Book Review: How The King Of Elfhame Learned To Hate Stories

‘How The King Of Elfhame Learned To Hate Stories’ was released in 2020. It is an accompanying novella that provides episodic glimpses into the life of King Cardan of Elfhame, and his life prior to, during, and post the events of ‘The Folk Of The Air’ Trilogy, it has brilliant illustrations throughout, provided by Rovina Cai.

Cai’s illustrations were absolutely gorgeous and really added to the childlike wonder in the stories, especially since it reminded me of old copies of Alice In Wonderland, the book that Rhyia gifts Cardan. It was incredibly clever.

This novella follows a series of related events throughout Cardan’s life, from his birth, raised on cats milk instead of his mother’s, and left to fend for himself. I really enjoyed getting to see his point of view on events we saw through Jude’s eyes. Particularly the nixie incident.

I wished that there were more glimpses into the enemies-to-lovers dynamic, like his thoughts and feelings at what was supposed to be Dain’s coronation. I would have loved to see these events, when his emotions were running high and the person that saved his life was the human girl he supposedly hated. Now that, that, would have been poignant.

I did, however, really enjoy how the stories Aslog and Cardan respectively offer and ‘The Folk of the Air’ echo one another. The metaphors of man and monster being Cardan simultaneously, while it is also clear they could each be interpreted as the events of the trilogy. I enjoyed how clever it was. Black’s word choices were incredibly well-thought out and the breaks between the experiences in the human world and faerie provide the distance to once again marvel at how Cardan has grown as a character, from being the cold, lonely faerie child in the stables, to the High King, drinking bubble tea and sampling dumplings with his wife’s family. It was self-indulgent, fluffy, and sweet to read.