i've been in a reading slump for the better half of three years, seriously. obviously i read lots of books over the course of my degree, but it was always academia and reading for pleasure seemingly became a thing of the past. making time for a fiction book, or anything not relevant to aiding my history degree seemed pointless to me. now that i've finished my undergrad, i want to try and get back into losing myself in the world of fiction before september rolls around and it is back to academia for my masters degree. the first hurdle was choosing a book to be tasked with the immense responsibility of breaking my reading slump. after making a tbr list inspired by tiktok, i did not know where to start. i found, dusted off, and purged my old kindle ready to get going, and i explored the kindle store to see what i could find.
suddenly, i remembered my favourite book from when i was 13. 'the originals' by cat patrick. the book is about three female clones that due to the controversy surrounding their existence, are raised as a singular person by their creator. each girl has a dedicated time to go to school and extra-curricular activities, but things get harder when the girls each start to develop feelings for different boys. it has been a long time since i read this, but i remember that as the general plot. i also remember thinking yes, it clearly has lots of parts that fit into the typical YA romance trope, but i thought the clone premise was very interesting and pardon the pun, original. after really enjoying the originals, i went on a bit of a cat patrick spree and read her other novels. though i didn't care for the others not near as much as i did the originals, they were all super easy to read and all the same in the sense that they were typical YA romances (which admittedly is my type of thing), but with really original premises and ideas.
unsurprisingly, but welcomingly, court was no different. after remembering cat patrick, i was happy to see that there was a book by her i have not read. i thought it would be perfect to get me out of my slump. out of all of her books, i think i found the premise of court the most interesting. in court, the state of wyoming is and has long been a front for the kingdom of eurus, which maintains a monarchy and has a very different societal structure from that of the 'democracy' (the united states). after the king is murdered, his unwilling 17-year-old son haakon is suddenly months away from his coronation and wedding to his betrothed, gwendolyn rose, who wants nothing more than to be free from the strictly planned-out life she is destined to have. meanwhile, haakon's best friend and bodyguard alexander is not only having to deal with coming to terms with the fact he is gay, but coming to the terms with the possibility that haakon murdered his father. outside of the elite community, commoner mary is approached by a stranger who appears to know information about her mother who mary believes to be dead, and is our first introduction into the corruption and sinister activities happening within eurus, aka 'the realm'. the book is told through the four perspectives of the characters named here.
sounds cool, right? well for the most part, it is! i may as well make it clear now that i am not a reading snob in any way whatsoever. i don't mind a bit of cheese. this book was quick paced and kept the stakes throughout, meaning there was never a slow patch. i always enjoy good descriptions as i like to really imagine what the characters and settings would look like, and i absolutely could with court. i was able to imagine each location perfectly. i would say about 80% of the conversations were natural sounding and matched the tone and characters well. i will say that some of the conversations between gwendolyn and her love interest, outsider will, were a little difficult to read due to some more-than-needed cringe, though it wasn't too bad. i must remember that the last time i read a cat patrick book was when i was 14, considerably younger than my now 21 years. perhaps if i reread some of her books now i would have the same problem, so in a way i just need to consider how i am probably not the target audience for this kind of fiction anymore.
this review was not going to contain any spoilers and so if you do not want to know any, stop reading now. sadly, i must break the spoiler-free rule as unfortunately, my biggest issues with court are all in how it ends. cut a long story short, (final spoiler warning!), my favourite character roarke, who was mary’s best friend and helping gwen find a way out of her predetermined life, was killed off in a quick and unsympathetic fashion. i imagine a lot of people would love such a dramatic turn of events and having a book make such a statement, but not me! i just wanted a fun book that had a happy ending, is that too much to ask?
roarke was killed after coming to blows with haakon, who the book had been hinting was progressively going down a villain arc. after this, i decided myself how i wanted everything to pan out. at haakon and gwen’s wedding, i wanted roarke to burst in with the clan mothers (figureheads of the realm) having had been working with haakon the entire time. his death had to be faked, and haakon had to be the one to do it, so that haakon won the trust of his mother and higher-ups within the realm so that he may learn the full extent of the realm’s corruption and wrongdoings. with support of the clan mothers, haakon announces plans to reveal the realm to the world which not only stops the wrong-doers in their tracks, but also allows gwen and the rest of the population to live life as they choose. the end. maybe a little TOO “everything turns out just fine!” for some people, but that’s what i want!
not only do i like endings to be happy, but i NEED endings to be conclusive. when it was clear that i wasn’t going to get the overly-optimistic and simple ending i had invented, i hoped that there would at least be a conclusion that tied up all the loose ends, no matter how far from my fantasy. instead, court ends at haakon and gwen’s wedding, where gwen reveals that she is the rightful heir to eurus as she is the daughter of haakon’s uncle duncan who was believed to have killed himself, placing haakon’s father in the throne. she learns this information from mary, as it is realised that duncan was the figure who had been approaching her about her mother. alexander flees, which would normally mean his family would be jailed, but apparently his family is too powerful and won’t allow that to happen, but none of this is shown. the final few pages tell of how haakon, who has gone full-blown mad-king at this point, vows to rule eurus no matter what and destroy gwen. the book ends like it MUST be the beginning of a series, otherwise i would be even more annoyed at the fact we do not get to find out the consequences for gwen’s actions, or what happens to her, the kingdom, and everything else. upon finishing the book, i found myself saying the thing i hate saying the most whenever i complete a novel: “is that it?!”
that’s it. overall, i did genuinely enjoy the first 90% of the book, but i just cannot forgive the ending. thinking about it now, i did put too much pressure on this book and probably expected too much, and too many specific things that no book would probably ever be able to encompass. it isn’t the books fault that i am the way that i am, but i know there is at least a small number of others like me!
i rate court by cat patrick three stars out of five
☆ ☆ ☆
reading next: the cruel prince by holly black
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