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chelseas_book_reviews's review against another edition
5.0
The book review for Cursed Legacy by H. Everend is FINALLY FINALLY here! This book is a horror novel about a house that's passed down to four bloodlines that has a sinister force that leaves them being haunted and hunted! A sinister force brews in the home and he'll rise forever if He's allowed to have his way! Darkness starts growing and there's no escape! There's an ancient relic called the helm that has power that could save them, but the eldritch forces backfire and it makes them come even closer to the evils within the walls of this house! Eventually, the vulnerable are driven mad ad the evil forces make their way into their heads! The families are forced to sever bonds and make sacrifices to whatever or whoever they must to survive! The families have to gather their magical defenses to ward off this evil, but like most evil things, this force isn't alone, and the underlings are just as hungry as he is! This book had me gripped from start to finish and it had me feeling the dread that the characters were feeling. I gasped so many times throughout this book and had to stifle my screams at some parts! This was a scary book, but the fear was the fun part! Harriet knocked this book out of the ballpark and I NEED to read more of her work!!!!
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
sdapelo's review against another edition
4.0
Cursed Legacy by H. Everend is a unique concept for a horror novel. It follows several generations of four specific families, starting with the Salam Witch Trials period in, I’m assuming, a Northeastern Coast town. It’s never stated where, but for the time period that’s the assumption. I will admit, I loved the cover, and that’s what drew me to this book.
Each generation is trying to figure out their family curse and how to end it. Mostly, they don’t understand that someone cursed them at all and discover it through chance. Finally, the last generation, in modern time, attempts to go against the big bad by themselves.
I will admit, I got lost several times in the book. Unfortunately, while going through several generations is an awesome idea, we’re jumping around so much I don’t get invested in any of the characters. Plus, some names were uncommon for the time and the cursing didn’t fit the period either.
There are also a few instances of the wrong word being used (such as find for fine), but as this is the author’s first book, I give a lot leeway for this.
I’m a sucker for tropes and a lot of the horror tropes are used. For example, a house in the scary woods, the evil tree from Evil Dead, and dolls (enough said there). The pacing was good, which kept me reading.
I feel for a first book, this was satisfactory. It didn’t have the ending I was expecting, which I consider a good thing. I’m rarely surprised with any ending. I will recommend this book to any friends looking for a horror novel with an unusual theme.
Each generation is trying to figure out their family curse and how to end it. Mostly, they don’t understand that someone cursed them at all and discover it through chance. Finally, the last generation, in modern time, attempts to go against the big bad by themselves.
I will admit, I got lost several times in the book. Unfortunately, while going through several generations is an awesome idea, we’re jumping around so much I don’t get invested in any of the characters. Plus, some names were uncommon for the time and the cursing didn’t fit the period either.
There are also a few instances of the wrong word being used (such as find for fine), but as this is the author’s first book, I give a lot leeway for this.
I’m a sucker for tropes and a lot of the horror tropes are used. For example, a house in the scary woods, the evil tree from Evil Dead, and dolls (enough said there). The pacing was good, which kept me reading.
I feel for a first book, this was satisfactory. It didn’t have the ending I was expecting, which I consider a good thing. I’m rarely surprised with any ending. I will recommend this book to any friends looking for a horror novel with an unusual theme.
adperfectamconsilium's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I liked the premise of this one. A story following generations of four families over more than four centuries. A growing evil cursing the families and using them and a house to build its power and unleash itself upon the world.
Unfortunately it just didn't click with me.
The positive side is the general idea, the writing style is easy to read, there are nice illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and there are some good set pieces with multiple character deaths, demonic creatures and artifacts and diabolical possession.
Each chapter is in a different time period. We start in the 1600s and then follow successive generations in following chapters until we get close to the present day and the big finale.
While this style seemed a good idea I found it didn't give enough time to get to know any of the characters. It was much more plot focused.
By the time I'd got a third of the way through the book I found it confusing as to who was related to each other and how they linked to their ancestors.
No one is safe. There are many gruesome deaths to please horror fans but with trying to keep straight who everyone was I was bewildered by how there were enough family members left alive for there to be further generations. I needed a score sheet.
