Name: The Queen of Nothing (
The Folk of the Air #3)
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Date published: 19th November 2019
Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance
Pages: 320
Rating: 5/5
Note: This review contains very mild spoilers, for this book and the series as a whole.
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, watches her fair share of reality television, and does the
odd job or two, including trying to convince a cannibalistic faerie
from hunting her own in the mortal world.
When her twin sister
Taryn shows up asking of 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 uncover how to break the curse, or
risk upsetting the balance of the whole Faerie world.
I completely adored
The Queen of Nothing. Every moment I was absolutely enthralled and I thought it was a wonderful way to conclude the series. I thought it wrapped up all the story lines well in a satisfying way while also leaving a few things open-ended so you could imagine what might happen in the future for the characters. The plot was exciting and thrilling while leaving enough room for character development, and involved a really great twist that I do not think anyone saw coming. The plot kept me turning the pages because I really cared about the characters, especially Cardan and Jude, and I desperately needed to know what happened to them.
On the topic of Cardan and Jude, the development of their relationship and how their dynamic evolved was incredible. They have definitely become some of my favourite characters in fiction and their relationship and the way it changes over the series is one of my favourites now too. I am really happy with the way their story ended and I was really happy reading all of their interactions throughout the book.
I also continued to enjoy the setting in this book, and how the magic worked and the use of legends and folk tales in the world building. There were so many little details that added to the story and really put me into the world and story and made it feel more real.
The writing was quite quick to read, but also used language in a very interesting and sometimes quite beautiful way. I especially enjoyed the writing during interactions between Jude and Cardan as they are both often very careful with what they say and yet have surprising moments of truthfulness between them.
I really liked how Jude was allowed to be angry at the people who had treated her badly, especially Taryn, and how she was able to express her feelings in general. It was really satisfying to see that she did not just let things go and made sure that other characters had earned it before she forgave them. In other books I often find things are not wrapped up well enough when the main character has been hurt, and they are not given the time to address how they feel, but I was glad this was not the case in this story.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and thought it was brilliant, and had a really great time reading the trilogy as a whole. There was a lot of intense action, fascinating settings and addictive romance, and I truly loved the main character, Jude. I think I will reread this series over and over and always find enjoyment in it.
