The Queen of Nothing book review

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
Series: The Folk of the Air #3
on November 19, 2019
Pages: 320
Goodreads

The intoxicating and bloodthirsty finale to the New York Times bestselling The Cruel Prince, nominated for the CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2019, and New York Times bestseller The Wicked King
After being pronounced Queen of Faerie and then abruptly exiled by the Wicked King Cardan, Jude finds herself unmoored, the queen of nothing. She spends her time with Vivi and Oak, watching reality television, and doing odd jobs, including squaring up to a cannibalistic faerie.
When her twin sister Taryn shows up asking a favour, Jude jumps at the chance to return to the Faerie world, even if it means facing Cardan, who she loves despite his betrayal. When a dark curse is unveiled, Jude must become the first mortal Queen of Faerie and break the curse, or risk upsetting the balance of the whole Faerie world.

I am so happy to have finally finished this series and I can say that although I have enjoyed it all the way through it is definitely not going on my all-time favourites list. The ending of The Queen of Nothing let me down, there was so much intrigue and drama and politics that when it came down to the end I was underwhelmed and disappointed so I don’t think I would reread it again. There was so much potential for this book that was missed it really put a dampener on the rest of the series for me. But overall it was an enjoyable read and I was hooked all the way through which was brilliant.

The highlight for me in terms of the characters in The Queen of Nothing was definitely Taryn and Vivi, there were some wonderful moments where they each shone in a different way. I loved watching Taryn find her purpose and also her worth, it was one of my sore point in the previous book that she seemed to be a little bit like a wet blanket adding nothing to the story really. Vivi really changed in this book, there was less of the spoilt brat syndrome and more of an actual rebellion which was a brilliant switch for me anyway, I think I understood her more as a character and her motivations which was a great addition.

Now we come to Jude and Cardan (slight spoilers from book 2), I feel as though The Queen of Nothing is where they fall apart slightly, there was definitely moments where everything made sense and worked for the best. However there was also moments where their relationship moved SO quickly that nothing really made any sense any more. I would have loved for their to be more developed and had allowed me to fall in love with them slowly.

I really loved the start of this book when Jude is exiled in the mortal world and working out where she now stands. I loved watching her work out her feelings and how she was going to survive into the future and knowing what she did. I loved watching her build on her anger and I thought this was probably one of the most realistic parts of The Queen of Nothing and would have loved to see this being developed more. I did, however, love how everything ended up playing out in the end, it seemed to be the perfect arc into everything.

The worst bit for me was how the ending ended up going, there was so much happening in the run up to this that I felt as though it became rushed and was so easily turned around, it was a tough one because I was glad that the ending happened the way it did but it just seemed TOO easy. I wish there had been more politics in the system and there had been more of a punishment for everything that had gone on. There was just a little bit of underdevelopment for me and I wanted so much more from the story.

I do still believe I would recommend this book, purely because although the ending had it’s faults I feel like it was an enjoyable read and as a whole The Queen of Nothing didn’t let down the ENTIRE series. So if you’re still interested I would definitely consider reading it.

Have you read this one? Let me know what you thought!