Moon In A Cup

A Holly Black fan blog

[ourmooninacup]

Teaser from The Stolen Heir!!

I'm excited to find out more about changelings in this universe

[laequiem]

Thinking about the trauma poor Oak went through, I'm so excited to get a story from his POV.

The kid has 3 sisters, none of which are related to him. He's not related to his parents either. His biological mom was murdered by his biological dad—who was in turn murdered by his dad.

Then his half-brother was murdered by his non-murderous sister, leaving his murderous sister's HUSBAND as his closest living relative

I hope he got a therapist during his years in the Mortal realm

[ourmooninacup]

We love a traumaboy 😭😭 hopefully he didn't get any coping advice from Cardan

[daisybrekker]

As much as I love Jude & Cardan, I have a very strong feeling that many readers will be disappointed with the Oak duology in the way that they expect Jurdan content too much, but maybe I'm just being a bit pessimistic...

We'll see👀

[ourmooninacup]

This is how I feel about Book of Night, I've seen so many ppl saying they want it to be a romance like jurdan but it obviously was never intended to be that type of book. I'm glad it's on the bestseller list anyway!! I do hope we get a glimpse of Jurdan since it's so far in the future, I'd love to know what they're up to. But I def don't expect any romance stuff with them

[readingpeacebypiece]

Wait wait wait wait wait- this is Oak and he looks like 20 here so… hOW MUCH TIME HAS PASSED- HAVE JURDAN BEEN TOGETHER FOR LIKE TEN YEARS??? WILL TARYNS BABY BE TEN? WILL JURDAN HAVE LIKE KIDS????

[ourmooninacup]

He's 17 T_T

[elephart-hi]

Some background on Oak and Suren for anyone who needs a refresher (with new edits)

This is after Cardan became a snake

This after Cardan’s head was chopped off at the coronation during the sentencing

Here are my thoughts

SOOO first thing that confused me with the description was that Holly called Suren the changeling queen (check my edit!) !!! One bc she is technically no longer a queen and two in order for her to to be a changeling Suren would have had to leave fairy for the mortal world!!!

But the discription also calls her a runaway soooooo maybe she ran away from fairyland and became a changeling that way (check my edit!)

Also let’s not forget the boon she owes Oak!!!!

Or that they were almost betrothed lol cute

So a reluctant prince on a quest with a scary queen

Hmmm

sounds a lil familiar

I can just imagine Cardan saying that the Greenbriar men have a pension to both being lazy and besotted with terrifying women

I’m so excited for this book

Edit:

TOTALLY MISSED THIS!!

@painfullysensible

SHE IS ALREADY A CHANGELING so ur telling me this poor 9 year old child was raised in the safety of the mortal world ONLY TO BE DRAGGED BACK TO END UP LIKE THIS!!!!

(From Suren’s wiki page)

So you mean to tell me that poor baby Suren was raised as a happy little changeling child going to school in the mortal world (where her evil parents dumped her for their own greedy purposes) playing video games and having a safe normal mortal life….

Until her wicked parents FORCEFULLY dragged her back to fairyland when THEY decided she would finally be useful to them.

AND THEN PAINFULLY ENSLAVED HER

they bound her with a cursed bridal and stitched a crown permanently onto her head and chained her wrist BY PENETRATING HER SKIN AND PUTTING A CHAIN THROUGH IT TO LEASH HER

What THE F&$@ I’m livid

So my NEW THOUGHTS With this additional information:

First of all Suren is a FANTASTIC FOIL CHARACTER TO THE WHOLE DUERTE FAMILY

Vivi was taken to the mortal world to be protected but then was forcefully dragged back around the same age that Suren was, by her own evil parent who wanted to use her (remember the Prophecy that made their mother run in the first place! It went something like: Eva’s child will be a more powerful weapon than One that Justin could ever forge) Madoc wanted that weapon

Jude and Tayrn also we’re stolen from the only life they ever knew. And Jude ended up being that weapon from the prophecy and Madoc knew that and definitely wanted to manipulate her to gain control

Suren is also a foil to Cardan, who was physically abused his family (like she was) and then was used as a puppet king (like she was) (yes jude treated him way better but it was still what happened)

AND OAK OMFG DONT GET ME STARTED ON HOW OAK AND SUREN FOIL EACHOTHER

The tl;dr Suren suffered the fate that Madoc would have subjected to Oak to, furthermore their lives and stories are a foil to the other’s

A royal heir stolen away as a child

Lived a normal life til the time came for their parents to exploit them

To be used as a puppet king/queen

So they were again stolen away from the only life they ever knew

Also bonus their lives have been split between elfhame and the mortal world at opposite times of their lives

Let’s get into it

Madoc LITTERALLY was going to use Oak as his own puppet king!! It’s the whole reason Jude went through with everything!!! She sent Oak to the mortal world to protect him from that horrible and dangerous fate!

