Unless you've been
hiding under a rock for the past few months, you'll probably have
noticed a lot of people discussing Holly Black's latest novel, The
Cruel Prince. I've been
desperate, and I mean desperate,
to get my hands on a copy, but my very broke self hasn't been able to
purchase any new books lately. So when I saw that the wonderful
Waterstones in Liverpool was hosting a competition for a free
ticket to Holly's event, including a copy of the book, I hit that
retweet button so fast. For once, luck was actually on my side and I
WON.
Literally
two hours before the event, I found out on Twitter that I was one of
the two winners, so I had an hour to throw some clothes on and make
myself look presentable because I WAS ABOUT TO MEET HOLLY BLACK.
Somehow I still managed to get to the store super early, and bagged
myself a seat at the very front. I always try to arrive early to get
front row at these things because my short self would spend the whole
time craning to see over not-short people the whole time otherwise.
On
my way in, I was given this absolutely gorgeous goodie back
containing a copy of the book (!!!!!!!!!) and some very exciting
swag, which I had a nosey at whilst waiting for the talk to start.
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| The goodie bag from the event! |
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| Look at this beautiful character art! |
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| Black heart lollipops. I'm always down for free food. |
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| An adorable bookmark and a candle? This goodie bag is definitely for me. Also: HELLO SEQUEL TEASER. |
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| A super cute fairyloot badge! |
Holly
kicked off the event in dramatic style with a reading of the prologue
from The Cruel Prince. After that, she did a short interview with the
host of the afternoon, the wonderful Simon from Savidge
Reads, talking about all things Faerie. He questioned her about
the story revolving around Jude instead of Vivi, whom the prologue
seems to focus on more. Holly told us that whilst Vivi seemed to tick
all of the right boxes for a classic YA protagonist, in her mind the
story had always been about Jude. She wanted to tell a story about a
human growing up in an 'other' world, like a reverse-changeling
story.
After
the initial interview, the event was handed over to the audience to
ask questions. When quizzed about writing a series, Holly's advice
was to be careful not to close too many doors too early on in the
story because they might be needed further down the line. She was
also asked about how she knew a book would end when there is a
sequel, and she confessed that The Cruel Prince had originally
supposed to finish at another part.
One
of the final questions of the night was about where she got her
folklore when planning her stories set in Faerie. She told us that
she read books that contained write-ups of people's encounters with
faeries. Whether they're real or not, they contain some fascinating
information!
Once
the questions were all finished, we were allowed to queue up for the
book signing. There was originally someone in front of me in the
line, but they left to go and get something, and before I knew it, I
was at Holly's table! Not expecting to be first up, I definitely had
one of those good old Moments of Panic where I forgot every word that
ever existed. My anxious self likes to go over what I'm saying
approximately one million times in my head beforehand, so I felt
exceptionally Unprepared. Luckily I composed myself enough to tell
her that I was super excited to read the book and that I'd seen my
fellow bloggers give it so much praise.
And
that was my tale from a very unexpected book signing! This was
actually the first book event I'd been to in almost two years, since
my anxiety prevented me from going to the last signing that I planned to
attend. I'm proud that I managed to make it this time and only mildly
freaked out. I need to say a huge thank you to the team at
Waterstones Liverpool for the fantastic opportunity, and to Holly for
a wonderful afternoon. I'm beyond excited to finally read
The Cruel
Prince!
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