Cursed – Marissa Meyer

3/5 stars.

I am so confused.

Cursed is the sequel to Gilded. This review will contain spoilers for Gilded. If you’d like to read that review, which is spoiler free, you can find it here.

Right.

Gilded took me a whole month to get through. I started and stopped and it just dragged.

Cursed? I finished it in two days. I sat there and I devoured it.

And I’m conflicted about it.

The last book ended with Serilda pregnant and imprisoned by the Erlking. This book picks up where that one left off. It follows Serilda as she learns more about this world and the Erlking and Gild. Because this book isn’t confined to the original repetitiveness of the original Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, it has better pacing. It was easier to read. I still can’t give it more than three stars. I just can’t bring myself to.

Parts of the book are pleasant to read. The world is intriguing, complex, and dark. I loved reading about it. The incorporation of German folklore added a layer of depth to the world building that I truly enjoyed. Most of it takes place within the castle, so the world still feels underdeveloped.

But geez, Serilda. Freaking Serilda.

I cannot stand her.

I’d compare her to Alina Starkov from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. That’s not a good comparison.

Serilda is hard to understand. I not understand her motives. I do not care about her motives. I hated that she just wandered the castle, was dragged around by the Erlking, and was pulled into Gild’s shenanigans. I don’t feel like she truly started anything. She never took initiative. And because I didn’t understand or care about her motives, it was challenging to consider her empowered when she finally did make decisions for herself. The most infuriating part of this is the fact that she is a mother. I’m not a mother, but I feel like she didn’t have the intense drive to protect her child. That aspect of this story was lacking.

I can see why she did what she did. That connection is very simply illustrated. It didn’t work for me.

But the Erlking? I liked him. He is a great antagonist. He had a motive I could feel empathy for. In fact, I saw him as a victim of his toxic relationship. That does not justify anything he does. Absolutely not. He’s still a very cruel person. But uh… Stockholm syndrome much? With his dead wife?

Yeah.

Gild was flat. His connection to Serilda felt shallow and childish.

Their relationship is another reason I can’t give this book more than three stars. I see the potential. I was moved at least a little but by the end of the book. It’s just hard to have sympathy for a relationship that is founded on so little. There were a couple of sentences that tried to remedy that circumstance, but it was like trying to put a bandaid on a bullet wound—far too little way too late.

The plot was muddled. It felt like a second draft, not a final draft. It felt like a book that was written without an outline and didn’t undergo as many revisions as it needed. If Marissa Meyer had taken more liberties with the fairy tale retelling, then it would have felt more comprehensible in the form of a novel.

I’m glad I read this book and got to read about the world. Truly, I loved being in it.

I’d love to see this done again, but better.

And without Serilda.

3/5 stars.

“Stories might be an escape, but in the end, that’s all they were. In the end, reality always crashed back in.”

Cursed, Marissa Meyer