Book Review: Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

Rating: 8/10 to start but now is 6/10 because I talked myself into it

Hello all! How are we doing? Holding up okay? I’ve found that reading helps me get out of my head, and this screwed up world, more than anything else, as it pretty much always has. With that in mind (also for buddy read purposes) I jumped into Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. Historically speaking, this series has been very good at pulling me in and keeping me engaged. QoN proved no different, I flew through the book. Yet it was much too short, I have gone back and forth on the rating and finally decided to keep it high purely because I highly enjoyed myself, and also for potential. This book was originally scheduled for release for mid-January of 2020 but has been moved up to early November of 2019, and I think it shows. I’d rather a book be pushed back if it means the author has more time to do the best job that they can, instead of being pushed up and resulting in disappointment. This book needed at least a hundred more pages, it was the final book in the series and the characters deserved to have their stories told fully and not just wrapped up as quickly as possible. I still enjoyed myself immensely and would recomend this series to anyone who asks for recs, but I think it could have been so much better. 

We’re going to Spoiler Land now because, as per usual, I need to rant. Stay out if you haven’t read this book yet. We have snakes in Spoiler Land and they don’t like people. 

Okay first of all, what is this bull***it about Taryn killing Locke off-page? All her previous behavior has made me not trust her and I still don’t even after this book. No one changes that much, and if Holly Black expects me to believe the change she should have shown me that character journey. You know what, give me a spin-off series if you want me to buy this change. Frankly, that would be a great book, there’s so much potential for growth there, but we got none of it and instead, we got some flimsy story about how she “just couldn’t take it anymore”. The worst part is that no one has any issues believing it. They all just accept it. That’s lazy storytelling. It takes Jude all of a page to change her mind about Taryn. Vivi also trusts her, but that at least reads like something she would do. Vivi is a trusting soul, despite her upbringing, so that at least made sense. But Jude just trusting her? I can’t see it unless she got a personality transplant. Jude doesn’t trust anyone! That’s her biggest flaw and her greatest strength, yet here she is just trusting Taryn like it’s nothing. Back to the Locke thing, it felt like Holly Black just needed him out of the way so he was killed off, and it just doesn’t play for me. I could see him getting himself executed by doing something against the crown, I could see him getting killed in a duel, but I don’t see Taryn killing him. I also don’t see her siding with her exiled sister for anything. That girl wants approval and security in the worst way and it makes her pick those she thinks can give her those things, and that is definitely not Jude. I just didn’t buy this part of the story at all. I did buy Taryn putting Jude in danger to get out of murder charges, but not the part where it wasn’t a trap. I keep getting pulled out of the story because all this trust in Taryn didn’t feel justified. 

Okay onto the next thing, I really enjoyed the brief glimpse of Jude in the human world. She very obviously did not fit in and didn’t know what to do with herself. She loved Faerie too much, and couldn’t love the human world as much. She would always choose Faerie because it was her home. But we didn’t get nearly enough time to explore how the exile changed her, or just what it did to her state of mind in general. There were so many things that were promising and could have really paid off later on, like Jude’s confrontation with Grima Mog and the relationship that develops because of that. But we don’t get to see that. We just are expected to believe that the two respect and trust each other. You know the more I write the angrier I’m getting about how short this book was. Jude takes Taryn up on her impersonation offer because she’s so desperate to get back. She misses her home and will take any risk to get back. I still don’t think she would have trusted Taryn if it wasn’t for plot convenience. I was not surprised in the slightest when Carden recognized Jude. The last time he didn’t recognize her he was dying of poison so I feel like he had an excuse. This time he was in his right mind. Jude just doesn’t believe that he could recognize her, because she likes to believe the worst about people. Except for Taryn. I’m sorry I’m just so mad about that whole plotline. What we did get of Carden and Jude was so good, but there wasn’t enough of it. I love that Carden came to rescue Jude, that was a lovely role reversal. Yet again things between those two have been resolved too quickly. I knew Carden didn’t want to exile Jude, but I know why he did. This easy resolution didn’t really feel right. I’m glad it wasn’t an issue for them anymore, but I wish there were more consequences. 

The satisfaction when Carden announces Jude is High Queen was immense, that was one of the few earned moments in this book, but it was earned through the work that was done in the previous two books. I love how Jude had to deal with strong disapproval because she’s human, yet we didn’t get to see her struggle for it. She has proved she’s a competent adviser and spy, but the role of the queen is so different. I wanted to see how’d she would deal with that. Jude is not exactly queenly, and watching her learn would have been so much fun. I loved the fact that Carden calmly threatened everyone with Jude if they decided to betray them. I loved, even more, the fact they were actually scared. This was a brilliant moment in a beautiful relationship. I want to be the thing the love of my life uses to threaten our enemies. I was also very proud of Carden for laying the cards on the table and admitting to his feelings. He’s much braver than Jude who can’t bring herself to trust. She can’t trust a man who can’t lie, but she’ll trust her backstabbing sister (no, I will not get over that). Their sex scene… oh my. It was not super graphic but it was hot. I wished they got to spend more time together on the page because when they are together on the page the story truly shines. Just when Jude decides to trust Carden he gets turned into a giant serpent by a cursed crown. Poor Carden just can’t catch a break. He did the right thing by destroying that crown, but he still got punished for it. It’s the story of his whole life. 

I was happy when Jude had her breakdown after Carden got turned into a serpent. It forced her to deal with her feelings, which she tends not to do. Sadly I actually figured out how things would turn out as soon as he turned into that serpent and the prophecy started flying around again. So no tension or states for me. Which is sad. IT could have been so cool if Holly did something different with it. I was getting very annoyed with Jude, which almost never happens, as she was contemplating putting that muzzle on him. If she did that everything would have not gone well. At one point I actually screamed that freaking prophecies are usually literal. It told you exactly what to do and you refused to see it. The freakiest part was all the faeries eating the dead body of the Serpent Carden. 

I liked the conflict in the Heather/Vivi relationship. That was actually well done, even though it wasn’t well done in the other books. I liked the Court of Shadows too, but I wish there were more of them. Everything just felt so rushed. Nothing felt fully fleshed out. The bones of the story were there, but the meat was not filled in. I don’t know if it’s because the publication date was pushed up, or if this was the plan for the beginning. It felt a little bit like Holly Black got bored, I’m just not sure. I wanted more, but I got what I got. I still enjoyed myself immensely when reading this book, I still rooted for Jude and Carden. I just… I don’t know.  I wouldn’t be upset if we got some spin-offs. I keep saying this but I’d rather have more than less, and this book sadly gave me less.

I will stop this rant now, I still recommend these books very highly because when reading them I didn’t think about the flaws and got pulled in completely. The characters are fantastic, and the world is fascinating. I just wish we were given more. 

Thank you for joining me in this session of Getting Angry with Anna, see you next time!