I was So In to rate this more highly, but thennn.

the only 'out' gay character killed his love interest and it was the right thing to do because it was a toxic relationship

 

Okay, wait, the longer I sit with this, the higher my rating goes anyway. 

self-extrication from an abusive relationship with one's sanity (mostly) intact

- fine. 

I'm in for more of this world, even with it being darker than I was expecting, somehow, after reading Spiderwick first. (But also, I didn't get past the initial series, I should remind myself with grace.) 

I have to say I'm very disappointed. I went into this thinking I would love it. There was no doubt about it, it felt like a fact. Roses are usually red, my cat is a lovable idiot, and I will like Holly Black's books. Sadly, this was not the case.

I could've known this was a possibility. While I absolutely adored the folk of the air series (minus the lost sister novella, yikes that one) and enjoyed the first book on the middle grade series Black has written with Cassandra Clare, I was also deeply disappointed with the Spiderwick Chronicles. But I just thought it would be a one time thing - 2 if you count the TFOTA novella.

As soon as I started this book, I disliked the main character. And, ok, she got a tiny bit better by the end. But honestly? I didn't care for anyone but Roiben. I kept on reading because I am not about to DNF a Holly Black book.

And, yeah, it took a long time for me to get into it, but eventually I did a bit. Because even though it felt rushed and downright sloppy, Black's writing is still pretty addictive. And as I said before, I did quite like Roiben. I think if it wasn't for him this would've been two stars.

At the end, I don't know how to feel about this. I wouldn't put it on any recommendations posts. But I don't hate it as much anymore as I did the first 100-ish pages.

As for the rest of the series? Who knows. Since I was so sure I'd love this, I had already bought the sequel. Maybe I'll give it a chance some day so my money was at least worth something. But maybe once I started reading other books, this will slip from my mind and I'll never find myself interested to dive into this series again.

I'm glad that this was released in, what, early 00s? Because I very much enjoying TFOTA and that shows that Holly Black's writing has improved a lot since then, meaning I won't be scared off from her recent books.

I'm hoping to read the TFOTA spin off series this year, or at least the first one, because now I've read 2 books by this author and both are rated badly.

This is very very early 00s fantasy romance. It was difficult to get into at first and I don't think it was that great overall, but I did like the plot points and the main characters a lot.
Spoiler for the Cruel Prince!!

I appreciated this story a lot more too since I liked Kaye and Roiben a lot in the Cruel Prince trilogy, even though we don't see a lot of them. I'm not sure if I would have liked it as much if I hadn't read that already.

This feels like the exact kind of book I would have loved when I was 12, and although it's enjoyable, I wouldn't go into it expecting it to be like the Cruel Prince.
In other news, I've been listening to My Chemical Romance on repeat since starting this