Name: The Queen of Nothing
ISBN: 9780316310420

The Queen of Nothing

Marz 

I really enjoyed reading this series more than I thought I would. I was new to reading fantasy regarding faerie folk when I started a cruel prince but three books later I have developed an appreciation for the genre. Jude's character development throughout the series was magnificent and I enjoyed how real her character felt. Jude was evoloving throughout the series and I think in the queen of nothing we witness her grow into the title if queen. Along with jude we see the side characters evolve with her such as Taryn, Mardoc and of course Cardan. The enemies to lovers plot point between cardan and jude is SO well done I was squealing at times not going to lie. Overall I understand why this series has the hype it does, my only gripe is at times the plot can be predictable and some more interesting areas are left a but underdeveloped for the sake of cliche plot points. Nonetheless worth the read.

l ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

the queen of nothing was so perfect !!! 

i’ve enjoyed the entire folk of the air trilogy but this book definitely takes the crown. i love holly black’s writing and all of her descriptions. i got so lost (in a good way) and immersed in the world! the politics, the romance, and the betrayals … it’s amazing. 

jude has quickly became one of my favorite characters. she grew so much throughout the series and i couldn’t be more proud of her :,) she went from thinking she was a weak + powerless mortal, who was constantly being bullied and intimidated, to become the literal high queen of elfhame. she is so so amazing and i just love her with all my heart. 

cardan was great in this book too. the way he spoke was just beautiful. he talked about his love for jude in the most romantic way & it made me so giddy! i also loved how he defended her & spoke up for her. i liked how much of his personality came out in this book as well - he’s a really sweet and funny king. hearing more about his backstory simultaneously filled and broke my heart :,)

some of my favorite quotes of cardan’s:

“it’s you i love. i spent much of my life guarding my heart. i guarded it so we’ll that i could behave as though i didnt’t have one at all. even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. but it is yours.” 

“mock me all you like. whatever i imagined then, now it is i who would beg and grovel for a kind word from your lips. by you, i am forever undone.”

finishing this series is bittersweet. i’ve grown so used to jude + cardan & the entire world of elfhame. i’m definitely going to miss the king and queen. i’ll be rereading this trilogy for sure!

praline

this book almost made me not want to go back to reading adult high fantasy. it’s so political (and at times violent) yet whimsical and fluffy, i just love it. best book out of the three in my opinion, it was short and fast paced and sometimes that’s just what you need.

Mikayla Hall

My favorite book within the trilogy!! Jude's character grows so much here and there is so much political intrigue!

It was good, I can’t fault the writing at all, Holly Black’s work is fantastic. Yet I didn’t really like the actual story all that much to be honest. It was an okay trilogy, some things I really liked (even loved) some things I just didn’t really care about. A lot of mid.

I still don’t like Cardan or that whole ship with Jude...I never liked him and I think that may be why I just found this book a little boring, lots of Cardan...

Sofia Nunes

Honestly, what the hell happened with this book?

Jude and Cardan had this amazing enemies-to-lovers "let's despise each other but everyone around us can see it otherwise" chemistry, then, all of a sudden... (view spoiler)[Fairy tales are predictable? No one died at the only battle of Fairie??? There is absolutely no chemistry when they finally have sex????? (hide spoiler)] 

A moment of silence for all the opportunities lost in such a beautiful kingdom by such an underwhelming plot.


  “By you, I am forever undone.”

Jasmine

5 Stars
IT WAS SO AMAZING!! I FUCKING LOVED IT!!! I'm also super sad we aren't getting more of these characters because I've grown such a strong emotional attachment to them, and damn I really wish this book was at least a 100 pages longer because I feel like we only got a glimpse in those last few chapters!! Oh and Cardan how much I love him! I stand by what I said in the previous book, as much I love the other characters he's the one that makes this series for me. What I wouldn't have given to have chapters in his POV! 

There were so many amazing moments for me throughout this book I kept mentally highlighting as I was reading. Also, I had at least two moments where I was legitimately out loud freaking out because I physically couldn't contain my reaction. I have to say I was caught off guard in the best way possible! Exactly, the experience I wish I could have with every book I pick up, so many great twists and turns, and amazing emotionally charged moments. Queen of Nothing got me right from the prologue and never let go! If there were things in here that bothered me I was reading too fast to notice or care. This imo has been a truly fantastic series and one I will definitely go back to someday to experience again!! I'm on a book high and couldn't be happier<3
JUDECARDAN JUDECARDAN JUDECARDAN!!!! Take my heart why don't you?! Damn I miss them like crazy it's not even funny they've become of my favourite book couples, I'll never get tired of replaying their incredible story in my head! They've hijacked my emotions and own me!!!

