A review by ielerol
Ever Cursed by Corey Ann Haydu
3.0
I like the concept of this book a lot, but I struggled with the execution. The whole first third of the book moves very slowly, which I wouldn't mind except that it's also very repetitive, and Jane is super boring early on, because being an incredibly sheltered and self-centered princess does not make a person particularly interesting. Reagan is less so, but her point of view early on is frustrating because she shows up and immediately gets into arguments with everyone without context or anything else to ground us in her character. I got more interested when they start having things to do beyond just feeling sorry for themselves, but I was very close to abandoning the book before getting there.
The other issue is that the tone, style, and world-building just feel all over the place. At times I thought the book was trying to be a stylized, fairy-tale kind of story, and sometimes I think it hits that tone. Like, the way the magic system doesn't make any real sense, but has an internal, poetic kind of logic to it. I can be ok with that, if that's what you're committing to! But then there are other places where it seems like we're supposed be getting more grounded details of life in Ever, and they're just, wildly implausible.
I mean, despite myself I don't need all my second-world vaguely-medieval European fantasy stories to read like a historical study of daily life in the time period, but I do need to believe that the author is familiar with the contents of such books, if you're going to try and portray bits and pieces of it. And I tried so hard not to let it bother me, but when Jane repeats like, 3 or 4 times, that the entire population of the "kingdom" of Ever is 500-some people, I just cannot handle it. That is a not a kingdom that can support a castle with fancy balls and multiple levels of nobility, it's barely a subsistence-level agricultural community. Even by historical standards! Lords of medieval castles supported only by a town of 500 (and productive agricultural land even, not land that's been been cursed with two decades of famine..) did not live in the lap of luxury! They froze in the winter and ran out of good food before the spring vegetables were ready and even small exotic trade goods were rare and extremely valuable. I mean, there appear to be three groups of people in the whole kingdom: nobles, witches, and farmers. No skilled artisans, no traders, no source of wealth that could be used to trade for silks and jewels and exotic foods even if traders existed. How are these people getting chocolate??
Again, I can accept a fairy tale sort of story that doesn't worry about those details, but you have to actually, consciously, make that choice and not undermine it. Honestly I think half the problem is my personal YA nemesis, first-person present tense. There's a reason fairy tales start with "once upon a time," the idea of a dreamlike fairy tale is directly at odds with the kind of detailed immediacy that first-person present forces.
Then there's the use of language. Early on the story is told in fairly simplistic, repetitive language, then halfway through the story people start swearing a lot, and it just didn't feel consistent. I think maybe it was supposed to be a deliberate mirroring of the shift in the tone of the plot itself, but it didn't feel well-executed and I found it very distracting.
I did like the ending a lot, which is ultimately what pushed this to 3 stars for me instead of 2.
The other issue is that the tone, style, and world-building just feel all over the place. At times I thought the book was trying to be a stylized, fairy-tale kind of story, and sometimes I think it hits that tone. Like, the way the magic system doesn't make any real sense, but has an internal, poetic kind of logic to it. I can be ok with that, if that's what you're committing to! But then there are other places where it seems like we're supposed be getting more grounded details of life in Ever, and they're just, wildly implausible.
I mean, despite myself I don't need all my second-world vaguely-medieval European fantasy stories to read like a historical study of daily life in the time period, but I do need to believe that the author is familiar with the contents of such books, if you're going to try and portray bits and pieces of it. And I tried so hard not to let it bother me, but when Jane repeats like, 3 or 4 times, that the entire population of the "kingdom" of Ever is 500-some people, I just cannot handle it. That is a not a kingdom that can support a castle with fancy balls and multiple levels of nobility, it's barely a subsistence-level agricultural community. Even by historical standards! Lords of medieval castles supported only by a town of 500 (and productive agricultural land even, not land that's been been cursed with two decades of famine..) did not live in the lap of luxury! They froze in the winter and ran out of good food before the spring vegetables were ready and even small exotic trade goods were rare and extremely valuable. I mean, there appear to be three groups of people in the whole kingdom: nobles, witches, and farmers. No skilled artisans, no traders, no source of wealth that could be used to trade for silks and jewels and exotic foods even if traders existed. How are these people getting chocolate??
Again, I can accept a fairy tale sort of story that doesn't worry about those details, but you have to actually, consciously, make that choice and not undermine it. Honestly I think half the problem is my personal YA nemesis, first-person present tense. There's a reason fairy tales start with "once upon a time," the idea of a dreamlike fairy tale is directly at odds with the kind of detailed immediacy that first-person present forces.
Then there's the use of language. Early on the story is told in fairly simplistic, repetitive language, then halfway through the story people start swearing a lot, and it just didn't feel consistent. I think maybe it was supposed to be a deliberate mirroring of the shift in the tone of the plot itself, but it didn't feel well-executed and I found it very distracting.
I did like the ending a lot, which is ultimately what pushed this to 3 stars for me instead of 2.