Cursed

Absolutely loved this book! I enjoyed the characters and loved the time era with a fantasy/mystical twist on it. Unfortunately, the book I purchased for some reason was missing 50 pages in the middle of it so I missed a few chapters but I got to watch the series on Netflix and it followed the book fairly close. Overall, great read. Anyone who reads will enjoy.

In retrospect, picking up a novel because you like the artist and not the writer might’ve been a mistake, but still I felt like this had no excuse to be as bad as it was. SOON TO BE A NETFLIX SERIES, it says printed on the cover, giving me the illusion that this was a novel some executive had picked up and thought was excellent, not a poorly-written promotion for an upcoming TV show. This read more like a script for the television show than an actual novel; upon some digging, the author Thomas Wheeler is apparently more known for Hollywood writing than novel writing, so I guess that makes sense. The novel was shallow in almost all ways, flavorless characters and motivations, no descriptions or rich inner thoughts. Perhaps the only thing inspired was the setting, but considering Wheeler owes most of the world-building to legends dating back earlier than the 12th century, I feel like I can’t even give him that. And Frank Miller let me down for with some truly terrible illustrations, so the one thing I picked up the book for wasn’t even satisfying.

To start with, a teenager named Nimue is our protagonist, meant to be the recreation of the legendary Lady of the Lake. Our Morgana is a tincture-maker who serves food. Several other characters who appear are just shades of their legendary counterparts, so unlike the originals to the point where it felt like the novel was just name-grabbing rather than reimagining characters. When I read a retelling, I expect there to be some similarity to the original: other young adult novels like A Curse So Dark and Lonely effectively place new characters in familiar plots with a twist, The Sleeper and the Spindle tells another perspective to a well-known story, and even books I’m not so fond of, like A Court of Thorns and Roses, more accurately retell fairy tales and legends. This book was not a retelling. The characters were completely different and so were the plots and settings, so what’s the retelling? The novel just took the names of legendary figures and shoved them into a whole new story with new personalities. At that point, just rename them. Do a different book without relying on the legend of King Arthur to sell your books for you.

Perhaps if these new characters were more interesting I’d be willing to forgive the extreme differentiations from the myth. But they’re not. Nimue and her friends are completely flat, with very little thoughts given to why they do the things they do, and when their motivations are clear, it’s something simple like: “My mom told me to do it.” That is literally Nimue’s main motivation for the book. Her initial characterization is interesting: she’s ostracized from her people because of an attack that left her with brutal scarring, and I could’ve definitely seen this leading towards a warrior or suspicious mindset. Having Nimue have to deal with the fact that she can save the people who have been cruel to her for her whole life could’ve been moving, or as she grows in power, she could’ve delved into cruelty in return for her treatment. But none of this happens. She doesn’t wrestle with any of the things a sixteen year old would wrestle with: her lack of friendships, the abuse she suffered as a child, finding her place in an unfriendly world… all of these are the most basic of themes, and yet we had no character journey aside from “woman gets sword and does cool things”. I feel like this book really fell victim to the “strong independent woman” mentality for their protagonists. Nimue isn’t a good protagonist because she kicks ass and chops off people’s heads. She needs inner thoughts and emotions, more of a dimensional personality outside of having a cool sword.

I can apply my problems with Nimue to almost every other character in the book. Flat, lifeless. I live for a good villain, and while critiques of religion can be interesting, why does the Christian religion exist in a second-world fantasy? It was so out of place. If the author had stayed in Camelot and with the original setting of the legends, I could see it, but the world of Cursed is far more magical, with a myriad of creatures and a completely different setting than Camelot, which at least supposedly existed in our world. Our baddies are a Christian sect embarking on a genocide to rid the world of magical creatures. This conglomeration of invention and original myth just didn’t work for me, and the villains were never clear on their motivations either. It was like the author was trying to recreate the Crusades, except without the necessary world-building and history that would lead up to such an event in this fantasy world. If you want to convince me that Christianity is the one thing that would stick around in a completely different fantasy setting, you have to do the work to make me believe it.

I had a lot of issues with the ending, but I’ll keep this review spoiler-free. I’ll just say it was unsatisfying, just like the rest of Nimue’s character arc, with no real punch or emotional finish that might’ve been able to salvage at least part of the novel. There’s a deus ex machina that wraps up the story quite neatly, throwing in some final characters from Arthurian legends to round out the round table, although they don’t add anything to the narrative.

Frank Miller’s art really leaves something to be desired here. Comic books are a huge love of mine, so I was obviously drawn to the name of such a legend on this book, but frankly it was just… ugly? I can’t even call it stylistic. I feel like I can’t say as much about the art as I’d like; my copy of Cursed is actually an ARC, so I only have about half the black-and-white illustrations, and only one of the full-colored ones. What I saw I didn’t like, but I’ll admit it’s unfair to judge what could maybe be some amazing later illustrations when I don’t have them. (Also, Nimue in the colored illustration is obviously a woman of color but the Netflix adaptation has her being played by Katherine Langford? What’s up with that?)

This whole thing was just a mess from beginning to end. I love Arthurian myths, I’ve studied them in an academic setting, I’m excited about them, and was let down on all fronts. If you’ve got a better Arthurian recommendation for me (The Guinevere Deception? Once & Future?) I’d love to hear it.

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For anyone who is a devoted fan of Arthur and Merlin, this book may not be for you. It really does not follow the original story and Arthur plays a very different role in this one. That being said, I found the book extremely interesting and intriguing. Nimue is the name used for The Lady in the Lake and the way the author twists the story around Nimue and the sword is unique. You will find many of the same characters from the Arthur story throughout the book and some new ones. Nimue and Arthur form a strong friendship that has the potential to become more. There are a few surprises as well. The fight scenes are well written and violent. The descriptions of the battles make a very vivid picture for the reader. The ending gave me the feeling that there may be a book 2 in the works. I hope so. There is still much to learn from Nimue and her friends.