Title: The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2)
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Length: 10 hours

Read if you like: contemporary fantasy, fey magic, underdogs, power struggles, political scheming, morally grey heroes and heroines, betrayal 

Rating: 

This series is quickly becoming one of my favourite young adult fantasies. It has such an enjoyable plot full of political machinations and plot twists and the characters have grown on me to an incredible degree. In The Cruel Prince, I felt like Black set up a promising series start and in The Wicked King, she well and truly delivered.

Every time I started listening to this audiobook, I just couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to get to the third book and finish the original trilogy. 

Fair warning: there may be some mild spoilers for book one in this series below. I do my best to keep reviews spoiler-free, but when a series builds so adjacently book after book the way this one does, some spoilers are simply unavoidable. 

The Book Synopsis: The Wicked King by Holly Black

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

The Review

What an utterly fantastic YA fantasy.

I have absolutely loved the Folk of the Air series so far, it’s been such an enjoyable premise to see unfold. Black has built a truly luscious world that overlaps with the real one in such intriguing ways, and I loved that in this second installment, we got to see more magic and more magical beings come to life. Her take on the fae is a more cruel one, but with more time, they also now seem more nuanced in many situations than book one would have you believe. It was wonderful to spend more time seeing her interpretation of magic and magical creatures unfold and the implications that it had for humans and fae alike. 

It was satisfying to see Jude grow into a force to be reckoned with in this book, and the political machinations that she and all the other characters were engaged in always kept everything interesting. Sometimes I felt like I saw where things were headed, but Black is good at building up your hopes for your favourite characters enough that even if you think you’ve nailed the ending, you’re hoping that you’ll be wrong. I felt a much higher level of investment in all of the characters throughout this book than I did with the first and I felt like they were given a real opportunity to shine alongside the engaging plot. 

Also, for a YA book, the romance in this series is particularly alluring. I love how Jude and Cardan are constantly balancing an intense attraction with their hatred of each other. Their love feels more punishment than fulfillment and it continually feels as though giving in will be either the best or worst of their decisions with no in-between. The end though?? Brutal. It gutted me, even though I knew there was a more than equal chance that it was exactly what was going to happen. Black does a great job of investing you enough to wish that you could be wrong. 

I’ve been listening to these on audio and they’re exceptionally good in this format. The narrator is talented, and the pacing of the story lends perfectly to this medium. I didn’t have any real expectations going into this series, but I’ve already been pleasantly blown away. I can’t wait to finish out this original trilogy with the third and final book.