Name: Cursed
Rating: 4.046052631578948 (38 reviews)
ISBN: 9780571371617

Marissa Meyer

Gild and Serilda are finally together - just what they wanted - but it's forever locked in a castle and half-dead. And Gild is only just coming to terms with the fact that his entire family is dead and he is imprisoned in the castle that was once his home. He's the butt of the Erlking's cruellest joke. Not the best foundation for a new romance.

Cursed

Yesss my favorite little treat in a fantasy book - setting description of an old secluded library! 

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

After that, she found the library without incident, and it was all she could have hoped for. Shelves upon shelves of leather-bound books, each one inked and colored painstakingly by hand, their spines stamped with gold, many so old their pages were brittle. There were scrolls, too, and loose sheaves of parchment and bundles of ancient maps drawn on stretched animal skins. Grimoires and bestiaries, books on alchemy and mathematics and astronomy. 

After hours of climbing up and down the rickety ladders, Serilda had amassed a stack of intriguing titles—fairy tales and mythologies and a fascinating study on how artistic interpretations of the old gods had changed over the centuries. She claimed a tufted chaise beside the window, where outside she could see the alder tree, is leaves still a deep green, even while the forest beyond turned crimson and gold.

New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer concludes her young adult retelling of Rumpelstiltskin in this sequel! Serilda and Gild attempt to break the curses that tether their spirits to Adalheid's haunted castle before the Endless Moon, when the Erlking means to capture one of the seven gods and make a wish to return his lover, Perchta, from the underworld. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear he doesn't want just one god - he wants to capture all seven, and force them to bring down the veil that keeps the Dark Ones separate from the land of the mortals. Serilda and Gild must try to thwart his plans, all while solving the mystery of Gild's forgotten name, freeing his younger sister who is trapped inside Gravenstone Castle, and trying to protect their unborn child. Romance, adventure, and Serilda’s journey to finding her power as a woman, a mother, and a partner make this a retelling that Meyer fans – old and new – will treasure.

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. 

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 

amelia <3

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.

Laura

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.

Apiecalypse Jen

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. 

Laura 

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

Hannah Williams

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

Holly

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.

Brianna

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.

Marissa is the Retelling Queen and no one can tell me otherwise. Absolutely loved this duology. Also I know the "pregnancy trope" is not very popular but with a Rumpelstilzkin retelling, I was kind of prepared for it 😂

Cursed

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