Andrea Rodriguez

MY HEART. Ah, I loved this trilogy so much. I love Cardan. I love Jude. I can’t believe I put off reading this for so long. So, so good.

Lydia White

3.5-4 stars
Having this book be the follow-up to The Wicked King, it had some big shoes to fill for me, but unfortunately it didn't quite hit all the marks that it's predecessor did.

I do think this is a satisfying conclusion to the series, and I can't picture it ending a better way. I think it was more the progress to get to that ending, tied into some pacing issues. I typically wouldn't care too much about the book being relatively short when comparing to most final books of a series, if the story could be properly concluded in that time. But it just wasn't quite there for me. I felt like I needed a little bit more in the beginning, and a lot more in the end. 

Gotta go into spoilers to really sum up my thoughts around this. 

(view spoiler)[
So the resolution to the exile twist from Wicked King fell a little flat for me... look I loved the Notebook-esque missed letters plot just as much as the next person, but given the usual more politically motivated decisions this one just didn't cut it. Especially given Cardan would've pardoned Jude almost right away. Just comes off as a more petty response which is not the vibe I wanted. In my opinion, Holly Black definitely had the pages to flesh this out more and come up with something that had a little more ~spice~.

Speaking of places that could've used more pages to flesh them out, the SNAKE PLOT. Look I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened there, where it came from, and more importantly why it only came in the last 20% of the book. I don't hate the idea of it, I can get behind it, but I need a bit more set-up and explanation there. There's always a chance that I am just a surface level reader and HB has been dropping serpent hits throughout the other two books that I was not picking up but ... give me some extra pages to help me make sense of it all. 

On my personal Wishlist, I'd also like more pages dedicated to the post-"war" (I hate to call it that because for an author who wrote quite a bit of gruesome deaths in this book, she took the Stephanie Meyer Breaking Dawn out of not having to write a war because talking helped lol) Jude/Cardan relationship. 

Also, wishlist-y, I think this was the only book of the series where I was really missing some multiple POVs. Give me the scene of Cardan showing up in the human world looking for Jude. 
 (hide spoiler)]

laura

re-read 23/02/2022/ my heart is aching holly black how dare you do this to me

putting my tfofa playlist here if anyone wants to listen to it https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3EU...

Emma Motze

So here’s the thing about this trilogy, I could not stand the first two books. It took me over a year after reading the second to pick this one up and read it, and it’s all thanks to a tiktok. This tiktok mentioned certain letters, and of course everyone on booktok loves just and cardan, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Phew am I glad I did. While this book wasn’t great in my opinion, I loved it more than the other two. I skimmed a lot and found it predictable, but everything was a lot more tolerable and I no longer have a burning hatred for this series :)

Kelly Macquire

Samantha Hamburger

So pleased with the final book. I cried when I read the last page of the Epilogue. These books are so worth it.

Hannah Wall

I stared this book at 7pm and I’ve finished at 11:41pm! This book was as amazing and beautiful and heartfelt and heart wrenching and just all around amazing as I could ever be! I also love how Cardan lifts Jude up. Even when she becomes queen he still makes her look fearsome- he does not expect her to become a jewel to show off or to be passive! He lets her inspire fear into the court and I just all around love how he encourages her to be strong and fearsome! 
Rant done- thank you!

Reread- Jan 31 2022
I tabbed this book 30 times. I’m obsessed and this has to be my favorite book. The fierceness of Jude and the cunning strategy this book has is immensely enjoyable!

nelly sanchez

5/5★ 


Cardan. 🥺 I've loved Cardan since the first books but WOW this book made me love him even more. When he was first introduced Cardan was this cruel, wicked, evil prince that everyone worshiped, but feared. With his upbringing, it was never too shocking that he turned out the way he did, but rather than use that as an excuse, Cardan used it to define himself and his abilities; one of the things that makes him so likable. But in this book?? Omg, you really get to see his whole ARC develop and you see him grow into a rightful and true heir to the throne. He's so incredibly precious and this book did such a great job at showing the true Cardan Greenbriar <3

As for the rest of the book... Not gonna lie, I was really scared because I saw that this book had the fewest amount of pages out of the series, and I had no idea how Holly Black was going to be able to wrap this story up well in so few pages. But I was worried for no reason because this conclusion was PHENOMENAL. I was hooked the entire time and the twists in this book were so good. It's been a while since I felt this way over a book, but it physically pained me to close the book when I was done 😭😭 This is hands down one of the best finales I've ever read (and I've already reread like half the book since I finished the first time).

