Once Upon a Bibliophile

BOOK- Cursed (Gilded Duology #2)

AUTHOR- Marissa Meyer

GENRE- fantasy, legend retelling

RATING- 2.5/5

Reading Cursed almost made Gilded look like a masterpiece.

Almost.

If I hadn’t been desperately clinging to the faint hope that the ending might be good, I would have DNF’d Cursed. But I’d promised you guys a sequel review and, despite everything, I just had to see it through.

PLOT

If Serilda and Gild cannot break the curse that binds them to Adalheid’s haunted castle, they will remain trapped there forever. As the Endless Moon approaches, the Erlking plans to capture not one, but all seven gods, earning the power to alter the mortal world forever.

Serilda and Gild have no choice but to try and thwart his plans, if only to protect their unborn child. As the evil forces gather, it seems only their love is strong enough to sustain them . . .

In Gilded, there were slight inconsistencies in terms of storyline and tone, but this was nothing compared to Cursed. I found most of the plot unnecessary, and it didn’t really feel at all like a sequel. It felt like a completely different story. There were too many differences between the story of Gilded and the story of Cursed for the latter to truly feel like a follow-up of the former.

Cursed might have been written by the same author, be part of the same duology, but it was nothing like Gilded. Where Gilded was a fairy tale retelling, Cursed as more of a feeble imitation. Where Gilded did at least have potential, Cursed was pure confusion.

My main problem with Cursed was that there was simply too much going on for any of the storylines have enough follow though. Things got forgotten, new ideas picked up for no reason, and the original story lost in the confusion.

I appreciate that Marissa tried to put her own spin on the original Rumpelstiltskin story, but I truly think that the book might have worked better if she’d stuck closer to the original legend. The idea of the Erlking capturing the seven gods and tearing down the veil to the mortal world seemed good in theory, but simply didn’t work with the story of Gild and Serilda being cursed and trapped in the haunted castle. Each could have been a story on their own, might have worked better as a story on their own. But when combined into one plot, they didn’t work. The timings felt off, Serilda solved everything too easily, storylines got confused with each other, and at one point I forgot what was going on in the original story.

Cursed was so far away from the original Rumpelstiltskin story that it no longer even felt like a retelling – had I not known that this was what it was intended to be, I would have believed it to be just a fantasy.

Cursed advertised itself as a legend retelling/ romance novel. I found that it was neither, because on top of the plot flaws, the romance simply…wasn’t there.

I mentioned in my review of Gilded that I felt like the romance between Gild and Serilda seemed…off. In Gilded, it felt like everything happened too quickly, and Gild and Serida’s relationship just felt unnatural.

In Cursed, this feeling of unnaturalness was magnified by the fact that they spend no time together. Considering that this is supposed to be a romance novel, the amount of actual romance is laughable. I can count on one hand the amount of time that Serilda and Gild had a meaningful interaction.

I’m glad that their love wasn’t the only thing “strong enough to sustain them “, otherwise things might have ended very badly for Serilda and Gild.

I was really really dissapointed that Cursed had so many plot flaws, because I genuinely like the idea of Serilda and Gild being cursed, and trapped in a haunted castle – especially paired with Marissa’s haunting-yet-humerous tone. That plot didn’t need drawing out into anything longer; it was perfect on its own. And yet, I got the sense that the author was trying to aim for something more. I can’t get over the fact that the perfect plot was right there, and yet it got overshadowed by another.

In terms of writing, Cursed wasn’t that bad. But that was it. Here I will go back one again to what is now becoming almost my catchphrase: it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst.

There wasn’t anything actually wrong with Marissa’s writing. But the almost magical tone of Gilded was replaced by something more…generic. Considering the basic premise of the haunted castle and being cursed and all that jazz, you’d expect the feel of the book to be more haunting, gothic. But instead, you got a tone that could by some be described as ‘lighthearted’ , but to me simply made the book feel childish.

Granted, dark fantasy is by far my favorite genre and I actively seek out books with more whimsical, romantic tones. However, when faced with a plot that does lean a tiny bit more into darker fantasy tropes, I would expect the writing to reflect that. The result of this was that it felt almost like the characters weren’t taking things seriously. There wasn’t enough evidence of the villain’s crimes for me to truly root for Serilda and Gild’s success. Not to mention the fact that the Erlking turned out to be nothing but fluff.

CHARACTERS

I found the characters in Cursed to be…average. I don’t actually have a lot to say about the individual characters themselves, because they are exactly the same as they were in Gilded.

However, one thing I do want to talk about is the villain. The Erlking. The vicious, evil, kidnapping, murderous…sofite.

*Sighs*

Normally, I have nothing against a character who is morally grey/portrayed villainously having a soft side and revealing that they have a passion for flower arranging and baking cookies.

Oh wait. Yes I do.

And the reason for that is simple. They’re supposed to be the villain. If I wanted a misunderstood hero, I would read a book about a misunderstood hero. But I am not reading a book about a misunderstood hero. I am reading Cursed, where there are two heroes and a villain. A villain who wants to kill us all.

I don’t want to hear about how he’s not actually the villain, everyone just portrays him as evil, but if they got to know him, they would just be absolute besties and spend their days knitting toy rabbits and drinking tea.

Like, no offence to the Erlking or whatever, but he’s supposed to be the villain. Not the misunderstood hero.

Also, on a deeper level than my discontentment, the villain not actually being very…villainous takes a lot away from the story. If the protagonists have no problem to solve, no motivation behind their actions, what kind of story is it?

The antagonist is the most crucial character type in a novel- and especially in fantasy. Not only do they provide an actual story and create a problem for the protagonist to solve, but they are also largely responsible for the protagonist’s character arc.

Cursed is proof of what happens when that figure is taken from a story. There is less motivation, less conflict, less story.

CONCLUSION

Reading Gilded maybe wasn’t the wisest book choice I ever made, but reading Cursed was something I truly regret. The plot was confused and disconnected, the characters generic and the antagonist lacking in well…everything. I was really dissapointed that the Gilded duology didn’t live up to my expectations and deliver in the way I thought it would. 2.5 stars from me.