Book Review: A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Rating 9/10
Hello and welcome once again to my rambling blog,
Today we are discussing one of my favorite things, a Beauty and the Beast retelling in the form of a gem that is A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer! I’m sure I already mentioned that Beaty and the Beast is my most beloved Disney movie (I blame that library scene), and so anything that has this similar framework I will read. So when this book first came out I was all over it. And now seeing as the second book is out I am rereading it. And I got just as much enjoyment out of it for the second time as for the first time. This book is an interesting mixture of fun and thought-provoking. We all know how I feel about thought-provoking books.
Once again we are entering Spoiler Land. Stay out of Spoiler Land.
We begin the story with the cursed prince having just killed something, and not for the first time if his behavior is any indication of anything. This first interaction with the cursed hero Rhen gives the readers an insight into his mind that is sorely needed. You feel just how desperate he is, how confused, and how resigned. His world is a hopeless place of darkness and death and the only person he has stuck there with him is under oath to serve him. You quickly realize that Rhen doesn’t know how to make friends because he never got the chance to learn and so despite being stuck in a repeated cycle of despair he can’t see a way to help himself by at least making a friend. The Curse in this story involves repetition, thing Groundhog Day, only at the end of each cycle the prince turns into a rampaging monster that kills everything in sight. He killed his family in this form. He killed all but one of the royal guards. He killed all the servants. He killed people of his kingdom. He killed some of the girls that were supposed to break the curse. When considering that you can see why he’s in a rather dark place when the book starts. This curse feels like a curse. It’s punishment for the prince and punishment for everyone around him and his kingdom.
Because Rhen is so desperate to prevent harm to his people he has Gray, his lone guardsman, go and take girls out of our world and bring them over to Emberfell. Would I be upset to be kidnapped? Well, it depends. If I don’t fall in love and break the curse can I take some gold back to pay off student loans? No? Are you sure? Okay fine. Anyway, this premise is pretty original in the fantasy set Beaty and the Beast retelling world. We have two different realms sitting side by side and they are very different. The boys obviously go after the same type of girl by their shock at Harper’s reaction to being kidnapped. I’m not sure what they were hoping to accomplish by doing the same thing over and over again, but I guess because they are stuck in an endless cycle of hell they just have a hard time getting a new perspective. It’s a good thing Harper decided to hit Gray over the head with a tire iron because someone like her is exactly what they needed. She’s not willing to sit around and let the boys decide what to do. She takes action. I love me a main character who takes action. She is a weird mixture of a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff yet somehow I love her for it. Rhen is a Slytherin, and Gray I think is a Slytherpuff. I like to assign book characters to Hogwarts houses because it helps me pin down their personalities.
Harper wakes up in Emberfell and doesn’t take it well. In all fairness, she has a completely rational and normal reaction. She doesn’t stay in denial for long, because if you’re surrounded by the proof you can’t ignore reality. Her climbing down the balcony is one of my favorite moments because it once again proves that she’s a character who takes action, instead of letting things happen to her. She is the complete opposite of Rhen, which is why I think it took them so long to understand each other. In many ways, at the end of the book, they still have a very long way to go. I love me a developing slow-burn relationship. And this is a slow burn. Rhen to his credit quickly realizes that his normal routine won’t cut it with her and as a result acts more like himself. Like his real self and not the self he has always shown the world. While Harper is a very straightforward character who is forced to develop layers to her personality to adapt and survive, Rhen is forced to strip layers from himself and become more of a man instead of the prince.
Gray is the third player in this little quartet, and I am still angry that he and Rhen couldn’t get over themselves before harper and develop a friendship. They both needed a friend so very much yet there they were playing out their assigned roles. They are both so bound by duty I wanted to shake them. It feels like they wasted so much time, instead of thinking outside the box they got settled in their assigned roles and personal growth was almost nonexistent. I’m glad Harper made them get over themselves. Watching her wake them up was the beginning to the end of the curse. It was her that made Rhen figure out he needed to take more active steps to help his people, It was her who made Gray realize he can’t just follow the confines of his duty, though in a way he still didn’t do that. It wasn’t until after Rhen snapped out of his depression and the cycle of abuse and dismissed Gray from his oath that gray finally did things.
That ending was traumatic for me. Rhen climbing the castle to prevent the monster from rising only to fail hurt me. Watching Gray try to fix it hurt me. They tried so hard this time, but it didn’t matter. You cant make someone fall in love with you on a timeline, and in many ways, Rhen is a hard person to love. Partially it’s by choice, he plays whatever role makes him feel safe at the moment, and so it’s difficult to pin down his true feelings unless you’re in his head like the reader is. Harper who has trust issues, fairly earned, can’t get over this mistrust because she just can’t read him. In the end, the curse is broken but it’s so bittersweet. We don’t know how it was broken. It might have been Harper admitting to herself she does love Rhen, or it might have been Gray cutting that …….. Head off. Please insert the insulting word of your choice where the dots are.
The ending of this book gave me anxiety. On one had the curse is broken, but Gray is MIA, Harper’s brother is stuck in Emberfall against his will, there is a threat of invasion. All kinds of bad things are poised to happen. Rhen might not be the true heir to the throne, Gray might be the true heir. And I don’t know what I want to happen next. I would love to find out more about the magic in this world, this story was so focused on the curse and breaking it that we didn’t get to see much of the world. For this story, it worked very well but I hope in the future we explore more things. There is just so much. I’m stressed and I think this is why this review turned into a rambling disorganized mess, but I’m keeping it as is because it’s an accurate representation of my state of mind.
If you stuck with me to the end I applaud you. Thank you for joining and see you next time.
Anna
