Hello! As you probably noticed, I was absent from the blog starting mid-March to late May, but during that time I was still reading a bit during my spare time. Of course, I didn't read as much as I would've liked because if you saw my last post, you'd see that I was juggling my own reading with school reading. I only read two books, but these have been sitting on my TBR shelf for the longest time, so I was super excited to finally get my hands on them; especially because I've seen so much buzz about them. If there's one thing that always happens to me, is that I always show up late to the reading party of popular books that everyone talks about.
These two books were The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu. Now, unto the reviews! I would like to specify these are all spoiler free, so even if you haven't read these, you can safely read what I wrote.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
When it comes to reading really popular, talked-about books is hard for me to not get high expectations for it, especially because I had heard The Cruel Prince featured fairies and all sorts of magical creatures and for the past five years, I had been looking for more YA books about fairies.
Needless to say, Holly Black truly delivered. The Cruel Prince is full of intrigue, fantasy, rivalries between family members and overall just an amazing plot. This book rocked my world. I thought it was going to go a certain way, but then it would swerve and surprise me in the most astonishing way. By the end, I literally could not believe what had just happened. My hat's off to Holly Black for writing this.
The Cruel Prince deals with Jude Duarte, a mortal teen girl whose parents were murdered and she's taken to the faerie world, where she resides within the High Court. But she hates the faerie. Especially Prince Cardan, because he's the worst of all the sons of the High King. Jude, being a mortal and all, wants to belong in their world. Of course, she eventually finds her way at trying to belong, which eventually delves into the world of political intrigue.
One of the reasons why I wanted to read this, besides the obvious reason of the appealing plot, is because everyone everywhere was talking about Jude and Cardan, and from what I could see, they seemed to have an incredible dynamic. I don't want to give away much, but they do...by the end.
At first, I could not believe the entire internet community was dying over Cardan, I mean, he was awful to everyone except his friends, but I kept reading, with some hope I'd be wrong and that he wouldn't be so awful. I was wrong, thankfully. Cardan really grew on me, because he wasn't everything he seemed to be, and he was much more than that, which is why he gets his own little blurb. Jude, on the other side, I always thought she was great, and I can understand her need of wanting to belong, but at the same time, not conforming 100%. She's very complex, and I really liked her during the book.
I'm overall really happy I read this, more so because my thirst for a good faerie book was finally quenched. This being said, I still have to yet read The Wicked King so no spoilers please!
Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
I myself I'm part of a generation that grew up during the era when it felt like there was a new Batman cartoon every two months, and on top of that we had the Justice League animated series plus the Teen Titans, so I personally grew up during a time when DC Comics was just booming, and I think that really rubbed off on me because I still tend to lean towards DC Comics stuff, (sorry Marvel) so of course I'd go and buy all the DC Icons series.
Well, only up to Catwoman because the Superman one hadn't come out yet.
This was also my first time reading a Marie Lu book, which is kind of a big deal because she is kind of a big deal. Batman: Nightwalker was a fun book, mostly because I liked how she wrote Bruce Wayne. (even though I have a very poor knowledge of his personality...)
The book is about a young Bruce Wayne, who after interfering with law enforcement gets sentenced to community service at everyone's favorite location in Gotham City: Arkham Asylum. There, he meets Arkham's most watched prisoner, Madeleine Wallace, a young girl tied to most of the crimes committed by the mysterious Nightwalkers.
While I did enjoy the book, I can't say it was one of my favorites. I do think it was better than its DC Icons predecessor, Wonderwoman: Warbringer, I couldn't get into it as much as I do with other books. I can't really pinpoint why, because I enjoyed the story, the characters were great, and I didn't even mind the writing. The only complaint I had was too much talking about certain tech details made me lose interest in some parts but other than that it was good.
Now, I can't finish this review without talking about Madeleine Wallace. She was my absolute favorite part of this book. She was the most clever person in this book,and when I say this, I mean it; it literally took Bruce like two thirds of the book before he could like decode what she meant. She was just such a delight, and I was rooting for her even if she was probably going to be an antagonist. Her ending was very much in character but it was also fairly unexpected, if that makes any sense.
And on a random sidenote; I bought my book from Barnes and Noble, and I guess they always have the special editions because my book included this neat poster of Bruce:
That's all for today, folks! Please be sure to let me know what you thought about this post and/or the books themselves if you've read them.