Many books have been a hit recently forSt. Louis High School students. One book that has intrigued them and many other high school students are The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. This book was released January 18, 2018, and although it was released three years ago, it recently started to gain more popularity.

“I definitely liked that book! It was very good. I have already ordered the next two,” said junior Sarah Corson. “The author had a very cool way of building up the plot and that world in Faerie! I really enjoyed it.” 

The book is the first book of The Folk of the Air series, the next four beings: The Lost Sisters (Novella), The Wicked King, Queen of Nothing, and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (Novella). Although two of the books are Novella, which means a short novel or a short story that can be added into a series of books, many readers on the book reviews suggest reading them all in those orders. All of the books were written in the time-lapse of 2018-2019, excluding How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, which was published in November of 2020.

Black’s official website has many reviews on the book by well-known authors and publishers. New York Times gave a review on the book and author and stated, “Black is a master at world-building, conveying integral details without that information ever seeming tedious or encyclopedic, whether you’re well versed in faerie or a newcomer to the genre….the experience of reading a novel like this is something like being surrounded by magic.” One example of a well-known author is Leigh Bardugo, the author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom which is a, “Lush, dangerous, a dark jewel of a book. Black’s world is intoxicating, imbued with a relentless sense of peril that kept me riveted through every chapter of Jude’s journey. And Jude! She is a heroine to love–brave but pragmatic, utterly human. This delicious story will seduce you and leave you desperate for just one more page.”

Additionally, many social media sites, especially Tiktok, are talking about more and more books. The Cruel Prince has over 200M videos under its hashtag on TikTok, and over 100K on Instagram.