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A review by valefranze
Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I am aware that in my review of Faebound I was being very optimistic. I really like the setting of this trilogy, so I truly hoped for a significant improvement. Needless to say, the things I hoped would change stayed the exact same. 
The characters stayed flat and unlikable. Character development is paramount in fantasy writing, I just don’t get how these characters don’t seem to grow or change with all they go through. I don’t expect a deep analysis of their psyche, but I’d appreciate them changing their mind or questioning themselves sometimes. 
The love stories are still not believable. It’s just people finding each other attractive and they have sex. The crazy part is that I feel like the author writes better love stories when there’s men involved, there’s more depth to the relationships then. The wlw couple shouldn’t even be together. 
Lastly, there was too much foreshadowing and too many hints. This does not go for all the plot twists, but I realized
Adler was part human
at the beginning of the book and the characters only at the end. It was a little anticlimactic. 
These are all things I had noticed in the first book already. I still enjoyed both books because of the setting and plot. I must note that it didn’t advance much in this book, although the cliffhanger at the end really sparked my curiosity. I hope the last book won’t be too rushed, can’t wait to see what happens next! 
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