I also found it repetitive. New chapter, new POV, family members brought together to either fight or feed the evil, possession and betrayal, death and destruction and horror and fade out and repeat. The horror was no longer a surprise, the characters had no time to react and I began to feel a little bored. It didn't help that there were lots of typos, wrong words and grammatical errors. I think I started noticing them more as the story wasn't engaging me.
Great idea but I think a fantastic novel could have been made from expanding the first and last generations and their stories and missing out everything in the middle.
Unfortunately it just didn't click with me.
The positive side is the general idea, the writing style is easy to read, there are nice illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and there are some good set pieces with multiple character deaths, demonic creatures and artifacts and diabolical possession.
Each chapter is in a different time period. We start in the 1600s and then follow successive generations in following chapters until we get close to the present day and the big finale.
While this style seemed a good idea I found it didn't give enough time to get to know any of the characters. It was much more plot focused.
By the time I'd got a third of the way through the book I found it confusing as to who was related to each other and how they linked to their ancestors.
No one is safe. There are many gruesome deaths to please horror fans but with trying to keep straight who everyone was I was bewildered by how there were enough family members left alive for there to be further generations. I needed a score sheet.
I also found it repetitive. New chapter, new POV, family members brought together to either fight or feed the evil, possession and betrayal, death and destruction and horror and fade out and repeat. The horror was no longer a surprise, the characters had no time to react and I began to feel a little bored. It didn't help that there were lots of typos, wrong words and grammatical errors. I think I started noticing them more as the story wasn't engaging me.
Great idea but I think a fantastic novel could have been made from expanding the first and last generations and their stories and missing out everything in the middle.
nikneedsnovels's review
5.0
Four families are connected to a house, and each other. Cursed people, magical objects, evil creatures, historical horror, a story that lasts 100s of years!! It was an exciting scavenger hunt to find all the objects in the middle of a horror story. Great mix of horror and fantasy!
brigwen's review
1.0
Sorry this book was not for me. I DNF’ed it at 52%. I couldn’t bring myself to finish
The plot itself sounded really intriguing. Four families. One house. All cursed by a blood thirsty monster. But there was so many details left out in each chapter. There was grammatical errors galore and sadly just could not keep me interested. It sounded great but unfortunately fell flat for me.
The plot itself sounded really intriguing. Four families. One house. All cursed by a blood thirsty monster. But there was so many details left out in each chapter. There was grammatical errors galore and sadly just could not keep me interested. It sounded great but unfortunately fell flat for me.
hayleyanderton96's review
4.0
I loved the premise for this book!! The curse was multilayered and interesting, and each chapter felt almost like it’s own self contained short story. There were a LOT of characters to get to grips with which did take a bit of getting used to, but I did feel that the book just continued getting better and better. With each new chapter I wondered what horrors would befall the new characters, and how history would come to repeat itself with the four families.
A good debut!
A good debut!
still_reading_sam's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
alicia_ann_reads's review
Not my kind of book. Very gruesome,
Murder after murder and mutilation.
Murder after murder and mutilation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
icnicastro's review
The plot itself is intriguing and as each chapter changed to a new generation of characters I had some interest piqued, but I found things were moving too quickly with not enough world building.
More often than not the reader is told things rather than shown, and I really couldn’t connect with the characters. One of the biggest reasons of that being that they didn’t seem to react to things realistically, ie. there are numerous deaths but I didn’t feel any remorse, shock, or time to process it with the character. I also noticed this book seems very plot focused rather than character focused, which doesn’t create a well fleshed experience.
I think there is so much potential with the lore, gore and story that Everend has crafted here, but for my liking there isn’t enough back story or development.
More often than not the reader is told things rather than shown, and I really couldn’t connect with the characters. One of the biggest reasons of that being that they didn’t seem to react to things realistically, ie. there are numerous deaths but I didn’t feel any remorse, shock, or time to process it with the character. I also noticed this book seems very plot focused rather than character focused, which doesn’t create a well fleshed experience.
I think there is so much potential with the lore, gore and story that Everend has crafted here, but for my liking there isn’t enough back story or development.
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