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3.07 AVERAGE
3.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for my free copy of this book.
I’m just going to go ahead and start this review by saying the only reason why it got even 2 stars is because of all the brutal violence!
There are just so many issues with this book. The storyline jumps all over the place throughout. Just within one chapter, without any warning, you are in 2-4 different perspectives.
There are major plot holes all throughout the book that are brought up randomly and never explained. So the whole time you are just like ?????
There are always spontaneous new characters being introduced with absolutely no story or explanation.
I didn’t even clue in that this was a Sword in the Stone retelling until the last couple chapters! Whoops.
I wanted to DNF at 10% but I muscled through this. It was painful.
I’m just going to go ahead and start this review by saying the only reason why it got even 2 stars is because of all the brutal violence!
There are just so many issues with this book. The storyline jumps all over the place throughout. Just within one chapter, without any warning, you are in 2-4 different perspectives.
There are major plot holes all throughout the book that are brought up randomly and never explained. So the whole time you are just like ?????
There are always spontaneous new characters being introduced with absolutely no story or explanation.
I didn’t even clue in that this was a Sword in the Stone retelling until the last couple chapters! Whoops.
I wanted to DNF at 10% but I muscled through this. It was painful.
This is less a YA updated version of Mists of Avalon than something completely new that uses the names of the Arthur saga to tie it in to the story. I think that what threw me a little, the waiting for the Arthur stuff to match what I knew of his story. The mix of POVs and what seems to be a mix of eras and fashions and beliefs get a little confusing (eg Druids during the Middle Ages). Having said that, had the author used different names and belief systems this could have been a great book. We have a strong heroine who decides lead her people (kind of like Joan of Arc) against those who think they're heretics/pagans/a threat, fight scenes, romance - what more could you ask for?
eARC provided by publisher.
eARC provided by publisher.
Pues, me gustó el libro. Pensé que no tendria una segunda parte , pero a cómo termina, lo más seguro es que tengamos una continuación .
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
CONTENT WARNING: religious intolerance, discrimination/prejudice, murder, violence, blood, gore, torture, parental abandonment, alcohol abuse, death of animals
I’ve had the Netflix series on my watchlist for a few months now, but true to form, wanted to read the book first. However, this is one of the rare times in which I suspect that the show is going to be better than book. To my recollection, this has only happened one other time, and please don’t hate me for it, but I honestly think that the LOTR movies are better than the books (which I just couldn’t get into at all, although I do like the movies).
I’m all about the King Arthur stories. I always have been. It’s kind of my secret weakness when it comes to retellings. Okay, maybe not quite a secret. So this sounded like a dream come true — a feminist, gender-swapped retelling. But once I started reading, I realized that it left me completely off-balance. None of the characters were the ones that I recognized from any other story before. The characters who were traditionally good weren’t always in this story. And the villains weren’t necessarily villains in this retelling. But there were some really intriguing twists that I never quite saw coming, and by the end of the story, the major players in the traditional story were accounted for — Merlin, Arthur, Nimue, Lancelot, Guinevere, Gawain, Percival, Bors, Ector, Uther, and many more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Just don’t expect them to be who you think they are.
“Merlin the Magician was Merlin the Fraud. His magic was lost and had been for almost seventeen years. It was only spy-craft and will and pride and the gullible nature of men that had sustained the lie all these years.”
The story is told in a kind of choppy style, bouncing between various different characters. There’s a ton of action, as Nimue strives to become the protector of her people, and the others work towards their own goals, either with her or against her. It’s a gory story, pitting the Fey Folk against the Red Paladins, a Catholic army hell-bent on eliminating all threats, including the Fey, in the most brutal ways imaginable. And they don’t limit their attacks to adults — they even torture and kill children. So this isn’t a story for the soft-hearted.
I struggled with a few aspects of the story. First of all, it’s fairly clear early on that Nimue has a little training with wielding a sword, but it isn’t one of her strongest skills. She’s easily disarmed while play-fighting with Arthur, but once she finds the Sword of Power, she’s magically granted super-powerful sword fighting skills. She doesn’t even have to practice, and shows no inclination to practice to get any better. She rapidly goes from the outcast of her own village to leader of all the Fey Folk, without doing anything differently other than having this sword. I get that it’s magical, but how powerful is this sword? And while the artwork is beautiful, it didn’t quite match up to the story at times. The drawing of how Nimue got her scars specifically talks about her being in a nightdress without shoes, yet somehow in the drawing she’s fully dressed and wearing shoes. It bothered me more than it probably should have.
This just feels like the kind of story that would definitely translate to the screen better than it does to the page. The vivid imagery, the rapid switching between perspectives, and the frequency of battles and action scenes just seem made for an adaptation, and as I’m writing this, I’ve already started watching the Netflix series. So far I’m starting episode 2, and it looks like I’m right, as much as it hurts my heart to say the dreaded words … the show is better than the book.
