Review by Lauryn Angel
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories is the latest installment in Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series, and Goodreads lists it as #3.5 in the series. Which makes sense as this slim volume doesn’t fit neatly into the series as a continuation of the story. Further, it does not take the path that some franchises have of flipping the perspective on an already-familiar story. This slim volume is a collection of short stories from the third-person limited perspective of the Wicked King himself – Cardan – but Black does not simply give us another angle on the story she has already told.
The collection begins with a frame story set in the mortal world, with Jude and Cardan visiting Jude’s siblings to deal with an unidentified problem. From this jumping off point, the stories begin with Cardan’s childhood as an unloved younger son, through his relationship with Nicasia, and coming full circle to the end of the frame narrative. While events of the previous books are alluded to, Cardan’s stories do not retread those events. And throughout the volume are stories of Cardan’s encounters with a troll named Aslog, who tells him the story of a wicked boy with a heart of stone – a story with a moral that changes each time it’s told.
Each of the stories is accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Rovena Cai, giving the book the feel of a book of fairy tales you might have read at bed time as a child. And as the book is fewer than 200 pages, it’s completely possible to read it at one sitting. (I did.) And while the third-person perspective keeps Cardan more distant from us than Jude’s first-person narration, this narrative choice fits the content well, as not knowing exactly what Cardan is plotting is part of what makes him such an interesting character.
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories is a beautiful and charming addition to the Folk of the Air series. My only complaint is that is too short!
