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A review by samflowerv6
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?”
“You didn’t hear the story I told,” he goes on. “A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like.”
“And you think it was sunrise I was waiting for and not my queen. Do you not hear her footfalls? She has never quite managed the trick of hiding them as well as one of the Folk. Surely you've heard of her, Jude Duarte, who defeated the redcap Grima Mog, who brought the Court of Teeth to their knees? She's forever getting me out of scrapes. Truly, I don't know what I would do without her.”
“Villains were wonderful. They got to be cruel and selfish, to preen in front of mirrors and poison apples, and trap girls on mountains of glass. They indulged all their worst impulses, revenged themselves for the least offense, and took every last thing they wanted. And sure, they wound up in barrels studded with nails, or dancing in iron shoes heated by fire, not just dead, but disgraced and screaming. But before they got what was coming to them, they got to be the fairest in all the land.”
“He cuts his gaze toward his unpredictable, mortal High Queen, whose wild brown hair is blowing around her face, whose amber eyes are alight when she looks at him.
They are two people who ought to have, by all rights, remained enemies forever.
He can't believe his good fortune, can't trace the path that got him here.”
“Some might think of him as a strong draught, burning the back of one’s throat, but invigorating all the same. You might beg to differ. So long as you’re begging, he doesn’t mind a bit.”
“It’s absurd, sometimes, the thought that she loves him. He’s grateful, of course, but it feels as though it’s just another of the ridiculous, absurd, dangerous things she does. She wants to fight monsters, and she wants him for a lover, the same boy she fantasized about murdering. She likes nothing easy or safe or sure.”
“Of course, he has no human money. But the High King of Elfhame refuses to pay with glamoured leaves as though he were some common peasant. He hands over glamoured gold instead and walks out with his purchases, feeling smug”
“...sprites wearing acorn caps and wielding glaives the size of toothpicks battled above a sea of tiger lilies.”
THIS IS FIVE STARS TO ME. Cardan is one of my favorite characters of all time as well as Jude. God I ate this up and the art was so beautiful. I want more yet it was perfect. I will never forget this world and Holly Black owns my soul. Cardan is so funny god I love him so much. This whole book was absolute perfection. If you don't like the folk of the air series, stay away from me. JUDE AND CARDAN ARE MY OTP UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!!!! I will never get over them and this world and wouldn't even want to.
“You didn’t hear the story I told,” he goes on. “A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like.”
“And you think it was sunrise I was waiting for and not my queen. Do you not hear her footfalls? She has never quite managed the trick of hiding them as well as one of the Folk. Surely you've heard of her, Jude Duarte, who defeated the redcap Grima Mog, who brought the Court of Teeth to their knees? She's forever getting me out of scrapes. Truly, I don't know what I would do without her.”
“Villains were wonderful. They got to be cruel and selfish, to preen in front of mirrors and poison apples, and trap girls on mountains of glass. They indulged all their worst impulses, revenged themselves for the least offense, and took every last thing they wanted. And sure, they wound up in barrels studded with nails, or dancing in iron shoes heated by fire, not just dead, but disgraced and screaming. But before they got what was coming to them, they got to be the fairest in all the land.”
“He cuts his gaze toward his unpredictable, mortal High Queen, whose wild brown hair is blowing around her face, whose amber eyes are alight when she looks at him.
They are two people who ought to have, by all rights, remained enemies forever.
He can't believe his good fortune, can't trace the path that got him here.”
“Some might think of him as a strong draught, burning the back of one’s throat, but invigorating all the same. You might beg to differ. So long as you’re begging, he doesn’t mind a bit.”
“It’s absurd, sometimes, the thought that she loves him. He’s grateful, of course, but it feels as though it’s just another of the ridiculous, absurd, dangerous things she does. She wants to fight monsters, and she wants him for a lover, the same boy she fantasized about murdering. She likes nothing easy or safe or sure.”
“Of course, he has no human money. But the High King of Elfhame refuses to pay with glamoured leaves as though he were some common peasant. He hands over glamoured gold instead and walks out with his purchases, feeling smug”
“...sprites wearing acorn caps and wielding glaives the size of toothpicks battled above a sea of tiger lilies.”
THIS IS FIVE STARS TO ME. Cardan is one of my favorite characters of all time as well as Jude. God I ate this up and the art was so beautiful. I want more yet it was perfect. I will never forget this world and Holly Black owns my soul. Cardan is so funny god I love him so much. This whole book was absolute perfection. If you don't like the folk of the air series, stay away from me. JUDE AND CARDAN ARE MY OTP UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!!!! I will never get over them and this world and wouldn't even want to.