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markyon 's review for:
Cursed: An Anthology
by Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane
Curses – they’re a staple of Fantasy fiction, aren’t they? From Snow White’s cursed apple in the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales (1812) to Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris (1933), stories about ‘deals with a unexpected cost’ or the unexpected price victims have to pay for their misdeeds have been a staple of the genre for hundreds of years.
It may therefore be a little difficult, if not intimidating, therefore, to come up with an anthology of new/recently published fiction that looks at curses with a fresh eye. However, Marie and Paul have done well. This is a cracking collection of stories.
There are 18 stories here and 2 pieces of poetry by Jane Yolen bookending the collection. 13 of these are new to this collection.
What impressed me most here is the range of stories included. Some are written as fairy tale (Christina Henry’s take on Snow White, for example), some contemporary (Christopher Fowler’s Hated). There’re stories that are amusing (M R Carey’s take on what can happen when you are granted a demon’s wishes, Henry and the Snakewood Box, Charlie Jane Anders’s magical tavern tale Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie) and those that are definitely not (James Brogden’s Skin is a memorable story that digs deep into body-horror.)
Some, such as Maura McHugh’s Faith & Fred ( a story of two screaming skulls found in an old house) are deceptively easy to follow and lure you into a sense of familiarity (often mistaken), whilst some are deliberately and discordantly odd (Jen Williams’ Listen). There’s nasty and nice and tales of good and evil, all of which seem to cover the remit admirably. Some of the characters are victims, others are most definitely not.
There’s also some unusual takes on traditional fairy tales – Neil Gaiman’s Troll Bridge deals with those elusive creatures in the title, Christina Henry’s As Red as Blood, As White as Snow and Karen Joy Fowler’s The Black Fairy’s Curse are both more adult takes on the traditional Snow White story, Christopher Golden’s Wendy, Darling is an alternate reimaging of Peter Pan and Alison Littlewood’s The Merrie Dancers is Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes given a makeover. Little Red by Jane Yolen and her son Adam Stemple is a new take on the Red Riding Hood fairy story.
In the end, the collection delivers a strong set of stories and gave me what I would anticipate from such a book. Each story is different from the one before it, which meant that I went from one story to the next, never quite knowing what to expect.
Whilst there are big hitters that will sell the book (Neil Gaiman, naturally, Christopher Golden, Charlie Jane Anders) it was the surprises that the lesser-known authors provided that will keep you reading. I particularly enjoyed Lilith Saintcrow’s Haza and Ghani, a chilling tale of sisterly revenge that fans of Game of Thrones will enjoy – not something I was expecting to type in this review!
In summary, Cursed is a superior collection that I think you will enjoy enormously and will keep thinking about after you have finished. It may introduce you to some authors you may not have read before, and also remind you how good some of the better-known authors are. I suspect that you will probably want to read more of some of these authors afterwards, and the editors provide a very useful aide-memoire at the end of the book for you to use to go and discover more. It is a sign of the quality of this book that after reading this I went and bought more – which I guess is what an author wants!
It may therefore be a little difficult, if not intimidating, therefore, to come up with an anthology of new/recently published fiction that looks at curses with a fresh eye. However, Marie and Paul have done well. This is a cracking collection of stories.
There are 18 stories here and 2 pieces of poetry by Jane Yolen bookending the collection. 13 of these are new to this collection.
What impressed me most here is the range of stories included. Some are written as fairy tale (Christina Henry’s take on Snow White, for example), some contemporary (Christopher Fowler’s Hated). There’re stories that are amusing (M R Carey’s take on what can happen when you are granted a demon’s wishes, Henry and the Snakewood Box, Charlie Jane Anders’s magical tavern tale Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie) and those that are definitely not (James Brogden’s Skin is a memorable story that digs deep into body-horror.)
Some, such as Maura McHugh’s Faith & Fred ( a story of two screaming skulls found in an old house) are deceptively easy to follow and lure you into a sense of familiarity (often mistaken), whilst some are deliberately and discordantly odd (Jen Williams’ Listen). There’s nasty and nice and tales of good and evil, all of which seem to cover the remit admirably. Some of the characters are victims, others are most definitely not.
There’s also some unusual takes on traditional fairy tales – Neil Gaiman’s Troll Bridge deals with those elusive creatures in the title, Christina Henry’s As Red as Blood, As White as Snow and Karen Joy Fowler’s The Black Fairy’s Curse are both more adult takes on the traditional Snow White story, Christopher Golden’s Wendy, Darling is an alternate reimaging of Peter Pan and Alison Littlewood’s The Merrie Dancers is Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes given a makeover. Little Red by Jane Yolen and her son Adam Stemple is a new take on the Red Riding Hood fairy story.
In the end, the collection delivers a strong set of stories and gave me what I would anticipate from such a book. Each story is different from the one before it, which meant that I went from one story to the next, never quite knowing what to expect.
Whilst there are big hitters that will sell the book (Neil Gaiman, naturally, Christopher Golden, Charlie Jane Anders) it was the surprises that the lesser-known authors provided that will keep you reading. I particularly enjoyed Lilith Saintcrow’s Haza and Ghani, a chilling tale of sisterly revenge that fans of Game of Thrones will enjoy – not something I was expecting to type in this review!
In summary, Cursed is a superior collection that I think you will enjoy enormously and will keep thinking about after you have finished. It may introduce you to some authors you may not have read before, and also remind you how good some of the better-known authors are. I suspect that you will probably want to read more of some of these authors afterwards, and the editors provide a very useful aide-memoire at the end of the book for you to use to go and discover more. It is a sign of the quality of this book that after reading this I went and bought more – which I guess is what an author wants!