AND THE LETTERS???😭😭😭 JUDE. CARDAN. SUPREMACY.

Mikayla Shultz

Jessica Williamson

12/14/19 UPDATE-
Okay, after having time to sit with this, I'm knocking it down a full star rating. While I loved this series so, so much, I also have issues with this book as a whole. I think during my original review I was judging based off of the whole series and not this book by itself. Every time I look at that five star rating I keep thinking THIS IS NOT A FIVE STAR BOOK! 


4.5 Stars

3.5 Stars

What a conclusion! Holly did a fantastic job at wrapping up this series and I just adore the ending.

Characters - ***** - I don't know how Holy does it but she has some of the best character work in the business. The thing with Jude, Taryn, Cardan and the lot are that they have so many dimensions and layers to who they are. Take Madoc for example! He's a character that you both want to hate and love at the same time and as a reader, I cannot express the joy I have at finding characters who are so unpredictable and yet very true to themselves at the same time. 

Cover - **** - Love these covers. THE NAKED COVER. They're pretty on the regular editions but the Barnes and Noble covers are even better!

Pace - ***** - I think everything moved really well in this one. I was engaged, there was action there were beautiful moments of character growth. It just really worked for me.

Plot - **** - My biggest complaint about this book will be it's very anti-climactic final battle. I mean, sure, plenty happened, but it was just pretty predictable. There was no shock, no WOW factor that I crave. That being said, I think this was a great concluding novel. It wrapped up the story lines from the previous books and did some really great things. I am happy with how things ended I just wish there'd been a little more pizzazz in how it got there.

Writing - **** - I love Holly's writing. I officially have her back log on my wish list. I love her descriptions of Elfhame and it's citizens. Her character work is brilliant, and I love the way she weaves a story together.

Enjoyment - ***** - I absolutely loved this book and series as a whole. I am just over the moon with happiness about it. There were so many great things about this story and I'll just fawn over it forever.

Overall - I highly recommend this series for anyone who enjoys stories of the fey or likes multi-faceted characters. A great series.

Meg Casey

Michelle Xu

The Cruel Prince - 4.25
The Wicked King - 4.5
The Queen of Nothing - 4.25

Series overall - 4.5 (It doesn't average out quite right lol but all together, the story throughout was just so cohesive, fun, and exciting)

Thoughts on Queen of Nothing:
I really loved this book. I honestly can't believe it's over and my time in this world with these characters is done. I would have loved even more. This novel followed soon after the events of the 2nd book. We find Jude in the mortal world before being asked to help Taryn back in faerie. Mistaken identity leads to Jude and Madoc's reunion as well as a rescue mission from her friends and family. There's a lot of scheming and politicking that eventually leads to Jude leading the charge on how to break a curse. 

Again, my favorite part of this book is Jude. She's just such an amazing protagonist to root for. I think I've said this every book, but she's so badass, she makes mistakes, but she's pretty self-deprecating and never blames others for her own shortfalls. Moreover, she's just so smart and conniving. Most of the time that I read, I keep wondering what I would do in a situation and I just admire Jude so much for her ability to think through such stressful situations. While I didn't always agree with her actions, I could still root for her after she makes her decisions.

This book also solidified my love for Jude and Cardan's relationship. I fully believed in their relationship in the end and just desperately wanted them to be together. I also enjoyed the side plot of The Roach and The Bomb's relationship. 

One thing that Black does particularly well is building up suspense and increasing the stakes throughout the story without too much action. She makes political maneuvering somehow so interesting. I was always at the edge of my seat. 

I thought this book also did a great job of pulling together smaller plot points from previous books into this final book. For example, Roiben, Mother Marrow, Severin coming back and showing their support of Jude was a nice touch that showed that all the things Jude did in previous books didn't go unnoticed by those in faerie who ended up admiring and willing to follow in her leadership. I also liked how plot points involving The Ghost and Locke were revealed, explaining how some things occurred in the previous book. 

