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wordsbychiara 's review for:
A Curse So Dark and Lonely
by Brigid Kemmerer
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
*sigh* I really wanted to love this book, but alas, the magic didn’t happen.
Let’s start with some positive thoughts, but I warn you, even those lead to my criticism because even those have flaws.
I really do believe that A Curse So Dark and Lonely gives a very original spin to the story of Beauty and the Beast. I liked the modern approach that the author chose. Our protagonist, Harper, comes from a modern day Washington, DC and she gets a full package: smartphones, gangsters and even a handicap, which was an element of diversity that I really appreciated. I liked how this created a very stark contrast with the world of Emberfall, which is the magical realm in which most of the story takes place and where the curse happens.
I have to admit though, the originality is kind of where my appreciation of this book ends.
Sometimes, it just felt too original, considered how the book is promoted as a fairytale retelling. Because the truth is, I saw very little Beauty and the Beast in this story. Despite the initial distrust that Harper feels for the prince, Rhen, the distrust fades quite quickly. As in, it fades after 24h. Even Belle takes longer to start trusting the Beast in the Disney movie, and the entire thing literally lasts only 80 minutes. I also felt like the curse, despite appearances, really wasn’t a big part of this story. It was mentioned quite a lot, but it was seen quite little. I would have easily forgotten there was a curse at all if the characters didn’t mention it every other page, and its resolution was a bit underwhelming.
I also wasn’t a big fan of the world-building. For starters, it’s never quite explained how Washington DC and Emberfall coexist. What is the relation between these two worlds? No one knows. Secondly, even the world-building in Emberfall isn’t properly explained. New territories were just thrust into the story in the middle of the book, and the conflict between these territories becomes quite important…except that I didn’t really understand why? It just felt a bit rushed and, thus, confusing to read. Confusion breeds boredom.
But I could have easily enjoyed the book even with all these flaws if the cast of characters had been compelling to read about, but this was not the case and it was probably the biggest issue I had with it. There was a lack of real exploration of the character dynamics, a lack of maturity in the characters themselves and they mostly remained the same from start to finish. I didn’t see a real growth for them.
The only character I truly enjoyed was Grey, the guard, who is not only the reason why I continued reading the book. His character was the one who broke the monotony the others were subjected to and the ending of the book really left me curious to see the direction in which his story is going.
So there you have it. That’s my review. Of course, all of these are personal opinions. As always with hyped books, there’s many people who love them and many people who don’t. Overall, this is a book I would recommend to fans of Beauty and the Beast or fairytales in general, but not to readers who prefer plot-driven books.
*sigh* I really wanted to love this book, but alas, the magic didn’t happen.
Let’s start with some positive thoughts, but I warn you, even those lead to my criticism because even those have flaws.
I really do believe that A Curse So Dark and Lonely gives a very original spin to the story of Beauty and the Beast. I liked the modern approach that the author chose. Our protagonist, Harper, comes from a modern day Washington, DC and she gets a full package: smartphones, gangsters and even a handicap, which was an element of diversity that I really appreciated. I liked how this created a very stark contrast with the world of Emberfall, which is the magical realm in which most of the story takes place and where the curse happens.
I have to admit though, the originality is kind of where my appreciation of this book ends.
Sometimes, it just felt too original, considered how the book is promoted as a fairytale retelling. Because the truth is, I saw very little Beauty and the Beast in this story. Despite the initial distrust that Harper feels for the prince, Rhen, the distrust fades quite quickly. As in, it fades after 24h. Even Belle takes longer to start trusting the Beast in the Disney movie, and the entire thing literally lasts only 80 minutes. I also felt like the curse, despite appearances, really wasn’t a big part of this story. It was mentioned quite a lot, but it was seen quite little. I would have easily forgotten there was a curse at all if the characters didn’t mention it every other page, and its resolution was a bit underwhelming.
I also wasn’t a big fan of the world-building. For starters, it’s never quite explained how Washington DC and Emberfall coexist. What is the relation between these two worlds? No one knows. Secondly, even the world-building in Emberfall isn’t properly explained. New territories were just thrust into the story in the middle of the book, and the conflict between these territories becomes quite important…except that I didn’t really understand why? It just felt a bit rushed and, thus, confusing to read. Confusion breeds boredom.
But I could have easily enjoyed the book even with all these flaws if the cast of characters had been compelling to read about, but this was not the case and it was probably the biggest issue I had with it. There was a lack of real exploration of the character dynamics, a lack of maturity in the characters themselves and they mostly remained the same from start to finish. I didn’t see a real growth for them.
The only character I truly enjoyed was Grey, the guard, who is not only the reason why I continued reading the book. His character was the one who broke the monotony the others were subjected to and the ending of the book really left me curious to see the direction in which his story is going.
So there you have it. That’s my review. Of course, all of these are personal opinions. As always with hyped books, there’s many people who love them and many people who don’t. Overall, this is a book I would recommend to fans of Beauty and the Beast or fairytales in general, but not to readers who prefer plot-driven books.