Book Title: Cursed
Author: Thomas Wheeler
Date Started: June 17th 2020
Date Completed: July 26th 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Two Stars
Review:
◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆
I'm a filmmaker and a screenwriter. I love film and books both dearly. That doesn't mean they're formats that effortlessly blend together without some translation. And that, aside from the lacklustre story, is the biggest problem with this book. Most of the marketing around Cursed is that its publishing is coinciding with the Netflix shows' release too and that it's 'cinematic', so it's hard to see this as anything other than a marketing stunt, sadly, though I imagine at one point it may have been intended to stand on its own feet. As it is, life's too short to read unenjoyable books; I made it 31% of the way through Cursed before I decided to put it down. I am considering watching some of the TV show since it might be more bearable (this, very clearly, doesn't want to be a book, it wants to be a film - and it didn't even manage that).
There were a lot of things I wasn't a fan of as I was reading Cursed, but the thing that made me stop reading altogether was how it very quickly became apparent that Nimue, our 'heroine', was a half-assed attempt at a female protagonist. She's given a sword, magical powers and a sharp tongue, and then left to flail because she has no personality behind it. It's definitely cinematic; it's once again a man writing what he thinks is complimentary and not actually trying to uphold any empowerment in the story. Arthur does more, speaks more, is a more active driving force, has a stronger personality, and already saves her several times even in the 31% of this book I read. I didn't come here to read about Arthur, and I'm tired of putting the 'heroine' label on girls you just want for ticking a diversity box.
Another turn off was that it was so predictable. You can tell it's trying to be cinematic because it's basically a written version of a million different YA/80s films. I've heard all the dialogue a hundred time before, and it's more effective when there's an actor putting emotion behind it. And, weirdly, there's very little tension at all. Even with the really violent and life-threatening situations, it's trying to be a film and therefore working on the assumption that the images and performance will flesh out the visual language on-screen - but wait, this isn't a film! Look, screenplays and novels are different for a reason, they have different limitations and opportunities, and Cursed seems to confuse and/or miss all of them.
Also, what age is this for? It seems to be marketed as Young Adult but I don't think the tone can quite decide itself; it's dark and 'edgy' but simplistic in writing and feels silly or shallow in the plot. Usually, you have to be less violent etc onscreen because the moving image is by nature more explicit - whereas in prose it's up to the reader's imagination for how graphically they see the horrible things in their head. But strangely, this is an example where I think the writing is more graphic than necessary, and for no reason. My only guess is that it's trying to recreate a film which, once again, misses the point of both literature and cinema's unique storytelling abilities.
It's obvious that I think the 'cinematic' aspect of the book is not a selling point, despite the marketing, since it misunderstands the elements of its own medium. The illustrations, as well, don't necessarily save that - a lot of the details of scenes and/or character descriptions don't actually match up. It's a cool art style, but in a plot already flailing either from laziness or dumbness (honestly don't know which at this point), it just confuses things further. As far as a retelling of the myth of King Arthur goes, I can't really comment since I didn't read all of it - I'll just say that this is definitely still Arthur's story, and not Nimue's.
