Queen of Nothing

The Folk of the Air, Book #3, by Holly Black

This was a big 2019 release for many people [it was overshadowed for me by the release of DarkDawn, but I hadn’t gotten into The Folk of the Air series until not long before the release of The Queen of Nothing], so I had high expectations for it.

I’m not going to say it disappointed me, because that’s not entirely true.

What I will say is that this book is not what I expected. I read The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King not long before the release of The Queen of Nothing.

If you’re expecting The Queen of Nothing to read like, The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King, you’ll be in for a surprise. The Queen of Nothing had very little of the political intrigue and power manipulation we saw in the first two books of this series. That was a big pull for me in this series, and I was a little upset it wasn’t as present here. Here, the focus was more on Cardan’s and Jude’s dynamic/relationship.

My recommendation: if you’re looking for another The Cruel Prince or The Wicked King, you may be disappointed, but if you’re looking forward to a satisfying ending to the series and are open to The Queen of Nothing not being exactly what you expect, it’s a good read.

This book doesn’t exactly open up with a call-to-action of sorts for Jude, but it does have one shortly into the book, forcing her hand in confronting her exile fairly early on. That being said – there’s very little of anything political after that gets resolved – but more about that post spoiler warning.

**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS. READ AHEAD AT YOUR OWN RISK. PLOT DETAILS COMING UP.**

Alright, so, really: there’s the questioning on Locke’s death and then a little bit of Jude dealing with Cardan being a snake and her rule being threatened. Almost nothing comes of it, and she tries very little, politically, to solve the situation. She mostly deals with her feelings for Cardan, for what she has to do to get him back from his snake-situation, and that’s about it.

So, in that regard, I’m a little disappointed.

But, the book itself isn’t a disappointment because you do feel a certain amount of closure for all the characters. You get a satisfying ending for Cardan and Jude, you get a potential future for Taryn, a potentially happy future for Vivi, you get a bit of satisfaction with Locke’s death, and Taryn’s pregnancy definitely leaves you feeling like these characters will go on after you close the book, which is something not a lot of books do – or they attempt to, but end up leaving you with an unsatisfactory ending, making you wonder if there will be any more written to tie-up perceived lose ends.

So, long-story short, this is a satisfactory and good ending to The Folk of the Air series, but The Queen of Nothing doesn’t hit the same as The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King. At least, not in my opinion.

The Starless Sea is next!