The more I think about it, the worse this gets

The more I think about this story, the less I like it. At first read, The Cruel Prince is a pretty standard supernatural fantasy for teens. It’s got the Fey girl raised human and two human girls raised Fey, and all 3 are sisters. Taryn and Jude are the human twins, and VIvi is their slightly older Fey half-sister. Vivi of course prefers living as a human much to her Fey father’s annoyance, while Taryn wants to fit in with the Fey, and Jude isn’t quite sure what she wants. Most of the story is from Jude’s perspective, and she’s the one who wants to prove herself by joining the knights of one of the royals, while Taryn just wants to get married and find some kind of quiet place in Faerie society. Naturally most of the Fey don’t agree with their plans, and try in curious ways to torment the human girls. Especially troublesome are Prince Cardan and his friends Valerian, Nicasia, and Locke. When the king wants to retire/die, a fight over who will succeed him starts up with Jude in the middle of it. She naturally has to face her enemies, and survive while protecting the ones she cares about. This of course involves much treachery and deceit.

This much doesn’t bother me, but when the narration goes into first person I start getting a little annoyed; I don’t really like first person narrators, and I really don’t like present tense narrative. Combine the two, and I don’t like you on principle. I also don’t mind the violence and secret ugliness that Jude uncovers because that’s a traditional part of Fey folklore. Problems happen for me when Jude uses sexual desire against Cardan, which is a terrible message to send to young adult women (especially when it works), and when she and Taryn have a major fallout nominally over a boy, another terrible message when the heroine is supposed to be trying to find her power in a world where she’s not supposed to have it. It does appear to be Taryn’s fault but the total unwillingness of either sister to so much as try and understand the other twin’s perspective is also troubling. As a dark fairytale plot point, I get it, but now there’s really no one to like and root for except Vivi, and she’s mostly a minor side-character. Concerning Vivi, she’s got some promise as a character but she has so little to do in this book.

In addition to Vivi, I did like the plot twist near the end that reveals more about Jude’s supposedly unlikeable step-mother Oriana and little half-brother Oak. Jude’s spy-ring cohorts are also an entertaining bunch of rogues. But even all of this is not enough to erase the unease about some of the character relationships being set up, and the narrative style.