How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories
Holly Black, 2020
Fantasy Young adultRomanceContemporary fiction
The boy with the heart of stone gets his own book: Cardan, before and beside the crown, and the stories that made him.
A page from the book
The honest case for villainy, from someone raised on fairy tales.
Villains were wonderful. They got to be cruel and selfish, to preen in front of mirrors and poison apples, and trap girls on mountains of glass. They indulged all their worst impulses, revenged themselves for the least offense, and took every last thing they wanted. And sure, they wound up in barrels studded with nails, or dancing in iron shoes heated by fire, not just dead, but disgraced and screaming. But before they got what was coming to them, they got to be the fairest in all the land. Holly Black.Black co-wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles with Tony DiTerlizzi, five books about hidden faerie worlds, years before her own faerie court novels found their readers.
Books that feel like this
More by Holly Black
The Cruel Prince
Holly Black, 2018
A mortal girl raised among faeries decides she will not be a pawn, in a court where every kindness has a price and every promise can be twisted.
The Wicked King
Holly Black, 2019
A mortal spy keeps a wicked faerie king on a leash, and every courtier wants to cut it.
The Queen of Nothing
Holly Black, 2019
A mortal girl raised among faeries has learned to fight for every inch of power; the hardest battle is letting someone close.
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Questions readers ask
- What is How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories like?
- Feels like longing and dread.
- What should I read after How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories?
- If you liked How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, try The Knight and the Moth (Rachel Gillig), Haunting Adeline (H.D. Carlton) and Brimstone (Callie Hart).
A taste of the feed
The perils of teaching a gargoyle a human figure of speech.
I confess horses are not the intelligent beasts I imagined them to be. Though I don’t think that merits the abuse they suffer postmortem.” That one took me a moment. “No one actually beats dead horses, gargoyle. It’s an expression.” “Really? How morbid.
The Knight and the Moth · Rachel Gillig
The strange comfort of never being able to escape someone.
What you’re seeing now is what I see every day. No matter how far I run, how hard I try to escape you—you’re everywhere I go. You’re everything I see. Loving you is like being trapped in a house of mirrors, little mouse. And I’ve never felt so at home while being so lost inside you.
Haunting Adeline · H.D. Carlton
What a man says when the only thing he owns is his life.
Every part. I love all of you.” He blew a dark curl out of his eyes. “I’d spend the fortunes of the universe to protect you. I’d drain the seas dry. Fell every tree. I would sacrifice the sun from the fucking sky and surrender the stars, too, if I could. But those things aren’t mine to give. All I have is my life. It isn’t much, but I’d spend it and consider the price small if it meant keeping you safe.
Brimstone · Callie Hart
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