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A review by aliciasrealm
Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi
4.5
The series hits its stride in this sequel. I was fully invested throughout the story, which dove deeper into the lore and history of the world. The romances felt more organic, thankfully with less of the "forbidden romance" drama, and the characters more developed. I appreciated the further exploration of Fae society, addressing issues such as the Lightless's lower status and the use of labor as punishment for crimes.
We are introduced to new characters, whose perspectives add a lot to the story, and a new romance that was so sweet. However, the multi-POV narrative means that readers always have more information than individual characters, which was often frustrating when the characters struggled to pick up on solutions that felt so obvious to me.
I was also frustrated by how frequently I saw lines to the effect of "and then Lettle explained what she had discovered" or "Yeeran explained it all in detail." I understand the need to skip over exchanges that would be repetitive for the reader, but this felt like a clumsy way to accomplish that. There aren't that many POVs, yet that sort of line came up often enough to feel repetitive in itself.
Still, this book exceeded my expectations for a sequel, and I felt that it was better than the first book. The conclusion left me reeling, and I am so excited for the next release.
Bonus points for including a brief recap of the previous book. I still love this series for showing a queer normative society that is inclusive of nonbinary and trans people.
We are introduced to new characters, whose perspectives add a lot to the story, and a new romance that was so sweet. However, the multi-POV narrative means that readers always have more information than individual characters, which was often frustrating when the characters struggled to pick up on solutions that felt so obvious to me.
I was also frustrated by how frequently I saw lines to the effect of "and then Lettle explained what she had discovered" or "Yeeran explained it all in detail." I understand the need to skip over exchanges that would be repetitive for the reader, but this felt like a clumsy way to accomplish that. There aren't that many POVs, yet that sort of line came up often enough to feel repetitive in itself.
Still, this book exceeded my expectations for a sequel, and I felt that it was better than the first book. The conclusion left me reeling, and I am so excited for the next release.
Bonus points for including a brief recap of the previous book. I still love this series for showing a queer normative society that is inclusive of nonbinary and trans people.