Oak was a royal heir stolen by Oriana. Then he was raised and loved by her, Madoc and his adoptive sisters.

Oak was SO LOVE IN FACT that when the opportunity came for his father to exploit him, his adoptive sister literally took over the country to prevent it from happening

Right before Jude found out about Oak, Vivi was like come back to the mortal world with me. Jude was like I’m not sure if I know how to be a human anymore… maybe I could learn, (learn to not be a power-hungry monster girl anymore) I could just turn over Cardan to Madoc, he’s never done anything for me anyways, maybe I could be human and live with my sister. BUT THEN SHE FOUND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT OAK FROM ORIANA and so she had to construct the whole plan to betray Madoc and Cardan and to take over Fairyland.

Just so Oak could have a chance at the normal life she and her sisters never got so to protect him they stole him away from the life he had always know to live in the mortal world

JUDE WENT THROUGH HELL TO KEEP OAK SAFE, yes she kept at it bc of her lust for power but it all started with her love for Oak. This is how Loved Oak was. His family, specific Vivi, Oriana and Jude, went to great lengths to protect Oak

BUT POOR SUREN

she was royal heir stolen away to the mortal world and was raised their until the time came for her parents to exploit her

She was then again stolen away from the live she had always know and was abused and exploited as their puppet queen!!!

No one protected her

Except for Oak.

The boy prince who almost suffered the same fate as she did. Oak Interceded for her and was the reason she was granted Leniency

THE STOLEN HEIR WILL BE AMAZING

I can’t wait to know the actual canon back story for surens life in the mortal world and how everything went down ABBDJSUSHDHE AHHHHHH

[ourmooninacup]

I really hope that these books go back and forth between Oak and Suren's perspective!! I'm more interested in suren than Oak tbh

[beholdthemem]

It’s been years and I’m still not over Kaye and Corny.

Like in Tithe, starting from the point when we first see Corny and Kaye actually interact- like, initially there’s not much of an established relationship there? Yeah, they know each other, but as Janet’s-Older-Brother and Janet’s-Friend-Who-Believed-In-Fairies. They’ve seen each other many times, but there’s a layer of removal there where they’ve never really been in each other’s orbit. Neither has ever had a reason to think about the other much.

Then they hang out, really just because there’s nobody else around- all of Kaye’s friends are in school while she’s (theoretically) aiming for her GED, and Corny’s already graduated. She comes and seeks him out over at the gas station for someone to talk to, and they have enough of a conversation for each to realize, subconsciously, that the other exists beyond Janet. When they talk comics, I think there’s a moment where Corny realizes, a little to his surprise, that had he met current Kaye Fierch as a stranger, they could’ve been friends.

They go hang out at the trailer, Kaye accidentally finds out Corny’s gay via his taste in manga of all things, Corny makes a point of talking about it in a way that is as unambiguous as possible- the sort of shit that in the early 2000s would be classified by straight people as ‘Shoving it in my face’ in an unspoken message that he is not going to fucking hide to make ANYBODY comfortable, if you’ve got a problem then you can run back home. And… Kaye doesn’t. All she wants to know is ‘You came out via STAR TREK METAPHOR?’ and then they spend the next several hours laughing at terrible yaoi anatomy. They’re friends. They’re not exactly close, it’s a pretty casual friendship, but… friends.

And even though it’s (at the time) a very casual friendship, when Kaye first removes her glamour and realizes 'I don’t know how to change back, I don’t know how to handle what I look like now, I can see and hear and smell too much, I can’t go home, I don’t know what to do, I barely understand what’s happening, I’m SCARED-’… she goes to Corny. Like, granted, he’s not her first option, and for fair reason- the first people she tries are other faeries, who she can’t contact, then Janet, who she hopes will be willing to extend best friend camaraderie in the face of a crisis if Kaye can give actual proof she’s not lying. She’s just barely gotten to know Corny. He doesn’t know about faerie shit, and he doesn’t have enough of a history with her to guarantee help.

But she still considers him an option.

She shows up at the gas station, taking the slim chance that the newest person she’s had consider her sort-of-a-friend might help… and he does.

Like, Corny is not a particularly nice or social person, this is repeatedly established, but when Kaye shows up bright green, with no pupils and weird teeth, Corny spends like, a minute silently freaking out before realizing she is NOT physically or emotionally okay right now and dropping everything to focus on helping her.

“What the hell happened to you?”

Kaye held out her hand and tilted it slightly in the light.

