CHARACTER
The Cruel Princeby Holly Black

Taryn Duarte

Taryn Duarte

Quick Facts

Who They Are

Boldly mortal in a land built to break humans, Taryn Duarte chooses survival by blending in. Where Jude sharpens a blade, Taryn smooths her voice, curates her gowns, and courts the Gentry’s approval, convinced that belonging can be won by playing the right role. She embodies the logic of Belonging and Otherness: if Faerie will not stop being perilous, perhaps the only safety is to become part of it. Her gentleness is not weakness, but strategy—one that permits complicity, secrecy, and, when necessary, betrayal.

Personality & Traits

Taryn’s temperament is soft-spoken and socially attuned, yet it hides flint. She avoids open conflict not from naiveté but from a calculated belief that compliance pays better dividends for mortals than defiance. Her pursuit of romance is a political project; her betrayals, a cost she’s willing to pay to secure her seat at the table.

  • Appeasing conformist, by design: She repeatedly urges Jude to keep her head down and not provoke Cardan’s circle, treating cruelty as a storm to be waited out rather than fought.
  • Romantic idealist as strategist: “I am going to fall in love” is both wish and weapon; by embracing Locke’s “story,” she envisions marriage as permanent residence in the Gentry.
  • Secretive and deceptive: She becomes secretly engaged to Locke while he publicly courts Jude, sustaining the ruse to protect her own prospects.
  • Self-preserving to a fault: At the river, she accepts Cardan’s bargain and abandons Jude to the nixies—proof that her calculus prioritizes safety and status over sisterhood.
  • Competitive under the sweetness: She duels Jude and declares herself a “mirror,” forcing her twin to confront the parts of herself she disowns—obedience, compromise, hunger for approval.

Character Journey

Taryn’s trajectory in The Cruel Prince is less change than revelation. Introduced as the sensible twin, she insists that survival in Faerie demands acquiescence. As Locke entangles both sisters in his “story,” Taryn chooses complicity, hiding a secret betrothal that reframes her earlier counsel as self-serving maneuvering. The river bargain exposes the spine beneath her softness; the duel with Jude proves she will fight—just not on Jude’s terms. By tipping Madoc off about Jude and Cardan, she completes an arc that crystallizes Family, Loyalty, and Betrayal: Taryn will sacrifice intimacy for inclusion, and call it prudence.

Key Relationships

  • Jude Duarte: Taryn and Jude are mirrors reflecting rival survival strategies—domination versus assimilation. Taryn’s advice to endure cruelty curdles into betrayal when her secret engagement to Locke is revealed, turning sisterly counsel into a cover for self-interest and shattering Jude’s trust.

  • Locke: With Locke, Taryn embraces the role of beloved in his ongoing “story,” even as the narrative requires humiliating Jude. She treats his love as a passport into Faerie’s elite, accepting his cruelty as genre convention—an artistic flourish she is willing to live with for the ending she wants.

  • Madoc: Rather than earning Madoc’s approval through valor, Taryn seeks it through propriety and alliance, hoping his sanction will solidify her place. She adopts his realpolitik without his sword, learning that the quietest move—whispered information—can have the sharpest edge.

  • Vivienne Duarte: Taryn’s distance from Vivi underscores her full commitment to Faerie; where Vivi longs for the mortal world, Taryn fashions herself into a Faerie lady. Their divergence spotlights Taryn’s belief that home is not where you’re from, but where you’re accepted.

Defining Moments

Taryn’s choices arrive in small, devastating gestures—kisses on cheeks, withheld truths, a single sentence to the right commander—that reshape the board more effectively than a drawn blade.

  • The bargain at the river: She accepts Cardan’s offer of safety and leaves Jude to the nixies.

    • Why it matters: It reveals her survival ethic in action—compliance and self-protection over solidarity—while proving she will let Faerie’s cruelty happen if it secures her place.

  • The secret betrothal reveal: Taryn allows Locke to court Jude while secretly engaged to him.

    • Why it matters: The revelation recasts her earlier caution as strategic deception, showing she can match the Folk in duplicity when her ambitions are at stake.

  • The duel with Jude: After the deception erupts, she picks up a sword and fights, snarling, “I’m a mirror... I’m the mirror you don’t want to look at.”

    • Why it matters: Taryn refuses the passive role assigned to her, asserting that Jude’s ruthlessness has a sister—compliance—and both are born of the same fear and hunger.

  • The final betrayal to Madoc: She tells Madoc to ask Jude about Cardan’s whereabouts.

    • Why it matters: A single “petty” tip becomes a blade, endangering Jude and sealing the rift; Taryn chooses her new alliances over her oldest bond.

Essential Quotes

“You’re better off being scared.” This credo distills Taryn’s philosophy: fear keeps mortals alive in Faerie. Unlike Jude’s rebellion, Taryn’s vigilance counsels submission as strategy, framing abjection not as weakness but as a practical armor.

“I am going to fall in love.” Both vow and tactic, the line telegraphs Taryn’s plan to convert romance into residency. It romanticizes assimilation—love as a bridge into the Gentry—while hinting at the illusions she’s willing to maintain to cross it.

“I can’t just pretend my day was fine with you as a witness to what really happened. Sometimes it makes me not like you.” Resentment and shame flicker through this confession: being seen by Jude turns Taryn’s compromises into indictments. The admission exposes the twins’ widening fault line—visibility breeds judgment, so secrecy becomes Taryn’s shield.

“Nice things don’t happen in storybooks. Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.” Taryn accepts the narrative logic Locke lives by, even when it demands cruelty for drama. She anticipates the hurt and consents to it, preferring the role of heroine in a perilous tale to the safety of being no one.

“You should ask Jude where Prince Cardan is. The last time I saw him, he was dancing with her.” Delivered with calculated innocence, this line weaponizes gossip. It is Taryn’s quietest sword stroke—small enough to seem petty, sharp enough to cut—and it consummates her decision to privilege status over sisterhood.