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Warda's Reviews > A Curse So Dark and Lonely
A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers, #1)
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I'm on the verge of breaking up with YA fantasy. Well, with the new releases anyway and just sticking to authors that have worked for me. And possibly reading YA fantasy that were released in the past, because the constant disappointments and anger I feel towards the new ones are slowly decimating my soul.
This was a flop for me. Here I was expecting to really enjoy this retelling and it just got worse as I read on.
I could not tell you what happened in the last 100 pages or so. I skim-read it and I don't even care that I did. I tolerated it for 400 pages and that's enough to tell you I was patient enough.
The annoying thing for me here is that I adore, absolutely LOVE Letters to the Lost and More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer. Those stories were so emotionally hard-hitting for me and well written and the characterisation strong.
But this felt like child's play. I cringed on numerous occasions, because of how flimsy it felt. There was so much lacking when it came to its world-building as well as the character development. The plot was interesting at first and it took me away to Emberfall and then it became a snooze-fest. I wasn't convinced by any of it. There was no substance, strength and no meat to the story. I think because it was quite fast-faced, it missed out on properly developing on those other elements.
Goddamn I'm feeling bitter. I'm feeling too bitter to think and give examples.
I really wanted to like this. And now I want to cry.
I'll review it properly whenever.
Or never.
Sigh.
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Book 2 for the #TomeTopple readathon. Buddy-reading with the wonderful Karima! 💚
I adore Brigid Kemmerer's other books. They've been 5-star reads for me. I'm hoping this will be too.
This was a flop for me. Here I was expecting to really enjoy this retelling and it just got worse as I read on.
I could not tell you what happened in the last 100 pages or so. I skim-read it and I don't even care that I did. I tolerated it for 400 pages and that's enough to tell you I was patient enough.
The annoying thing for me here is that I adore, absolutely LOVE Letters to the Lost and More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer. Those stories were so emotionally hard-hitting for me and well written and the characterisation strong.
But this felt like child's play. I cringed on numerous occasions, because of how flimsy it felt. There was so much lacking when it came to its world-building as well as the character development. The plot was interesting at first and it took me away to Emberfall and then it became a snooze-fest. I wasn't convinced by any of it. There was no substance, strength and no meat to the story. I think because it was quite fast-faced, it missed out on properly developing on those other elements.
Goddamn I'm feeling bitter. I'm feeling too bitter to think and give examples.
I really wanted to like this. And now I want to cry.
I'll review it properly whenever.
Or never.
Sigh.
------------------
Book 2 for the #TomeTopple readathon. Buddy-reading with the wonderful Karima! 💚
I adore Brigid Kemmerer's other books. They've been 5-star reads for me. I'm hoping this will be too.
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Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-50 of 63 (63 new)
message 1:
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↠Ameerah↞
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Apr 15, 2019 02:39AM
I hope you love this as much as I did. It was everything. 😍
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Thaïïna wrote: "I hope you love this as much as I did. It was everything. 😍"Thank youu! I really feel like I will. :D
i cannot wait to read it! the czech translation comes out this week and you bet i am going to be the first one who will buy it :DEnjoy :)
This is the next book I plan on reading. I am quite excited to pick it up :)
lucie wrote: "i cannot wait to read it! the czech translation comes out this week and you bet i am going to be the first one who will buy it :DEnjoy :)"
You might very well be the first person to buy it. Imagine that haha.
Thanks love. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it too. :D
India wrote: "This is the next book I plan on reading. I am quite excited to pick it up :)"Hope you enjoy it!!! :D I'm so excited to see what this retelling will be like.
I just finished this and I really enjoyed it! I hope you will too :D
Anja H. wrote: "I just finished this and I really enjoyed it! I hope you will too :D"Thank you, Anja! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. :)
aahhh loved this one!! Hope it works for you, Warda :)
I LOVE her, and this book!!
Lola wrote: "aahhh loved this one!! Hope it works for you, Warda :)"Thank you, Lola! I remember loving your review for this. I hope I enjoy it just as much. 😊
Patty (IheartYA) wrote: "I LOVE her, and this book!!"ME TOO! Her contemporary books are a dream. 😍
2 ⭐⭐ damn! Lol You didn't like it much?
Awwe no :( I'm so sorry you didn't like it girl. I was genuinely surprised by how much I loved this. Hopefully your next read will be better 😘
Ameerah☆ wrote: "2 ⭐⭐ damn! Lol You didn't like it much?"I didnt!! 😭😭😭😭 and I hate that I didn't love this!
Lena wrote: "Awwe no :( I'm so sorry you didn't like it girl. I was genuinely surprised by how much I loved this. Hopefully your next read will be better 😘"Gosh I wish, WISH, I loved this. I was convinced that I would because I love her other books, but it just didn't happen and now I just wanna cry. 😭😭
Girl I feel you! This really turned out to be so underwhelming after all that hype :/
Stardust wrote: "Girl I feel you! This really turned out to be so underwhelming after all that hype :/"So underwhelming, my goodness. It was such an average read.
You have NOT had good luck with YA fantasy lately /: Hopefully a book to redeem the genre gets published soon!
kristina wrote: "You have NOT had good luck with YA fantasy lately /: Hopefully a book to redeem the genre gets published soon!"Not at all. Sucks majorly! 😭
Thanks Kristina!
