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cait's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
“A person can be educated and still be stupid, and a wise man can have no education at all.”
I think I'm losing my touch, man, because I did not see almost any of this coming. The only thing I was able to predict was the truth about the prince.
This is one of my sister's favorite series of all time. I have long been lectured about how good it is, how much she loves the characters, the way the angst and torture scenes make her feel alive (because, I guess she's a sadist or something). So, when my good friend offered me a copy for free, I accepted and then I didn't pick it up until eight months later.
The False Prince follows a group of orphan boys who are purchased from their orphanages to be taken to a mansion and trained to impersonate the missing prince in order to take over control of the kingdom. Failure means death. Success likely also means death. But the boys don't have any choice but to obey. They must learn to read like the prince, write like the prince, ride like the prince, fight like the prince, speak like the prince, walk like the prince, etc. And they only have a few weeks to do it, because there's a secret that no one yet knows: The entirety of the royal family is dead and the whole kingdom will fall if a new monarch is not placed before the truth is revealed.
I enjoyed this more abstractly than actively. I thought it was cleverly done and brilliantly executed, but there was also an element of distance that the author maintained between the reader and the characters that made it impossible for me to ever fully connect with any of them. It served a very important purpose, of course, but you don't realize that for a very long time, which makes it hard to understand why she won't let you close to them.
A pro or con of this author's writing style, depending on how you look at it, is the directness of her storytelling. Nielsen doesn't use flowery prose or create meandering paragraphs, she simply writes the story, which is a huge appeal to a lot of readers. It is not my preference, but I still see the appeal.
All in all, a very interesting story populated by intriguing characters and incredible twists, but I probably should have read it years ago when my sister told me to.
I think I'm losing my touch, man, because I did not see almost any of this coming. The only thing I was able to predict was the truth about the prince.
This is one of my sister's favorite series of all time. I have long been lectured about how good it is, how much she loves the characters, the way the angst and torture scenes make her feel alive (because, I guess she's a sadist or something). So, when my good friend offered me a copy for free, I accepted and then I didn't pick it up until eight months later.
The False Prince follows a group of orphan boys who are purchased from their orphanages to be taken to a mansion and trained to impersonate the missing prince in order to take over control of the kingdom. Failure means death. Success likely also means death. But the boys don't have any choice but to obey. They must learn to read like the prince, write like the prince, ride like the prince, fight like the prince, speak like the prince, walk like the prince, etc. And they only have a few weeks to do it, because there's a secret that no one yet knows: The entirety of the royal family is dead and the whole kingdom will fall if a new monarch is not placed before the truth is revealed.
I enjoyed this more abstractly than actively. I thought it was cleverly done and brilliantly executed, but there was also an element of distance that the author maintained between the reader and the characters that made it impossible for me to ever fully connect with any of them. It served a very important purpose, of course, but you don't realize that for a very long time, which makes it hard to understand why she won't let you close to them.
A pro or con of this author's writing style, depending on how you look at it, is the directness of her storytelling. Nielsen doesn't use flowery prose or create meandering paragraphs, she simply writes the story, which is a huge appeal to a lot of readers. It is not my preference, but I still see the appeal.
All in all, a very interesting story populated by intriguing characters and incredible twists, but I probably should have read it years ago when my sister told me to.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Child abuse, and Death of parent
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