The Cruel Prince
When Jude Duarte was seven, the faerie general Madoc murdered her parents in front of her and then, for reasons she is still trying to understand, took her and her sisters home to raise as his own among the Folk. Ten years later, Jude is a mortal trying to earn a place at the High Court of Elfhame, where the immortal children of the fae regard her as something halfway between a pet and a grievance. The cruelest of them, Prince Cardan, makes her life a calculated misery. When a murderous palace coup upends the succession, Jude realizes that her outsider status might be exactly what is needed to maneuver in a court where no one is allowed to lie. Holly Black's bestselling Folk of the Air opener is a sharp, morally knotty YA fantasy about power, belonging, and the long game.
Where The Cruel Prince keeps showing up
Six of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Books in conversation with The Cruel Prince
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about The Cruel Prince
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
First in the Folk of the Air trilogy. Mortal Jude has lived in the faerie High Court since the day a Gentry knight murdered her parents and stole her and her sisters. Now seventeen, she wants the cruel prince Cardan brought low.
Holly Black's Folk of the Air trilogy has three books: The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, and The Queen of Nothing. Follow-up novellas including The Lost Sisters and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories expand the world. The Stolen Heir duology continues.
The Cruel Prince is YA fantasy with romantic tension but no explicit content. Most readers rate the spice 1 to 2 out of 5. The series is widely cited in the romantasy crossover wave alongside ACOTAR.
The Cruel Prince is YA fantasy with romantic tension but no explicit content. Most readers rate the spice 1 to 2 out of 5. The series is widely cited in the romantasy crossover wave alongside ACOTAR.
The Cruel Prince was written by Holly Black, published in 2018 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
The Cruel Prince is 370 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Cruel Prince takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Cruel Prince is a standalone novel by Holly Black, not part of a series.
The Cruel Prince is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
