The Queen of Nothing Summary: The Games Non-played

‘The Queen of Nothing’ is a perfect irony as the whole trilogy culminates towards Jude becoming the queen of the faes and being nothing more than that. Queen Jude, who wields ultimate power over all the fae’s, has built a faery court that instantly galvanizes all the faeries from the realms. Using a mix of force and persuasion, she succeeds where others have failed in convincing the faeries. Throughout her journey, Queen Jude undergoes significant character development and transformation, however all of her suffering, trauma and tragedy eventually culminates in the tiresome tasks of being the Queen of nothing as the title suggests.

Before dedication towards nihilism, Jude is an ambitious goals-driven character who succeeds through sheer determination. However, as depicted by the title, Queen Jude becomes nihilistic and loses meaning in leading. Her sisters, who are supposed to be her hopegivers, instead act as harbingers of her suffering – are consequently seen as resentful of Jude, transforming her from a glorified queen into an enfeebled and restricted individual.

Despite Jude’s future ambitions, her demons keep dragging her back to her brutal past which she eventually has to violate as being the Queen requires one to separate from their past self. There’s only so much ambition one can carry before the weight of its consequences leaves them shattered and hollow, reformed but carved into an unrecognizable being.

The only addresable character in the novel aside from Queen Jude is Cardan, who is portrayed as the ‘King of nothing’. However, unlike Jude, he displays an oddly appealing sense of indifference towards the title. Ultimately Jude wins without a heart or ethos as she has already abandoned her passion and identity at the very beginning.

One of the most memorable aspects of ‘the queen of nothing’ is how the character portrays Jude and Cardan – most would consider Juke as brave courageous, they can’t possibly imagine her making sacrifices as an act of betrayal.

As the language used in the book changes the perception throughout. Jude is seen as driven with ambition and intense focus, but this idolization quickly transforms into revulsion as it becomes grisly objectification. Instead of making sacrifices for the people of the realm, she began using them as calculative tools and pawns to pave her path.

To conclude, the characters are malformed complexes representing the extreme duality of life, supremacy and servitude intertwining, pain and longing causing riches and hopelessness , accomplishments cooling the soul, virtue fuelling the fire in people’s hearts. Jude’s character embodies the range of emotions as the author has done an excellent job capturing her duality. Looking for further developments for the next book in this trilogy.

Since the publication of the first book in Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series, ever since, that character has been a subject of video clips, fan art, images, memes, even Instagram filters. one can truly say that the character is the quintessential Femme fatale. In a life planning series of low platelet count and fake giving a fuck for relationships and damsels in distress, we all truly understand when people seek peace in darkness. Welcome to nothing-ness. What starts as an intimate inflection ends up with a sense of truth behind it.

A fair warning. The native sad girl in me could potentially spiral out of control while dissecting this narrative and queen of nothing while killing some degree of sanity. This narrative camerawork was captivating because of Jude’s character and perspective throughout the series. I feel a deep sense of connection every time when I hear words like ‘character development’. I also agree with the majority that every moment in this book series feels surreal as if it is a dream.

Taryn is engaged but not quite with the maiden who whips the blues, and locked herself in a castle, cut off from the world and family. However, their bond is anchored in their childhood experiences when they found comfort in the walls of a heart. Jude on her end had always perceived her family yet at some time forgot about herself for fellow kin. Her character is one of salvation and chaos at once, as it has walls built around it but is also an ever-open area due to her tenacity. Never did Jude abandon hope regarding herself and thing about the world they live in.

Jude became a shadow herself and by shadows to become a shadow gifting hate and anguish yet bearing love. Almost time but quite enough time where I remember why and what started all this. Due to her dynamics, Jude nudged my empathetic side desperately asking to be remembered. The power focus of this series is based on Jude becoming the ruthless queen always envisioned by the king of the court. Once the moment Jude saw Cardan, she was open to all manner of love including those incapable of love. Comman honesty whispers that Jude had desires to be the rather awful version of herself with a crown on her head. Not able to be left numb in darkness, Jude directs every single piece of hurt from the knife-twisting darkness into becoming the best version of herself.

What makes one crawling through the soil hidden under pretentious love? Nothing. People may look relatively feme for girls around but this one has a heart made of steel. So on paper – Jude managed to turn something, that was hers in the first case, into determination and not just pettiness.

Was this book written in paradise? No. On the one hand, everything was flawless with Jude’s lies until witnessing Cardan betray his brothers. Moreover, everything started to make sense once anger and senselessness took over. Despite my cursed love for Jude, on the flip side, using Taryn as a contrast lends this story into realistic sceneries. Where brother betrayed brutality for love but what do not exist plunges into darkness telling that sister will be given a different kind of treatment.

Even this plot does not seem grim or dark, feelings are rather sorry than pure rage. Here’s the part where I contact million of people who think about this book like I do. However, it is safe to assume that I do not wish suffocate in this darkness utterly. Not building a wall of anger in front of the eye cleansing light when time to reflect comes.