4 Ways ‘The Queen of Nothing’ Is Better Than ‘The Wicked King’ (& 4 Ways It’s Not)

Unless you’ve been hiding under a very, very, VERY big rock, then you’ve probably heard at least a few soft whisperings about the recent release of Holly Black’s The Queen of Nothing. The final installment of the The Folk of the Air series, this book has unarguably taken the YA genre by a Posiden-in-a-bad-mood-sized storm. 

RELATED POST: I talk about the five best books I devoured in 2018

For those of us who have chosen to keep up with the series, this book was one we were waiting for with knife-stabbingly painful breaths because its predecessor, The Wicked King, did something unimaginable. It left us hanging from the most horribly awful, awfully horrible cliff (HOW COULD YOU, MISS BLACK??!!). The ending had our minds reeling, our hearts pounding, and our bodies about to evanesce from the sheer effort of waiting to know what happened next. But now that The Queen of Nothing has been out for a couple of months, it’s time to evaluate whether or not it lives up to Book Two.

So burrow deep down into your heated blankets (it’s cold here in Japan, okay?) and splash some syrup on your waffles (what, doesn’t everybody eat waffles in their bed?), because today I’m going to be looking at four reasons why I think The Queen of Nothing is the obviously superior book, as well as four reasons why The Wicked King could never be dethroned.

RELATED POST: I talk about ‘The Wicked King’ in my February 2019 Wrap-Up

8. Better: Jude and Cardan

It’s no secret that Cardan’s not a kindly saint flying around with feathery white wings and a glowing halo. For waffle’s sake, it says that he’s bad right there in the book titles – The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King! And if Cardan is cruel and wicked, then Jude is determined to be crueler and wickeder. But in The Queen of Nothing, both of these characters experience major growth and I’ve got to say, they’re actually likeable human beings now (or in Cardan’s case, likable faeries…if such a thing exists). 

7. Not Better: Jude and Cardan

While no well-written character should stay the same throughout a series (that would be what we call “boring”), it seems to me that both Jude and Cardan act strangely out of character in The Queen of Nothing. Where is that scheming, conniving Jude who stabbed a knife through her own darn hand just to prove her loyalty? Where is that dastardly prideful Cardan who parties all night and gets drunk under tables? Sure, the two of them were moral dumpster fires, but no one can deny that it was oddly entertaining to watch them burn. Now don’t get me wrong – it’s a good thing that Jude and Cardan reformed, but the resulting story burns less brightly.

6. Better: Taryn

I don’t have any sisters myself, but I’ve been told that they are both a blessing and a curse. In The Wicked King, Taryn was definitely more of the latter. Deceptive and outright backstabbing, Taryn made some despicable choices which had me wishing that very, very, VERY big rock I mentioned earlier would fall on her head. But in The Queen of Nothing, she actually starts acting like a good sister, and miracle of miracles, even ends up being a blessing to Jude after all. 

5. Not Better: The Length

Clocking in at a mere 300 pages, The Queen of Nothing sped by as quickly as Sonic the Hedgehog on steroids. As a result, the plot was missing that special, sparkly ✨SOMETHING-SOMETHING ✨that made The Wicked King unforgettably unputdownable.

4. Better: The Romance

In The Queen of Nothing, the long-anticipated romance between Jude and Cardan finally, finally, FINALLY spreads its wings and bears fruit (those two metaphors don’t make any sense together, do they? haha). This book has it all; there’s sweet kisses, angry kisses, and passionate kisses. There’s secret confessions and love confessions, and pretty much everything we could’ve hoped for. The ending to this iconic enemies-to-lovers tale is as satisfying as a cup of hot cider on a cold winter’s day. (Again, it’s cold here in Japan, okay?)

3. Not Better: The Romance

I will be the first to admit that Jude and Cardan’s relationship is not a healthy one, but the angst accompanying their will-they-won’t-they interactions is one of the many reasons that this series is so popular. The Wicked King embodies that aspect of their relationship excellently, with passionate scenes full of spiteful kisses and I hate you’s. But in The Queen of Nothing, that delicious, vicious tension is gone, and while that’s probably an improvement, its absence is noticeably felt. It’s like ordering waffles and ending up with pancakes; it’s not bad, but it’s not what you were expecting.

2. Better: The Ending

No more heart-attack-inducing cliffhangers here, folks. (Which is wonderful news, because I would really prefer that all my vital organs continue to function properly). All of our grumpy, lying, spying, strategizing babies get the cotton-candy-sweet ending that they deserve. It’s Instagram-perfect and that may or may not be because there’s pizza involved.

1. Not Better: The Middle

Compared to its predecessors, The Queen of Nothing is like a soldier all dressed up in golden battle armor, but with no war to fight. (This actually kind of happens, now that I think about it.) The court intrigue, the political scheming, and the revenge gambits so prevalent in the first two books are dialed down about a hundred and ten degrees in this one. And as a result, the action cooks much more slowly.

About The Queen of Nothing

[scroll-box]He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power..

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril..

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

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