“I’m sick,” she said. “I’m really sick.”

He crouched down beside her. There was a luminescence to her skin, a kind of brightness about her that made her eyes glitter feverishly. There was something about her shape itself that was strange, a hunching of the shoulders, a slight bulge of the back.

He picked up a block of wood with a dangling key. 'Let’s go in the bathroom. The light’s better and you can wash more of this crap off.“

Like, Kaye stripping in front of Corny after he tells her there’s something going on with her back because she’s too fucked up to care about modesty right now and Corny scrubbing Kaye’s false skin off for her with the ratty nightgown she slept outside in the night before, carefully cleaning off the fluid her wings are covered with- that has somehow become the scene that I hold every other fictional friendship to. Do your characters trust each other enough to be that vulnerable? Are they completely correct to do so? Like in each character’s mind there was never any other thing they could possibly do but help? No? THEN STOP WASTING MY TIME.

[ourmooninacup]

Yes to all of this!! T_T Personally I think it's a good thing Janet wasn't available, I know her and Kaye were "best friends" but I don't think Janet was as much of a ride or die as Kaye thought she was. I don't think she would have been able to handle it or be supportive

[ourmooninacup]

Predictions????

[ekbelsher]

I was doing head angle studies today and suddenly I’d drawn Cardan Greenbriar. I’ve managed to make him look a bit like a ferret

(He’s growing out his hair. Why draw guys with short hair when they could have long hair instead?)

[ourmooninacup]

Dude met Roiben one time and now he's got long hair 😂

[ourmooninacup]

This is what Holly Black had to say about switching from YA to Adult Fantasy. This makes me even more excited to read her new book! I grew up reading her kids books, and then YA books, and as much as I love them I'd love to read something that's meant for my age (I'm turning 27 soon) and tackles issues I can more closely relate to. This really feels like it's meant for those of us who have loved Holly's work from the beginning and have outgrown the YA stuff a bit. It's nice to feel like she hasn't forgotten us 🥰 (I'm also very excited for her new YA book though!)

[theworldsforgottenboy]

I’m rereading queen of nothing to make my brain do the seretoin thing so here’s a shitty Cardan doodle that I tried to colors with whatever I had lying around

[ourmooninacup]

My son 😭

[ourmooninacup]

Cover reveal for Book of Night!! What do you think?

[ourmooninacup]

A new adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles is coming to Disney+!! I'm so excited for new details to be released 👀

[readingpeacebypiece]

I AM NOT EMOTIONALLY STABLE ENOUGH FOR THIS EXCERPT!!!!

So:

-Cardan is such a little SIMP and we love to see it!

-Cardan thinks he’s so lucky to have jude ( my EMOTIONS)

- Jude tells Cardan stories?!!! Jude?!!!! Oh my god!!!!

-Cardan knows the LOOK 👀 😭 💓

-JUDE IS HAPPY AND LAUGHING WITH HER HUSBAND I CAN’T

[judeduarteismypresident]

There’s so many people that have not seen this yet, and I just saw it tonight, and it changed my whole shdhfjfn

[cigluv3r]

does your heart ever goes like:

💖💖💖💗💗💗💞💓💓💓💖💗💗💗💓💓💖💓💓💓💖💞💖💞💖💖💞💕💖💕💖💕💖💕💖💕💗💕Jude Duarte💗💕💕💕💗💕💗💕💗💕💗💕💕💗💕💗💕💖💖💗💖💕💗💗

But then:

👑🥵🥵❤️❤️🗡️🗡️😍😍❤️❤️❣️♥️❣️🗡️🗡️♥️♥️🥵🥵🗡️🗡️🥵🗡️❤️❤️Jude Duarte🥵😍🗡️🗡️😍😍♥️🥵♥️🥵🥵♥️🥵♥️🥵🥵♥️🥵♥️🥵♥️♥️♥️🗡️🥵♥️🥵❤️♥️🗡️🗡️♥️👑

Get You a Girl Who Can Do Both

[duchessvultjag]

most ya girls: nothing has happened to me ever. my life is so boring. so average. my personality reflects this OR the only notable thing about me is i’m the orphaned long lost princess OR both

holly black girls: her life has been any where from not great to straight up awful and it’s about to get Much, Much Worse

[ourmooninacup]

Holly Black girls really do go through it 🤧🤧

[cinnamonspacedust-deactivated20]

Cardan discovers online shopping 🍓🍓🍓

follow @cinnamonspacedust xx

Download two free lockscreens of this piece here! xx

[ourmooninacup]

Yessss 👏🏻

Also Cardan is giving me serious Baz vibes here with his floral print button up. A crown is a type of head scarf right??