Well, this is a turn up for my blog: my first ever review of a final book in a trilogy! My 6th read of 2020 saw closure with a fictional world that was new to me and that I fell really hard for: Holly Black’s The Folk of The Air.

As with my review for The Wicked King, I’m going to put out a spoiler warning: read on at your own risk, referencing the end of the former book and some events in this one! If you’ve stayed, it’s lovely to see you here – let’s onward with my thoughts on the end of this epic saga: The Queen of Nothing…

No discussion about the concluding part of the series can begin without a reference to that cliffhanger in the previous book, wherein Cardan says:

“I exile Jude Duarte to the mortal world. Until and unless she is pardoned by the crown, let her not step one foot in Faerie or else forfeit her life.”

Now, before I go into how this statement was the catalyst for all the things I loved most about this book, let’s not forget: Jude was made Queen at the end of the previous book. I also found her reaction, calm as it is and the way she interprets Cardan’s expression rather telling. Now, I don’t know if this was how Holly Black intended it to be interpreted, but the way I read Cardan’s meaning was a challenge to Jude; they have spent the past two books trying to outwit and make sense of how they feel about one another, and there’s so much delicious tension between them. This, to my mind was Cardan’s way of regaining power over Jude and getting his own back on her for all the times she has made him feel like he’s out of control, or had the upperhand.

Jude, though, is too angry to see it that way, and stews over getting revenge on Cardan whilst she wastes her life away back in the mortal world. Her means of return to Faerie is also striking as it comes from Taryn. Taryn, who has refused to speak to and betrayed her sister time and again, comes asking for help, and Jude gives it. Jude returns to court disguised as her twin, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes… except Cardan. Cardan recognises Jude instantly, and there we have the crux of why I loved the romance between these characters so much and how it has helped their arcs: they’re flawed, but they’re equals. They challenge each other, hold each other to account, are able to banter playfully, and something about that satisfied me tremendously as a reader and makes his declaration all the more potent.

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”

Though interesingly here, I don’t think Cardan becomes as well rounded as Jude was, but there was a sense of teasing and fun about that that I did really enjoy; I’ve always had a soft spot for characters who remain a little enigmatic!

I may not have liked the means we take to get to the romantic payoff – there’s a curse and it just felt… predictable, but the essence of why I loved these books so remains: the romance is not what this story is about for me: it’s about Jude’s accepting her place and fighting for it, amid a backdrop of war as Madoc has allied with the Undersea and both the Seelie and Unseelie courts in a bid to seize the throne for himself. None of these characters make good choices for purely unselfish reasons, but that for me is part of it’s charm, in this book especially and in that it becomes an exploration about power and what it can do, the means we go to hold onto it, the extent it corrupts, and so on. For the most part, I really enjoyed  the build up to the battle and wish more time had been spent on it, I found the resolution as a whole rushed and a little disappointing because of that.

Given all these new threats that Jude is facing, it’s great to see some new characters and dynamics come into play. There’s Grima Mog, a bloodthirsty redcap who Jude encounters in a particular favourite scene of mine, and even Jude and Nicasia’s relationship takes a better turn. Jude and Taryn are able to sort through some of their issues, and Vivi and Heather learn the importance of honesty and compromise. To have an author willing to show and acknowledge the ramifications and difficulties within these bonds and yet still champion the relationships, particularly between the women in this world was something I will treasure, as yet again it proved to me that my time investing in this series has been satisfying and incredibly worthwhile.

Compared to the previous two outings in the series,  I felt this one hurtles along at breakneck speed. For my taste, probably a little too much so, I missed the tension that excited me so much, because the focus has shifted into the matter of succession plot. That being said, it’s still dark, edgy and exciting.

To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I can toast to that. 

Though I think The Queen of Nothing is probably my least favourite in the trilogy if it comes down to the question, I’d like to toast to a journey that has been deliciously dark and captivated me from beginning to end.