Another theme that was better explored in this book was that of the sisterly relationships between Jude, Taryn, and Vivi. While I've basically always hated Taryn from the first two books, she what somewhat redeemed in this book. She didn't have like a Zuke redemption arc, but it was still nice to see all the sisters supporting each other in the end. Since the entire series in from Jude's perspective, we don't get to see how they truly bonded, but their support via their actions was still extremely satisfying. I liked that at the end of the day, no matter how much your siblings may hurt you, you're sisters first, and misunderstandings will pass. 

My biggest complaint about this book, again was just that it was too short!!! I really just wanted to be in this world for longer, and there was ample opportunity to delve deeper into certain plot points and characters. For example, I would have loved to see (view spoiler)[ both Locke's and Grimsen's deaths to be drawn out longer. For someone who was such a good side villain, Locke's death was just told to us in one sentence from Taryn, and it would have been nice to be able to actually read about it in more detail. To be honest, I probably just really wanted to see him suffer :) The same goes for Grimsen, he was another side villain that definitely deserved a bit of a longer, drawn-out death. I was shocked that the curse took hold, the snake charged for Grimsen, and he just dropped dead. It was over in a sentence and I would have liked a chase or for him to put up a fight. The same goes for Cardan as the snake. I was shocked that the curse was broken and everything wrapped up in only a few days since his curse took hold. I would have also liked to see more conflict and struggle to break the curse. If Jude could spend over a month being tortured in the Undersea in the previous book, then Cardan can definitely be cursed for much longer as well. (hide spoiler)]

A smaller complaint my boyfriend and I had was regarding a writing device that the author used in making her characters more redeemable. In this book, we start by seeing how (view spoiler)[ Prince Dain was actually evil and pretended Cardan had killed a human in favor with the High King.  (hide spoiler)]It suggests to us that Cardan was not always cruel and is just misunderstood and framed. I had no issue with that flashback but my boyfriend felt like it was brought up as a lazy way to just redeem the character a bit from how he acted in previous novels. While I understood where he was coming from, I didn't really get that feeling until the point in the novel where (view spoiler)[ Nicasia and Jude had their private moment in the back garden to discuss breaking the curse. I was shocked that Nicasia casually threw into the conversation the fact that Cardan had broken the glamour on the human servants at Balekin's estate during his time there.  (hide spoiler)] It just didn't make sense to me. Not only was it lazy storytelling by, again, telling us something about Cardan we didn't know off-page, but it was also didn't make sense with the plot. Cardan was cruel in the first book. He tortured Jude, made her kiss his feet, threw her into the river, kicked dirt on her food, etc. It felt like Nicasia's story was another way to get readers on board with Cardan and accepting that he was misunderstood in some way. I just thought it unnecessary. I loved Cardan and Jude together regardless of that fact. I was fully willing to accept they were both toxic people who were perfect for each other. Or that he had grown from how he had been in book 1. I didn't need to see other sides of his past self because he had already been redeemed in the present. 

Finally, while I liked how the story wrapped up and how every really got a well-deserved ending, I was still a bit disappointed in how perfectly everything fell into place. I think that's where I would distinguish this book from being a YA series from adult fantasy. There were many more places I kind of wished the author would go. I wish there was more bloodshed, a bittersweet ending, not as much closure, as well as some hinting at the challenges ahead for Cardan and Jude. Instead, each person really got paired off and everyone was happy in the end. (view spoiler)[ I especially didn't like the author's hints that The Ghost was in love with Taryn by the end. It served no point in the plot or story and was unnecessary. Taryn can be perfectly happy alone and even if she and The Ghost got together eventually, the way it was thrown in at the end just felt rushed.  (hide spoiler)] While there's nothing actually wrong with that, I love a good happy ending, I think it just didn't thematically fit in with the rest of the series, because I know the author didn't shy away from dark or gruesome or morally ambiguous in the earlier plot points.

Despite the fact I just wrote insanely long rants about parts of the book that bothered me, I still honestly enjoyed every moment of my experience reading this book. It wasn't perfect, but still so close. The complaints didn't really diminish my enjoyment of this book or series.

