The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black | REVIEW

November 19, 2019

5/5 Stars

Enchanting, Unexpected and Dangerous: Queen of nothing has quickly become my favourite read of the year. It was everything i wanted and so much more; a wonderful ending to my favourite series.

The Queen of Nothing is the third book in The Folk of The Air series by Holly Black. The series follows Jude, who's parents were murdered in front of her by one of the Fae. After this she was taken to Faerieland and was raised there by her parents' murderer. This whole series is a heart-stopping meld of political intrigue, complicated family dynamics and wickedly delightful romance.

This final book was perfect in every way imaginable and even surpassed my impossibly high expectations.

So what did i love so much? (spoilers ahead).

The Character Development

Whew. Did Jude and Cardan get some amazing character development in this one. Some of my favourite character moments were:

when Jude decided to kill snake!cardan instead of forcing him to obey her. It was SUCH a huge growth from the second book when she wanted nothing other than to control him. It was such a vulnerable moment from her and i teared up a bit when reading it.
When cARDAN TOLD JUDE HER LOVED HER!!!!! This scene was incredible and heart-warming and so important for his character development. (my heart broke a bit for Jude when she thought she'd never be able to tell him she loved him too).
When Jude sent Madoc to exile instead of executing him. That moment was SO GOOD. i loved how she got to keep her family together even though they'd all done terrible things. And i loved how Jude learnt "to have a more flexible view of love and duty" than Madoc did.

The Plot

Absolutely everything that happened in this book was SO UNEXPECTED for me. As soon as thought the book was going in one direction it completely switched and went in another. This made for a very exciting reading experience, i was completely hooked from the first page to the last.

Also i got ALL the Jude/Cardan moments that i wanted which i loved.

The Ending

"To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I could toast to that"

I think one of my favourite parts about this book was the way it ended. I don't think I ever expected a happy ending for this series so when i got one i was SO HAPPY! There were many tears.

It just rounded the story off so perfectly and i think Holly did a really amazing job of creating a beautiful ending that rounded off the characters arcs whilst still leaving some things to the readers imagination.

Overall, i think this book did a fantastic job at rounding off this wonderful series. It had the perfect blend of breathtaking action, character development and unexpected moments. This series holds a very special place in my heart and i can quite safely say that it got the ending it deserved.