Holly Black

A Halloween treat for readers -- we return to our wide ranging interview with the queen of shadowy fantasy, Holly Black! Black's books straddle the real world and the realm of the fey, or reimagine reality to include magical mobsters, walled vampire cities, and haunted toys. In The Wicked King, sequel to last year’s The Cruel Prince, human girl Jude, raised in Faerie by her parents’ murderer, has seized control of the fey courts through puppet king Cardan. But, says Black, while book one was about what Jude would do to seize power, book two is about what she’ll do to keep it. We talked to the author about pleasure reads, how she writes, and why we’re more likely to forgive villainy if it’s on an epic scale.