Double Audiobook Review: The Lost Sisters (The Folk of the Air #1.5) & How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (#3.5)

As these are novellas that take place in-between and after the original Folk of the Air trilogy, it is highly recommended that you at least complete the first novel before starting The Lost Sisters and definitely finish the entire trilogy before attempting How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories as each contain a lot of spoilers for the trilogy (not the novellas themselves)!

Author: Holly Black

Narrator: Caitlin Kelly

Audiobook Length: 2 hours

By #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue.

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

This novella focuses on Taryn’s side of events that took place in The Cruel Prince. I am not sure if the author’s intent was to use this as an opportunity for readers to forgive or for them to dislike her further after everything that happened. Even reviewers are completely divided on how they feel about Taryn after this super short story. We go through Taryn first meeting Locke and experience what Taryn was going through the entire time that Locke was all over the place with his treatment of her. Honestly, I fall into the camp of this made me dislike Taryn even more than I did before. Locke continues to be Locke and is a character I love to hate as he is awful, but that is the point of him and is just everyone around him that chooses to ignore it.  

It is very short and Caitlin Kelly continues to provide excellent narration to the story. The writing fits well with the rest of the series and it somehow transport the reader back into the world of the fae, yet the story is over in the blink of an eye.  This novella is an entertaining addition and is not necessary to include with the series, unless you want more details about Taryn and a slight in-depth look at the inner-workings of her character.

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Audiobook Length: 2 hours 48 minutes

Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.

Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone . Revealing a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan, tis tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.

This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

For this one, I highly recommend the print/ebook version instead of the audiobook. It is no fault of the narrator as the reader should experience this novel in its entirety and that includes the wonderful illustrations. That being said, you could potentially do what I did and have the two of them experienced together. I have the ebook and audiobook, so when the new chapter began in the audiobook, I would take a look at the accompanying artwork.

This novella takes place after the entire trilogy is complete and definitely includes spoilers about the ending from The Queen of Nothing. This novella is a about different versions of the same story within a central story. Each chapter reads like a short story as the reader goes through different parts in Carden’s life from the time he was little to the time after the epilogue in the final novel. It does give a slightly new look at Carden, but does not go more in depth and instead is more like an entertaining side story that happens to include some of the original events. While I would not go as far as say it was unnecessary, it is not needed for the central story of the trilogy.

The story is entirely from Carden’s perspective, so it was nice to see what was going through his mind during the sections that mirrored the events in the trilogy that were told from Jude’s point of view. The story of the boy and the monster was very interesting and I loved how the tale evolved every time it was told to Carden. There is some exploration of stories versus truth and I greatly enjoyed how it was integrated together. Although I wish there were more to this story, it was entertaining and it was a fun return to fairyland.