The conclusion to The Folk of the Air Trilogy, but does it actually deliver the conclusion we’re all looking for?
The Queen of Nothing
The Folk of the Air #3
Holly Black
★★★★☆ (4.37)
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
From this point on you may find spoilers. Read on at your own risk.
Book Version: Hardcover, 308 pages (ISBN 0316310425)
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Fairies, Paranormal
Other Things to Note: The third in a trilogy (Check out my book review for the first two books in the series The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King)
Trigger Warning(s): murder, gore, war themes, torture (for a full list of trigger warnings visit the author’s website)
My Rating and Review
★★★★☆
I feel like this book deserves 3 stars. Since it came back from such a rough second book I’m feeling lenient with my rating though. I’ll be honest, I’m glad this trilogy is over and I 100% will not be rereading this series ever again. It was good to do to be able to say I did it.
Something I really liked about this book, and the rest of the trilogy, is that Jude remained a strong heroine throughout. Yes, she had her ups and downs but she didn’t give up on her dreams. Even if those dreams stemmed from greed and hatred. And unpopular opinion, I think that her greed for power made her that much more relatable. Call me crazy but I like it when both the protagonist and antagonist have mortal flaws.
One thing that I feel didn’t get resolved how I was hoping until the last page possible was Jude and Cardan’s relationship. I’m all for enemies to lovers, it’s my bread and butter if you know what I mean, but Cardan goes from trying to murder Jude every three minutes in book 1 to like middle school bullying her. And while I realize that one of the rules of the fae is that they can’t lie, Cardan (and basically every other fae) seemed so untrustworthy to the point I was questioning if they had the ability to lie in this series.