Thoughts on the series overall:

It's hard to rate some of the books individually because the story flows so well from one book to another. The series as a whole was able to tell the Jude's story and rise to power in a really cohesive way. I'm so happy that one of the first YA fantasies that I've read since like 2008 was this trilogy. 

Despite being a YA series, many themes and events that took place went darker than I expected. I was also surprised at the steamy scenes between Cardan and Jude... I didn't realize that could be in young adult novels. I did think that all the main characters like Cardan, Jude, and Taryn felt more in their early 20s rather than only 17/18 years old. If I ignored their actual ages, I would have imagined them just a little older. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this entire series. My favorite was The Wicked King, but they were all excellent books all around. Despite my rants and ramblings, I had such a good time that I would 100% recommend this series to others. I definitely get the hype and can't wait for more books from Holly Black :)

------
Original thoughts:
Somewhere around 4.5 stars I think

It’s 3am and I definitely need to think on it... but overall I loved this book and this series. I’m so happy I picked it up

Jade Flynn

Read for the Winter 2019 Magical Readathon. Week 4 Prompt - Read a friend's recommended or favourite book! It could also be a book recommended by a book community member you like!

Jemma Lock

The enemies to lovers trope in this is so good. The plot made sense but the conflict was a bit weird but made sense in the fairie world. 

Jordan Robinson

What a lovely little end! 
A few things here and there that bothered me but I still loved it. 🧡

Emily

Everything it needed to be, but not more. I feel like that's the best way to describe this book. 

If The Wicked King was 10 stars, then this one was 8. Keep in mind that this is still on a scale of 5. That's how good this books are. 

'You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words,' he says. 'You don't want me dead.' 

I can't believe how much Holly Black manages to fit into these short books and somehow have them turn out to not be a two-dimensional mess. Maybe she really does have some sort of magic. That would honestly explain a lot.

The most impressive thing to me about this series is how well Black is able to flesh out her characters in such a short amount of time. For example, Jude and Cardan are two people who are nearly as far from similar to me as possible, and yet, I can understand their every move. 

As someone who often has trouble loving romance within fantasy... this is quite the exception. Jude and Cardan are legitimately one of the best ships of all time. It's not just a 'hate-to-love' based on a stupid miscommunication where the boy occasionally side-eyes the girl. No, it's a full-on 'you tried to kill me' hatred to a full-on 

 By you, I am forever undone. 

kind of love.

I was overall content with the ending, but I want more about certain characters, and I hope that a spin-off is in the making. I would honestly be happy if it followed virtually any of the other characters. Taryn? Suprisingly, yes. The Bomb and the Roach? Yes. The Ghost... and Taryn? Oh yes. Oak? YES.

There is a lot to consider here, and I hope Holly Black takes the time to do so. I need more Fairie in my life. :)

————————————————————————-

January 2019-

“...even if it means facing Cardan, who she loves despite his betrayal."

"who she loves despite his betrayal"

 "who she loves despite his betrayal" 

Just gonna leave this here and cry until this book is in my hands.

Simone Rhodes

4.5⭐️

Wow I didn’t know what do expect in this final book but I absolutely enjoyed it! I won’t lie, I can’t believe Jude didn’t figure out how to best Cardan at the end of The Wicked King. Even I saw the opportunity he had laid out for her and I don’t always read between the lines but oh well I guess everything happened as it should have to justify the end. The plot was predictable but it was well executed and hard to put down so I have no complaints!

Let’s talk about some of the characters! I am highly impressed with Cardan’s character development. He has grown so much from who he was when I met him in the Cruel Prince and I want the world for him. His mother can go to hell for all I care.

Taryn on the other hand, I still don’t like her but I no longer hate her. If anything, I sort of respect her for what she did because I wanted to do it myself if you know what mean. Vivi is just…smh I have nothing to even say about her but Oak, it was good to see more of his personality. Madoc, I never thought I would ever see a certain side of him even if it was for the briefest of moments. He has a always been a villain from the very first book but he’s complex and so I have mixed feelings. 

Finally Jude - she is the same but not. Always clever and stubborn but for what she believes is right and just. She’s been a fighter and surviver from the very beginning until the very end and she deserves everything and more! 

Overall, I like how Holly tied up everything leaving nothing unresolved. It was a good ending and I couldn’t ask for more.

The Queen of Nothing

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