how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories illustrations

Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.īefore he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone. This, to me, was an unexpectedly wonderful novella, and I highly recommend it to all fans of the series.An illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of Air trilogy, that started with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black.Īn irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame. And that story, the different versions of it, tied the whole thing together and made the book feel cohesive and satisfying. There were three different versions of the story at three points in Carden’s life. Jude and Carden had such an unconventional relationship that it’s nice to see how it works now that they’re not trying to kill or trick each other.Īnd finally, my favourite part of the book, a told to Carden story. The chapters set after the events of the book were great as well. We learned quite a bit during the series, and this completed his story. And I loved getting to know more about Carden’s childhood.

They read like fairytales, with whimsy disguising how twisted some of the shit was. They were great! And not just the story part, but the way they were told. I mean, I’m not an artist so I can’t comment on technique or whatever, but I loved the art in this book. They capture the feel and tone of the stories so well. I wanna first mention Rovina Cai’s illustrations, which are absolutely fucking gorgeous, whether it’s detailed full-page art or silhouettes on the borders. And honestly, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. It fills in some of the gaps about what Cardan’s life was like as a child and tells us what he and Jude are up to now. To clarify, this book contains short stories set before and after the events of the main trilogy. And I rated this bonus novella higher than all the actual books in the series. This is only my fourth (I think) five-star review of the year.

Except that I gave it five stars, which surprised me too. It’s a small collection of bonus shorts, and it’s half illustrations. Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Short StoriesĪny other time, I might’ve written a one or two-paragraph review for such a book and left it at that.

How the king of elfhame learned to hate stories illustrations