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L. Rambit's Reviews > The Queen of Nothing
by
I loved, LOVED the first book of this trilogy (The Cruel Prince). It was nasty, it was brutal, it pushed the boundaries of what is "appropriate" for the YA genre by having one of the most unheroic "heroes" I've ever seen... I'm a BIG ol' slut for hate-hate relationships. The PASSION. The OBSESSION! The ROUGH SEX!!!! #want
And it's not just the "romantic" relationships in this series that I love, but the familial (it sure is awkward when your step-father murders your biological father in cold blood and kidnaps you and your sisters!.. Not to mention when your twin sister gets knocked up by the guy you were dating, so you have to sword-fight her in the kitchen. And then later that same guy hops on horseback with his friends and chases you down in the woods like you're a fox and he's in a hunting party, or your classmate imprisons you underwater for a month, or...)
Listen, I just love every bloody, back-stabbing minute of this series. It sates my inner mean-girl. It's a battle for the crown of fairyland, and the mortal girl with the most to lose is the one most determined to seize it, even if she has to LITERALLY poison herself, stab a hole in her own hand, risk the life of her baby brother, murder her peers and hide the bodies, betray her sisters, and sleep with the enemy to do it. There's a reason Jude Duarte is on my Top 10 Favorite Characters, Ever list... I love her for the same reason said Cruel Prince loves her: She's RUTHLESS. "If I can't be better than my enemies, then I will be much, much worse."
... Or, at least, I thought she was. I was so, so afraid Jude had softened in The Wicked King. She starts out on top of things, acting as a puppetmaster who manipulates EVERYBODY, from the court of spies to the king himself. Then... Then, yeah, it seems more and more that she's falling for the king. They screw like rabbits*, anyway. And, ew, is that a TRAGIC BACKSTORY I see?!?! Why the HELL are you trying to make Carden sympathetic?!?! I like him BECAUSE he's horrible; don't try to retcon him into some generic sob-story good guy!
((*Or, I thought they did. Why was the sex scene in this book so WEIRD? It was written like it was Jude's first time??? How?? Hadn't she and Carden spent most of TWK knocking boots? And why was the sex scene so DISAPPOINTING? There was NO FOREPLAY! She wasn't even WET, apparently, because it HURT! IF SEX HURTS (beyond a little post-activity soreness), THEN YOU ARE NOT DOING IT RIGHT. Isn't Carden supposed to be a sex master? Put that cruel tongue to some use, stupid! Straight people are weird.))
I was about ready to throw in the towel, but THEN The Wicked King ended with Carden (view spoiler) HELL YEAH HELL YEAH WE ARE BACK, BABY, AND JUDE IS SCHEMING REVENGE!!
The first half of The Queen of Nothing began exactly as I'd predicted: with the banished queen, confined to the human realm, working odd-jobs for the fey just to scrape by. Plotting, always plotting, her revenge against the man who did her wrong. Planning her second takeover of the throne. Yes, good. The adventure continues.
And yay! Jude gets back to the fairy world, as we'd all known she would. MORE SCHEMES, MORE MANIPULATIONS. YEAHHH THINGS ARE REALLY WARMING UP--
And then the unthinkable happened: (view spoiler)
What. WHAT. THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED. WHAT THE HELL?! WAY TO CASTRATE EVERYTHING I LOVED IN ONE FELL SWOOP. I don't UNDERSTAND; did Holly just absolutely chicken out?! Was she unwilling to see this to the bloody, bitter end it so deserved?! This is the absolute worst case scenario!!!!
It was all downhill from there. Everyone is soft and lovey-dovey, apparently, and I guess we ARE just gonna go some bullshit generic HAPPILY EVER AFTER route.
... Can you tell I'm mad? I thought I'd finally found something DIFFERENT; something SPECIAL, and it was just completely cut off at the legs.
Ugh; fine. Whatever. We're done, Holly; you've let me down too many times.
