Cursed

I’m in a book coma. I’m so sad this is over what the freak. I need to inhale some MORE?? Ahem it was a little teeny slow and some boring parts that I was worried over but the whole book in general haves my heart

Just an incredibly bizarre choice of a book to write in the YA age group. I was already puzzled at the choice of writing the getting pregnant from your first time trope written in a book published in 2021 but this takes this to a whole new level.

This whole book felt vaguely misogynistic in a way I cannot quite pinpoint but I am surprised I have not encountered in any of the top reviews, be it negative or tentatively positive.

It is just very strange to revolve the majority of your YA book around pregnancy and some sort of a natural maternal instinct and child rearing. It is not really something that is on the mind of the majority of the target readership and comes off as strangely preachy. I know that in the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale - and a lot of classic fairytales - the motive of the firstborn child is very common. But there is a reason something like "Labyrinth" gave its adolescent heroine a step baby brother instead!

At the time when those stories were created, procreation and ensuring that offsprings are not only created but also survive in order to guarantee the continued existence of the family were very important parts of the lives of commonfolk. The fear of being unable to bear children or losing your children was a very real possibility. But how would something like that be relevant to the majority of Western adolescents that this book is targetted to?

Add to that the fact that for a lot of those people, those children would have been very much wanted - unlike Serilda who gets pregnant accidentally.

And it is not like the book had anything interesting to say about motherhood or childrearing that it really needed to interpret the original fairytale in this direction or dedicate such a large portion of the book to it. Even with the plotline about Perchta wanting kids, it could have been done more interestingly - are there not adoptive parents who are incredibly loving? Are there not some who genuinely desire kids but cannot have any and are willing commit atrocious acts from love? Or is Marissa Meyer just not interested in writing a more layer, complex and compellig villain?

I just found the whole way these themes were interwoven into the story outdated and nearly offputting. Just a very, very bizarre choice. The book was unnecessarily long, too.

Marissa Meyer never fails to write an excellent story, I would rate this a 6/5 if I could

Cursed by Marissa Meyer was definitely better than its prequel, Gilded. This sequel was much better in building suspense and creating mystery, although I predicted the ending very early in the book.

The first half or so of the book was very very very slow paced, the only thing that happened was Gold: "omg we have to save everyone" and Serilda: "noo we can't do anything think of the children :(" it was really frustrating to read (that's why it took me so long lmao).

The second half was loads better, but as I said before, I correctly predicted the ending and then the book just stopped with a weird story/letter kind of thing that was supposed to wrap up the story, but it confused me even more. I did not even like the "stories" that were spread throughout the book, I felt like they were only relevant to prove Serilda's "gift" but the whole storytelling thing was a bit lame in my opinion.

In conclusion, I really did not enjoy the Gilded duology by Marissa Meyer, I hope her other books are better.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. While Gilded was repetitive and slow, Cursed had many different events that caused the plot to move forward. I also loved the unraveling mythology and world building that occurred. Its poeticism strikes well within the more old setting presented. In mythology, there’s also a specific interest in promises and the value of words. Words are measured carefully yet people can still plot what that can mean. This is also shown in a delightful way in this book, with the main character being a storyteller. 

However, although I mention the benefit of many different plotlines, this also created a surplus where not every one of them was explored. In particular, they have been dangling this idea of a romance ever since the previous book and that continues here. However, this continues to just be bait and never forms to be concrete. On one side, I think this was the correct decision but on the other I wonder why this was added in the first place. Ultimately I believe this added tension was done simply to help quicken certain slow scenes, as banter is an entertaining form of dialogue. While I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it, it did feel unnecessary though when there was nothing about it that mattered. 

Serilda I also enjoyed a lot more in this book although only in the sense that I found her less annoying. I find this aspect perhaps the most unfortunate. Although the book was a lot better in terms of moving the plot along, there really was no character development with the exception of perhaps Erlking, where even there it falls short for me. I enjoy Gild in general a lot, but perhaps due to the information plays that happen or lack of perspective we have of him, he really is more of a plot device than an actual person. This in turn makes the romance fall flat for me because I need to be adequately invested in both people to enjoy the tension or care about the romance. But there was no push or pull in between the two or for the relationship, besides the common trope of miscommunication.

I did like the callback to the original mythos when it occurred here, and I was charmed by the general atmosphere that Meyer has here as it is a significant personal departure for her. The mental battle here was also intriguing. Although I did have my complaints on different aspects, in general I still enjoyed this book.

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I adored this duology — I wish the denouement had been a bit longer, but this was an emotional, thrilling conclusion to the story. ❤️

Overall, I loved it however I will say I enjoyed the first one more. The beginning of this book took off amazing, and I loved how Marissa wrote it but it took a toll on the ending.

mixed feelings about this book. loved the first half of the book but was honestly kind of bored with the second half.

The most cursed thing about this book is how criminally long and boring it was.

Gild is still cute tho

Overall enjoyable, but I’m a bit perplexed as to how this is shorter than the first book. This one had a lot going on and felt rushed in places whereas the first one meandered and was slow (which I enjoyed in the first book).

The ending was satisfying in a bare bones sort of way and I enjoyed it for what it was, but I can’t help but think the story could have offered more. It may have worked better as a trilogy.

I felt really transported into a fairy tale while reading. The folklore was interesting and the world was easy to be swept up into. Serilda's tales added to the atmosphere and I enjoyed how there were some truths to them that could end up affecting the plot. It all felt very well tied together and magical.

The world felt very dangerous which made the stakes high. I enjoyed the various tense moments throughout and got caught up in the action. It was easy to fear for the worst when the Erlking had proven to be creativity cruel and ruthless. He was an excellent villain. He was unsettling, clever and easy to hate. He was also strangely captivating and even romantic in a weird way.

I really liked both Serilda and Gild, both as characters and as a couple. I enjoyed seeing them support and worry for one another. They got along so naturally. It was a nice reprieve when they were alone together getting to have some banter and some lighter moments in the midst of all the stress they were both under. I just wish I could have seen more of them together at the end, after everything went down.