Welcome to Faerie Land: A Guide to Holly Black’s Extended Faerie Universe

With Wicked King making the NYT Best Sellers list and more people reading The Cruel Prince/The Folk of the Air Series, I decided to make a quick guide to the other books in Holly Black’s Faerie universe.

One of the things I love about Holly Black’s books is how they interrelate. They give you background information about the world and side characters in TCP. But it’s not necessary to read these books to understand TCP. Also, since Jude has been in Faerie for almost her entire life she sometimes brushes over certain faerie rules that new readers might not know (eg. the effects of cold iron and faerie true names). Holly Black’s earlier books lay out these rules much more effectively.

So if you’re a new reader of Holly Black’s books, welcome! I’ll try to stay away from spoilers, and I’ll add links to Goodreads for more in depth summaries. If you’re a veteran, here’s a quick review of the other books in the Faerie Universe and a little bit about how they relate to TCP.

Keep reading

faerytalesfromtheabyss

With The Stolen Heir out in the world, I thought it would be helpful to bring this post back

#the cruel prince #The Wicked King #tcp #twk #Modern Faerie Tale #modern faery tale series #tithe #valiant #ironside #spiderwick chronicles #holly black #the stolen heir #the queen of nothing #folk of the air #the folk of the air #tqon

faerytalesfromtheabyss

Anonymous asked:

I have looked and looked and looked and I can't find the grace kids anywhere in valiant. Could you pretty please tell me where their appearance is if it's not too much trouble?

Hi! No trouble at all! The Grace children make a subtle cameo in Ch 9 (pg 429 in the B&N rebound edition). When Val is in Central Park, she mentions seeing identical twins and their older sister: "A family was finishing their picnic on the rocks as Val shuffled into Central Park, the mother packing up leftover sandwiches, a lanky daughter pushing one of her brothers. The two boys were twins, Val noticed. She always found twins sort of creepy as though only one of them could be the real one. The father glanced at Val, but his eyes rested on a cyclist's long, bare legs." On its own, you might not guess that these are the Grace Children, but we know that HB likes to have cameos in her books. On top of that, the Grace children were originally from New York and we know that their dad was cheating on their mom. So most likely this is them!

#valiant #tfota #the folk of the air #spiderwick chronicles #tcp #the cruel prince #the modern faerie tales

faerytalesfromtheabyss

Anonymous asked:

How did you get into Holly Black books?

I love this question! There’s a bit of a history here so bare with me. I got into the Spiderwick Chronicles around 2007-2008 because my younger siblings were reading them. I was in middle school (a little old) but I still really enjoyed the books and I adored the Field Guide.

It goes without saying, I was hooked on faerie books so I looked into what else HB had written and I found The Modern Faerie Tale Series. Now, I went to catholic school at the time and my parents are conservative. So I was low-key scandalized by Tithe but... I was also the best book I had ever read. The atmosphere was so gritty. And these characters were not your typical heroes. Roiben was a good person forced into doing evil things. Kaye broke the rules, stole things, smoked, but still saved the day. And Corny was snarky, funny, and gay. I had never read about an LGBT+ character before.

I devoured the whole series. The trick was I could never ever ever ever ever tell anyone I had read these books. I was a good little catholic girl and a dutiful daughter, after all.

Tithe isn’t by any means perfect, but to this day it is one of my favorite books because it introduced me to a lot of concepts that I didn’t have words for at the time. Morally gray characters for one. But also the idea that there were different ways of living. It’s kind of a strange thing to explain but here it is: Faerie is obviously a terrifying place but it is also magical and (more importantly for me) freeing. I always known what terror feels like and I always new how to play certain roles to navigate home and school. But that isn’t freedom. I always had to hide parts of who I am. In Faerie, the folk do what they want and they don’t give a damn about the consequences. And more importantly in Faerie, you can love who you want. It’s subtle, but it seems like at least most of the folk are bi/pan. I didn’t figure out I was bi until much later but I found this idea very comforting.

Fast forward to 2017, by this point I’ve graduated college, I have my first full-time job, and I’ve been out as bi for a few years. I notice that a new Holly Black book is coming out. And I was getting back into reading YA after years of reading prestigious/overrated lit. I remembered how much I enjoyed HB’s books growing up. So I immediately placed a hold at the library.

As you can probably guess, I loved TCP. And it caused me to reread TMFT and Spiderwick, as well as pick up Darkest Part of the Forest, Coldest Girl in Coldtown, and Curseworkers for the first time.

So that’s a very long answer about how I first got into HB’s books and how I got back into them.