I’m so tired of ya fantasy, feels like everything is the same-and not very good either. Won’t be reading this! Thank you
Oh no, I fell in love with this cover and had high hopes for it. Your review's making me feel a bit apprehensive, Warda haha. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the book much.
Toyni Erica - Queenoftales wrote: "I’m so tired of ya fantasy, feels like everything is the same-and not very good either. Won’t be reading this! Thank you"
Exactly!! They've been getting worse over the years and it's getting hard to find a YA fantasy debut novel that is actual quality. 😑
Zenki the Hermit wrote: "Oh no, I fell in love with this cover and had high hopes for it. Your review's making me feel a bit apprehensive, Warda haha. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the book much."Thank you, Zenki. You never know, you might have a better time with it than I did. ☺️
I've been feeling that way about YA fantasy a lot lately too :( that's why very little of my tbr is YA these days.
Sophie wrote: "I've been feeling that way about YA fantasy a lot lately too :( that's why very little of my tbr is YA these days."Yeah I think this book was the last stroke for me. It's time to get picky with them.
I've been feeling the same way about, but I was surprised that I actually kinda liked this one?
Dang! I had high hopes for this one. Same with YA fantasy lately. Sci-fi, too. I've been disappointed over and over.
Great review Warda! I had to DNF this one 😬 at least you persevered !
Jamie wrote: "I've been feeling the same way about, but I was surprised that I actually kinda liked this one?"I'm really glad you did. I was really hoping for the same results. 😭
Vani wrote: "Dang! I had high hopes for this one. Same with YA fantasy lately. Sci-fi, too. I've been disappointed over and over."The constant disappoinments get to you, right? Hope we have better luck with it soon.
Lucy wrote: "Great review Warda! I had to DNF this one 😬 at least you persevered !"Thanks, Lucy. Persevere I did. 😆
It was definitely a smart choice to DNF it.
Oh, if you feel on the verge of quitting new YA fantasy (like me) try "Boneless Mercies".
Jamie wrote: "Oh, if you feel on the verge of quitting new YA fantasy (like me) try "Boneless Mercies"."I'm honestly so reluctant to try anything YA at the moment. But I might do at some point. Thanks for the suggestion though. 😊
I agree with everything you said, Warda, such a disappointment for me too. Great review!
Warda wrote: "I'm honestly so reluctant to try anything YA at the moment. But I might do at some point. T..."Go old school and try "The Thief" and sequels by Megan Whalen Turner. The first book was published in 1996, and the 6th and final book comes out next year.
Roxanne wrote: "I agree with everything you said, Warda, such a disappointment for me too. Great review!"Thank you. I'm glad I wasn't the only one that felt that way.
Jamie wrote: "Warda wrote: "I'm honestly so reluctant to try anything YA at the moment. But I might do at some point. T..."Go old school and try "The Thief" and sequels by Megan Whalen Turner. The first book w..."
That book is on my wish-list. I'll put it at the forefront now. :D
Thank you!
The Queen's Thief series is great but the first book is just ok so if you're not feeling it just wait until you finish the second one :)
Sophie wrote: "The Queen's Thief series is great but the first book is just ok so if you're not feeling it just wait until you finish the second one :)"Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep that in mind. :D
You perfectly encapsulated exactly what I'm feeling about this book. At first I was breezing through it but by about 50% it went downhill. The more I read on the more cringe it gets. Like I just think the context of the story is weird
Alex wrote: "You perfectly encapsulated exactly what I'm feeling about this book. At first I was breezing through it but by about 50% it went downhill. The more I read on the more cringe it gets. Like I just th..."The story is so weird!!!! It was all so messy. 😑
You perfectly captured what I felt about this book. Urgh!! I raged when I finished it!! *crying* So much potential. WASTED!!!
Noria wrote: "You perfectly captured what I felt about this book. Urgh!! I raged when I finished it!! *crying* So much potential. WASTED!!!"So wasted!!!!!! 😤😤
I'm sorry you didn't like this book, it's one of my favourites. Hopefully you find more promising YA fantasies in the future when you want to try them out again.
Laetitia wrote: "I'm sorry you didn't like this book, it's one of my favourites. Hopefully you find more promising YA fantasies in the future when you want to try them out again."Thank you so much! 💕
I'm not big on Fantasy at all either... but added this one to my list b/c I kept hearing about it. I'll probably end up rethinking that decision. You do such good reviews!
Christy wrote: "I'm not big on Fantasy at all either... but added this one to my list b/c I kept hearing about it. I'll probably end up rethinking that decision. You do such good reviews!"Thank youuu!!
I hope you have better luck with it than I did. I much prefer adult fantasy. There just seems to be more substance to those stories.
I agree that Kemmerer should've wrote more world building into this story. The ending was actually exciting and not what I expected! I also wish Kemmerer wrote more insight into Harper's thoughts about the sexual harassment/abuse/rape Lilith and Karis promoted & participated in. Plus, did Karis really order soldiers to rape and enslave women and girls? I'm 50/50 about this novel - I didn't love itbut neither did I hate it
World-building could’ve been better. The pacing of the transgressions the characters experience and their development over all could have been more thoroughly delved into. However, it was an enjoyable fast-paced read with an interesting enough story. Maybe needed more development but overall not bad.
