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How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories  By  cover art

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

By: Holly Black, Rovina Cai - illustrator
Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly
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Publisher's summary

Return to the captivating world of Elfhame with this addition to the New York Times best-selling Folk of Air trilogy that began with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black.

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. Number one New York Times best-selling author Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame's enigmatic high king, Cardan. This 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 listeners everywhere.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Holly Black (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Offers new delights along with familiar moments retold...fans will rejoice in every dark, luscious moment."—Kirkus

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What listeners say about How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

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Swoon

So great! Holly creates such a vivid picture that her books feel longer than they are. Although, i wish it was longer still. I loved having the art to look at even though it was an audio book. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and makes me want to read The whole series again.

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wish there were was more

I love this story just as much as I love the rest in the series I just wish there was a more details And better explanation behind his reactions

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Wonderful!

Great and entertaining story, after reading The Folk of the Air series, it felt great to see some more of Jude and Cardan, specially Cardan! I adore these series!

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  • Overall
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Just ok

I love Holly Black, but I wouldn't pay for this again. It's so short, I suggest reading it instead. Usually you get more insight as to what the other POV is thinking during interactions with the other main character, but you get veerrrryyyy little of that. You do get a bit more insight into his childhood, but it's super short, more of a teaser. The writing is good as is the narration, it's just not worth the money.

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Outstanding

As always the audiobook was outstanding!! The author Holly Black did and awesome job as well as the narrator Caitlin Kelly.

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Great Series

I enjoyed this whole series even this lil extra short book added at the end. Takes you to another land and has your imagination is whirling wanting more and once the 3rd book ends this adds just enough to leave you satisfied.

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Brilliant again

Holly Black at her best writing this short story. I love her trilogy and this short story was such a treat.
Warning: in order to enjoy the story, one must read/ listen to trilogy first.

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carden

always doing something unexpected isnt he. liked the story hope you are hard at work expanding this little diddy too.

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MORE!!!

Black is truly an amazing artist and author, this book combined with the storytelling, can't exactly remember her name really made for entertaining, and there is truly no single part of the book that I did not enjoy, and I would love to hear more I'd love to read more of her books of the fall of the year. I think truly that they are her best works and I love following the adventures of Cardan and Jude it's amazing that she put from Harden's perspective, this time around to and I want to go loved to have seen more of that speaker seeing how cruel he became and personally, I would love to see more of how they grow up rather than the pieces of the story is she is already shouting, you know, stuff that no one's heard of, and I really just want to see more folk with the air in general, so if you're reading this great job, Ms Black and I hope that you come out with more

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A Nice Little Addendum

Personally, I love stories. But frankly, if a condescending troll woman kept coming to me and preaching stories at me, I’d probably hate stories too. I loved seeing the story of the trilogy being fleshed out more, and I enjoyed seeing Cardan in a more sympathetic light. (My only real complaint is that Holly Black teased us with stories of Madoc learning to live in the mortal world and then DOESN’T TELL US any of it. I wanted to see that so badly. That would be hilarious!)

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