The Cruel Prince, originally published in 2018, is the first book in Holly Black’s young adult fantasy series The Folk of the Air. The novel follows the mortal, 17-year-old Jude Duarte as she becomes embroiled in the perilous political conspiracies of the immortal Faerie realm. As a coming-of-age story, The Cruel Prince explores themes of truth, power, and identity. The series, which also includes novels The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing, is a New York Times bestseller, and the American author has written 37 fantasy books as of 2021.

This guide cites the 2018 Hachette Book Group hardcover edition.

Plot Summary

Jude and her identical twin sister Taryn are seven, and their older sister Vivi is nine, when a mysterious man named Madoc shows up at the door of their house in the American suburbs. Their mother has a tense encounter with Madoc, who claims not only that he is a faerie from a magical land called Faerie, but also that he is Vivi’s father. The girls’ mother, who was once married to Madoc, ran away from Faerie with another man, the twins’ father. Now, as Madoc has come to find her in her suburban home, he kills her and her husband to avenge the dishonor they brought him years ago. He takes all three girls back to Faerie with him.

Jude grows up in Faerie and the story resumes when she is 17. Madoc takes a second wife, Oriana, with whom he has a son, Oak. Jude and Taryn attend lessons with their peers from the families of the faerie King’s court. In Faerie, Jude and Taryn are tormented by one of the King’s six children—the arrogant prince Cardan—and his group of friends. Jude has grown up with Madoc teaching her combat and military strategy, and she wants to be a knight in one of the courts. Jude feels that becoming a knight will give her the protection she has always lacked; she and Taryn were humans growing up in the magical land, and they are looked down upon for their mortality. Their schoolmates, led by Cardan, bully them repeatedly. One of Cardan’s friends Locke, however, begins paying special attention to Jude.

The King of Faerie announces that he is stepping down from the throne and will choose one of his children to succeed him. Jude wants to use an upcoming tournament to offer her candidacy for knighthood, but Madoc doesn’t think she’s ready. Jude settles for simply participating in the tournament, an act that earns her the ire of Cardan and his friends, who tried to dissuade her from entering. After the tournament, the King’s son and chosen heir, Dain, is impressed by Jude’s performance and asks her to become a spy for him. Although it’s not knighthood, Jude feels that it will still help her gain protection, and she agrees. Jude performs her first mission, which yields a secret letter describing poison, and she meets Dain’s other spies in an underground lair. She begins an intense juggling act of her various roles as student, spy, and Madoc’s trainee. Taryn confesses that a faerie, whom she refuses to name, will ask Madoc for her hand in marriage at the coronation of the new monarch. Hurt by Taryn’s secrecy and afraid that Taryn will marry one of the many faeries Jude despises, Jude distances herself from her twin. She and Locke become close and begin a secret romantic relationship.

Jude’s frustrations mount as the coronation grows near. She tries to free an enchanted mortal girl from Faerie, but the girl drowns herself. Cardan continues to torment and bully Jude. Jude learns that Locke’s mother, Liriope, had been a consort to the current King, and was poisoned along with her unborn child for a forbidden dalliance. Jude’s tensions culminate in her murdering two beings: Valerian (a faerie friend of Cardan’s who threatens her) as well as a creature she thinks is the spy of Dain’s brother Balekin. However, she soon discovers that the spy was actually Madoc’s, suggesting that Madoc and Balekin are working together.

At the coronation, Balekin murders his whole family, including Dain, but he spares Cardan in a bid for the throne; the crown must be placed on a new monarch’s head by a blood relative. To thwart this crowning, Jude captures Cardan, leaving him in the custody of Dain’s other spies. She then goes back to Madoc’s estate. With no blood relative to crown him, Balekin cannot yet claim the throne.

At the coronation, Jude discovered that Taryn’s intended is actually Locke, and she feels betrayed by both of them. She fights Taryn in a sword duel, but is stopped by Vivi and Madoc. The next day, Jude is in her stepmother’s room and discovers a mechanized golden acorn that gives her a message, ultimately revealing that Oak is actually the child of Dain and Liriope (who was killed for sleeping with Dain). Oak is thus a member of the royal line and the only person besides Balekin and Cardan who could legitimately claim the throne. In exchange for his freedom, Cardan swears an oath that puts him under Jude’s power for a year and a day. Jude and Cardan work together to gain allegiances among other rulers for Oak. Jude tells Cardan that she wants him to crown Oak and then serve as regent while Vivi takes Oak to grow up in the mortal world rather than being raised by Madoc.

At a banquet for Madoc and other allies, Balekin, who doesn’t know about Oak’s lineage, sees Cardan and tries to get him to perform the crowning. Instead of Cardan crowning Oak, however, under Jude’s direction Oak crowns Cardan; Jude hopes Cardan’s kingship will protect Oak.

The book ends with Oak living in the mortal world and Jude living in Cardan’s palace to take advantage of her short-lived power over him. She also wants to remain in Faerie despite her mortal status so that she can smooth the way for Oak’s ascension to the throne.