#the modern faerie tales #tmft #tcp #the cruel prince #holly black #the wicked king #twk #tithe #valiant #ironside #modern faerie tale #modern faery tale series

faerytalesfromtheabyss reblogged

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Welcome to Faerie Land: A Guide to Holly Black’s Extended Faerie Universe

With Wicked King making the NYT Best Sellers list and more people reading The Cruel Prince/The Folk of the Air Series, I decided to make a quick guide to the other books in Holly Black’s Faerie universe.

One of the things I love about Holly Black’s books is how they interrelate. They give you background information about the world and side characters in TCP. But it’s not necessary to read these books to understand TCP. Also, since Jude has been in Faerie for almost her entire life she sometimes brushes over certain faerie rules that new readers might not know (eg. the effects of cold iron and faerie true names). Holly Black’s earlier books lay out these rules much more effectively.

So if you’re a new reader of Holly Black’s books, welcome! I’ll try to stay away from spoilers, and I’ll add links to Goodreads for more in depth summaries. If you’re a veteran, here’s a quick review of the other books in the Faerie Universe and a little bit about how they relate to TCP.

Keep reading

faerytalesfromtheabyss

Here’s some books to help you with your TQON hang over

#the cruel prince #The Wicked King #tcp #twk #Modern Faerie Tale #modern faery tale series #spiderwick chronicles #tithe #valiant #ironside #holly black #the folk of the air #tfota

faerytalesfromtheabyss

So, I have a question. Is there a fandom name for the universe where The Folk of the Air, The Modern Faerie Tales, The Darkest Part of the Forest, and (debatably) the Spiderwick Chronicles take place?

I just call it the faerie-verse/fea-verse or Holly Black faerie universe. But I would love to know if anyone else has a name for this universe

#the folk of the air #tfota #tcp #the cruel prince #the wicked king #twk #the darkest part of the forest #the modern faerie tales #the Spiderwick chronicles #tithe #ironside #Valiant #the queen of nothing #tqon

faerytalesfromtheabyss

Thoughts on the Short Story in the Modern Faerie Tale Bind-up Edition

So the short story, “The Lament of Lutie-Loo,” was okay. I enjoyed reading it, but it was a little lack-luster. I was hoping we’d see more of what the characters in “The Modern Faerie Tales” were up to after all these years, rather than just short mentions. And I hoped it would bridge the gap between the two series better than it did.

There’s one change that would have made “The Lament of Lutie-Loo” far more compelling: If Kaye went on the journey to Elfhame instead of Lutie-Loo.

Here’s Why (Mild Spoilers Ahead):

- We probably would have gotten more of an update on how everyone in The Modern Faerie Tale Series was doing after all these years instead of just quick mentions because Kaye is close friends with all these characters (But the Val and Ravus update was adorable!)

- Kaye confronting Ethane about why she hasn’t spoken to Roiben in years would have been much more compelling because Kaye played a part in the reason why they weren’t speaking

- Kaye being held hostage would have been such a compelling situation! Can you imagine Roiben trying to find a way to get her and his sister back without going into all-out war with Elfhame? The story could have still played out the same way with alliances, but it would have added much more tension and drama to the story. (I’m reeling just thinking about it!) Roiben talking about how much he loves Kaye was the highlight of the story for me, but it would have been awesome to see how much he cares about her through his actions.

Also, I think my ideal ending for The Queen of Nothing is all the characters from TMFT and TDPoTF hanging out with the characters from The Folk of the Air.

At the same time, I do appreciate that Holly Black gives cameos to characters from past series in The Folk of the Air without making it necessary to read those books. It’s fun for long-time readers to see their favorite characters and pick up on quick mentions of past events. At the same time, it makes it so new readers can read any of series without having read the other series.

Anyways, sorry for the rant. Let me know your thoughts on “The Lament of Lutie-Loo.”

If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, @ourmooninacup posted a copy of the story. But I do advise reading The Modern Faerie Tales first.

#The modern Faerie Tales #modern faerie tales #tithe #Valiant #Ironside #TCP #the folk of the air #TWK #The Lament of Lutie-Loo

faerytalesfromtheabyss

Welcome to Faerie Land: A Guide to Holly Black’s Extended Faerie Universe

With Wicked King making the NYT Best Sellers list and more people reading The Cruel Prince/The Folk of the Air Series, I decided to make a quick guide to the other books in Holly Black’s Faerie universe.

One of the things I love about Holly Black’s books is how they interrelate. They give you background information about the world and side characters in TCP. But it’s not necessary to read these books to understand TCP. Also, since Jude has been in Faerie for almost her entire life she sometimes brushes over certain faerie rules that new readers might not know (eg. the effects of cold iron and faerie true names). Holly Black’s earlier books lay out these rules much more effectively.

So if you’re a new reader of Holly Black’s books, welcome! I’ll try to stay away from spoilers, and I’ll add links to Goodreads for more in depth summaries. If you’re a veteran, here’s a quick review of the other books in the Faerie Universe and a little bit about how they relate to TCP.