"Cursed"
A short story collection written by various authors
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia
Cursed is a horror and fantasy short story collection that has compiled stories that twist popular fairy tales to involve darker themes of curses and murder, while also providing interesting creative new fables. The authors who contributed to this collection are well-known to the young adult and new adult fantasy genre, as well as some horror writers. As a whole, I enjoyed this collection, but there were some stories I did not enjoy at all. I have always loved retellings of fairy tale and princess stories but twisted in a horror or dark fashion, so I knew that this collection appealed to me. For the collection, I'll be writing 1-5 asterisks signifying my review of each individual story, one being terrible, five being amazing.
The first story in this collection is: "Castle Cursed" by Jane Yolen. As more of a poem, the story told is of a curse as it attacks the princess. *
"As Red as Blood, As White as Snow" was written by famed Christina Henry, an author whose best novels are dark retellings. In this, Snow escapes an evil prince charming, to be helped by her loving stepmother, the Queen. ****
"Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman offers a very whole and complete fable of a troll who lives under a bridge, who promises to eat a boy's soul when he is ready to offer it. This was brilliantly executed. ****
"At that Age" by Catronia Ward was a bizarre and strange story including themes of "Hansel and Gretel" and also of changelings. *****
"Listen" by Jen Williams follows a cursed musician. I liked the introduction for the story, but the initial enjoyment did not pay off. ***
"Henry and the Snakewood Box" by M.R. Carey was disappointing, although I highly anticipated reading from this author. The narrator is a snake-like demon inhabiting a box. ***
James Brogden's "Skin" was eerie and challenging, about a man whose skin has been eaten away by a curse. The narrator, Hannah, tells of how she accidentally cursed him, after he insulted her psoriasis. *****
"Faith & Fred" by Maura McHugh features two men who find talking skulls. **
In "The Black Fairy's Curse" by Karen Joy Fowler, a young woman beds a mysterious dark stranger. This didn't make any sense to me on first, second, or third reading. *
A popular fan-favorite is the dark fantasy writer Christopher Golden. In his story, "Wendy Darling", we have a heartbreaking tale of the Lost Boys come back to visit Wendy on her wedding day. They realize she has forgotten them. Oddly enough, Wendy seems horrified to see them. This was such a fantastically written story, so good I'd love to read this as a full novel. *****
"Fairy Werewolf Vs. Vampire Zombie" by Charlie Jane Anders offers the quality of the story before even reading it. Just based on the title, I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. The story tells of a love triangle between the very non-human, non-mortal characters, Sebastian, Antonia, and Gilbert. *
In "Look Inside" by Michael Marshall Smith, we meet a character who tells us she's lying, as she begins regaling us of the story of a home invasion and someone who leaves her notes in her bread bin. This story had great potential, but I was disappointed by the execution. ***
Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple created "Little Red", a disappointing tale including offensive self-harm and mental institution representation to present a Little Red Riding Hood story. * I was quite disgusted by the inclusion of this story in the collection.
"New Wine" by Angela Slatter was decent. It's a tale of a mysterious main character, Valerie, who seems to be followed by trouble. Is she the trouble? ***
"Haza and Ghani" by Lilith Saintcrow is a dark retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel. **
"Hated" by Christopher Fowler hosts a main character named Michael who has been cursed to be hated by everyone he meets. This was great. *****
"The Merrie Dancers" by Alison Littlewood follows our main character who meets a strange new neighbor who believes in magic. *
After recently reading "Eden" by Tim Lebbon, I was excited to read his short story in this collection, "Again". In it, we meet a female protagonist, Jodi, who returns to the land of the living after being killed repeatedly. ***
"The Girl from the Hell" by Margo Lanagan presents a cautionary tale of an angry young witch who has lost her sanity as she feuds with a cat. **
"Castle Waking" was written by Jane Yolen, and it finishes off the collection. ***
And lastly, I have to admit that this book took me a very long time to read. I did not feel very motivated to continue, I began reading during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, and had to leave to visit my family for two months. However, I think this collection is enjoyable. It's not you, collection, it was my procrastination. A great aspect of collections like this is the ability to read from unfamiliar authors which might peak my interest to read more from them.
In total, I rate this collection at 3 stars out of 5.
Thank you to the lovely folks at Titan Books for sending an advance copy to read and review.
No comments:
Post a Comment