Finally, the ending is left fairly open, clearing a way for a second book, even though there isn’t anything definite. The acknowledgements hint at a sequel, although nothing formal has been announced. I find myself kind of hoping that there is, if only so that I can find out what happens next.
I’ve had the Netflix series on my watchlist for a few months now, but true to form, wanted to read the book first. However, this is one of the rare times in which I suspect that the show is going to be better than book. To my recollection, this has only happened one other time, and please don’t hate me for it, but I honestly think that the LOTR movies are better than the books (which I just couldn’t get into at all, although I do like the movies).
I’m all about the King Arthur stories. I always have been. It’s kind of my secret weakness when it comes to retellings. Okay, maybe not quite a secret. So this sounded like a dream come true — a feminist, gender-swapped retelling. But once I started reading, I realized that it left me completely off-balance. None of the characters were the ones that I recognized from any other story before. The characters who were traditionally good weren’t always in this story. And the villains weren’t necessarily villains in this retelling. But there were some really intriguing twists that I never quite saw coming, and by the end of the story, the major players in the traditional story were accounted for — Merlin, Arthur, Nimue, Lancelot, Guinevere, Gawain, Percival, Bors, Ector, Uther, and many more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. Just don’t expect them to be who you think they are.
“Merlin the Magician was Merlin the Fraud. His magic was lost and had been for almost seventeen years. It was only spy-craft and will and pride and the gullible nature of men that had sustained the lie all these years.”
The story is told in a kind of choppy style, bouncing between various different characters. There’s a ton of action, as Nimue strives to become the protector of her people, and the others work towards their own goals, either with her or against her. It’s a gory story, pitting the Fey Folk against the Red Paladins, a Catholic army hell-bent on eliminating all threats, including the Fey, in the most brutal ways imaginable. And they don’t limit their attacks to adults — they even torture and kill children. So this isn’t a story for the soft-hearted.
I struggled with a few aspects of the story. First of all, it’s fairly clear early on that Nimue has a little training with wielding a sword, but it isn’t one of her strongest skills. She’s easily disarmed while play-fighting with Arthur, but once she finds the Sword of Power, she’s magically granted super-powerful sword fighting skills. She doesn’t even have to practice, and shows no inclination to practice to get any better. She rapidly goes from the outcast of her own village to leader of all the Fey Folk, without doing anything differently other than having this sword. I get that it’s magical, but how powerful is this sword? And while the artwork is beautiful, it didn’t quite match up to the story at times. The drawing of how Nimue got her scars specifically talks about her being in a nightdress without shoes, yet somehow in the drawing she’s fully dressed and wearing shoes. It bothered me more than it probably should have.
This just feels like the kind of story that would definitely translate to the screen better than it does to the page. The vivid imagery, the rapid switching between perspectives, and the frequency of battles and action scenes just seem made for an adaptation, and as I’m writing this, I’ve already started watching the Netflix series. So far I’m starting episode 2, and it looks like I’m right, as much as it hurts my heart to say the dreaded words … the show is better than the book.
Finally, the ending is left fairly open, clearing a way for a second book, even though there isn’t anything definite. The acknowledgements hint at a sequel, although nothing formal has been announced. I find myself kind of hoping that there is, if only so that I can find out what happens next.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I would give this 3.5 stars. The plot was good, but the story was rushed. I normally like fast-paced stories, but this needed more description and character development. Frank Miller's illustrations left much to be desired, which was a shame because I'm a fan of Frank Miller's work.
All in all, I enjoyed Cursed and would read a sequel if one is written.
All in all, I enjoyed Cursed and would read a sequel if one is written.
I got Cursed last year but I haven't had the time to read but when I found out there would be a Netflix show on it, I knew I had to read it soon. This book is amazing, both physically and in terms of the actual story. I haven’t read many retellings on the Arthurian legend but I really enjoyed this one. It is darker but still manages to have positive aspects to it. There are a lot of books that I really like but books like this one are few. I got the same feeling reading this book that I got when I read The School for Good and Evil books (my favorite books of all time). Both authors talk about fairy tales that are very common and well-known and they make their own. Cursed is fast-paced and has a lot of adventure and action and there wasn’t a point where I wasn’t interested. I love the characters and appreciate that they all have made mistakes in the past which makes them more realistic. But enough about the good things, there were a few things I didn’t like that made me not rate it 5 stars. There were a lot of things happening in the last few chapters that made me not enjoy it as much. There were things that got introduced in the last 2 or 3 chapters and left me with questions and as I finished the book, there were some things that were left unanswered. Overall, I enjoyed it but there some things that put me off towards the end.
There were just so many things that kept annoying me. Arthurian legend has been my thing since I was eight or so. I actually groaned at some of the reveals.