A review by isabelbrieler
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

5.0

ACSDAL really, really grew on me. I've read a lot of beauty and the beast retellings and the first several chapters of this felt very similar to all the rest in kind of a boring way. But man, did it pick up. Harper was genuinely such a fun character, I loved that she was strong in a scrappy way. The plot after around 40% was original and period-drama-court-intrigue-y and stunning and full of adrenaline. I was reading this in between classes earlier today and I was so close to just saying screw it and skipping class to finish the book. (I didn't because I'm #responsible, but it was close) It reminds me a lot of ACOTAR, just because it starts out as a retelling of the same story, so there's obvious similarities there, and then branches out into more high fantasy elements.