless knight, imagine myself a witch who hid her heart in her finger and then chopped her finger off.”
♔
I finished this dark grit of a book last night in one sitting, and I’m stunned by it.
I’ve heard such divisive opinions about this novel, and now I can finally put myself somewhere in that spectrum.
I ~liked~ this novel, but I use that term very loosely. I’m basically just neutral about, and I lean slightly on the more positive spectrum because I like bad characters. I like that this novel doesn’t try to show a healthy relationship. It’s about twisted people who have to survive in a two faced court.
Jude is bad. Cardan is bad. Everyone is bad, and this novel is unapologetic in declaring that. I see people hating on Cardan for being a bully, which is whole heartedly true, but in reality, Jude is up there with him. She just hides it better. She honestly ends up having to be worse because she’s a human living in Faerieland. It calls into play the idea of whether nature or nurture truly build someone’s character, and it’s pretty obvious nurture did this to Jude.
I don’t think this novel perpetuates the idolization of unhealthy relationships. Though there’s certainly some people who read this novel that do that, but at its core I don’t see that in the novel. To me, I think it’s a critique on the darker side of humanity mixed with some pure faerie folklore, which is inherently twisted and dark.
I don’t know if I’m making sense, but this novel was an okay one. I’ll always adore some good politics, and I only wish those took the center stage sooner than they did.