Review of The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black

4.2 out of 5 Stars

Okay, so straight up- fresh from the finish- I don't know how I feel about the ending. We'll... we'll just come back to that later.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Wicked King. I really, really loved The Cruel Prince though and at the end of the day, I couldn't bring myself to give this one the same rating as the first one. Comparatively, I think the first one had a much tighter grasp on the relationships between the characters than this one did, and that made the difference between them. This was still such a great book, and certainly, the political maneuvering that Holly Black performs is still just as mesmerizing as it was in the first book. There were a couple of moments when I was just like, yeah-yeah-let's-move-on, which was a little surprising, but even then those moments were fleeting and I was shoved right back into the thick of the plot.

SPOILERS BELOW


PLOT:
I'm not sure if this was the smartest move on my part, but I jumped straight into just reading this without refreshing myself from what happened in the first book-- which I read nearly two years ago. So while I was in my warm-up speed of digesting the story, the actual plot was already starting to happen and I kind of missed it. Maybe this was helpful though, because I don't think I was sidetracked by an expectation. It seems like the most important plot line was resolving the conflict with the Undersea. Within this however, we are tied back to the greater issue from the first book which is succession and who gets to sit on the throne. (And then we get into Carden v. Jude, Jude v. Madoc, Carden v. Balekin, throw Oak into the mix, etc. etc... whatever.) However, there was the other plot line of the stupid wedding between Taryn and Locke. That is what my rusty brain first latched onto, but ultimately, it boils down to being fairly insignificant on its own. By this, I mean that it really just seemed to serve as a method for distracting Jude more. It's a giant shiny toy that gets thrown at the reader first that, while it does have some important pieces to it, really just ends up being shiny. The actual meat of the story was lying underneath it in the beginning.

It wasn't like the story was hard to follow or anything. It was just slightly distracting when I realized that the wedding wasn't actually all that important. Especially when the book breaks in half, this distraction and tear from the story was driven home. When it came to Book 2, I actually set the book down and stepped away from it for a couple of days. I just didn't want to deal with it. I felt like I was about to go deep-sea diving when I was already at the bottom of the ocean. In that moment, I could tell that everything was about to get shifted to the actual focus of the book in a way that would require so much more energy and attention. Instead of being fully incorporated throughout the entire book, it felt like the important plot was heavily thrown at the end with sprinkles of it in the rest of the book. It ended up being worth it because holy cow so much happens in that last third of the book. Which brings us to the ending.

While I was slightly prepped for it, nothing could have prepared me for Carden proposing to Jude. Nothing. Not. A. Thing. And it all ended up both working beautifully and falling apart spectacularly in a way that seems almost unreal. This ending, or endings like this, are the ones where my mind feels like a tattered cloth, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it was so engaging and unexpected, or if it's a bad thing because that was too wild of a ride. The whole ending is a bit of a blur it went so fast. I abso-freaking-lutely loved the part though where Carden gets the sand to rise out of the water and he traps Nicasia in a tree. That was great. A sight to behold. Love it. Did not love Jude's blow up. That seemed way to out of character for her, someone who is a master of self-control. And then it all goes to crap of course, but I'm so curious to see what the effects of Jude's exile will be, and more importantly, when Carden will let her come back. That's my real concern with this ending, I think: that they'll stay separated for so long in the next one that I'll be bored.

CHARACTERS:
Jude: Oh Jude. I still admire this character so much. I just reread my review for The Cruel Prince, and I have to say, I liked that she's flawed. Not just in that she has a genuine fear of the fae, but that she works with it because she has a stronger hunger for power. What I think is so interesting about her character though is when it is contrasted against Val, the dead king's seneschal. Jude makes it a point to say that Val isn't bound to any of his oaths, especially now that the king is dead. But Val pretty much refuses that outright, connecting it to his love for the dead king. And it pricks at my mind because Jude doesn't have a connection like that that she openly admits and relies on. I think/hope she will come to hold herself to that standard when it comes to promises to Carden, but we'll see 'bout that after the whole exile thing. Her trust is likely shattered a bit, but ultimately, she does need at least one solid touchstone for reliability or she could never gain traction in the fae world again (which is, I suspect, the bigger point Val was getting to).
Carden: Carden's development was one of my favorites of the entire story. Even from the beginning, I loved watching him go from not really giving a crap about being king to wanting to really take control of his reign. I do have a lot of follow up questions about his character though. How upset is he with Jude? Cause surely he's at least a little mad if he exiled her. Or maybe he really is just truly invested in being king and is keeping her exiled to appease the Undersea Queen. Phew. So much to think about. But I love his character. I'm still a little wary of him, but I love his character. I want to see more of him in the next one.

Balekin: Bye ***** and good riddance.

Nicasia: I think there's more to Nicasia's story than what we've really seen. At least, I hope there is. I think there will be a great opportunity to see more of her in the next book as the ambassador between the kingdoms, and I hope that gets taken.

Madoc: My biggest question about Madoc's character is how much he's going to be involved with Jude's exile and if he'll try to win her back so to speak. If that is the case, I really hope Jude tells him to shove it, because Carden isn't playing around anymore. If anything, I think he may kill Madoc as a way to get even with Jude for killing Balekin. Multiple birds. One stone. It would be a bit of a shame though because if Madoc and Jude could just get past each other's petty power plays, they would've been a great team.

WORLD:
I love this world that Holly Black has created so much. It is weird, and unnerving, but not over the top like her other series. Moreso than that, I love how because it's fae, they all have to work while using and stepping around the truth, and I think she does an excellent job of that. It is one of my favorite things to see her do in her writing. There are such fine nuances and details to the characters and their choices that every piece of dialogue becomes a game.

The Wicked King, while not as good as the first book, was still completely enthralling and I'm curious more than anything else to see what happens in the next one. Luckily, I don't have to wait this time around.

Thanks for reading!