A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

For my next read, I was in the mood for some young adult fantasy. I picked up A Curse so Dark and Lonely from Target last month, so I decided to give that one a shot. It's a "Beauty and The Beast" reimagining, and I have a weird fondness for stories inspired by fairy tales, so I went into my reading with pretty high hopes. I was expecting romance, adventure, and maybe, hopefully, a scene in which a young woman is gifted an entire library (which is not something from the original tale, I know, but it is my favorite part of the movie).

A Curse So Dark and Lonely is told from two alternating perspectives. The first perspective is from Rhen, the prince of a kingdom named Emberfall. Rhen has been cursed by an evil enchantress to keep repeating the same three months on an  endless loop in his castle. At the end of each of these three months, he transforms into a monster and goes on a rampage around Emberfall, killing anyone in sight. At the end of his rampage, the season resets and he becomes himself again. The villages outside his castle don't loop with him,  they still experience the forward march of time, and any people killed there stay dead. It's only Rhen, his only remaining guardsman, Grey, and his castle that reset. In order to break this cycle ad sync back up with the rest of his kingdom, Rhen must find a girl to fall in love with him. He's wooed countless girls over countless cycles of his curse, but he hasn't had any luck finding true love yet.

The second perspective in the novel is from Harper, a young woman living in our modern reality in Washington D.C. As the story begins, she is mysteriously whisked away into Rhen's timeline, where he plans to try his luck wooing her in order to break his curse. Harper, however, is completely unlike the other women he has tried this with in the past. She is a fighter and isn't willing to entertain any ideas of romance. She only wants to find a way home, back to her struggling family and terminally ill mother. She will stop at nothing to return, and even attempts to confront the enchantress responsible for the magic that brought her to Emberfall. The longer she stays in the kingdom, however, the more she comes to care about the people living there, including Rhen and Grey. A rival kingdom has noticed the absence of the royal family and a lack of soldiers protecting Emberfall, and is making moves to invade the territory. Her desire to help the struggling kingdom directly conflicts with her need to return home. As the danger to Emberfalls grows, Harper must try to find a way to help all of the people she cares about.

I ended up liking this novel a lot more than I thought I would. Kemmerer's take on a classic fairy tale is creative and interesting, and her characters were well-developed. I especially enjoyed Harper; she was far from a damsel in distress, and was eager to learn how to fight and take care of herself when given the opportunities. I also liked that fact that she was very principled. Even when thrown into an entirely different world, she did not hesitate to defend people who needed it and stand up for what was right. She comes to care deeply about the people of Emberfall, which helps forge a powerful connection between her and Rhen. It was obvious from the beginning that these two characters were destined to fall in love, but I appreciated that the eventual relationship was forged through the strength of her character rather than through superficial characteristics, like her beauty.

It's also noteworthy that Harper has cerebral palsy, which is a congenital disorder than affects movement and coordination. The condition affects people in different ways; in Harper's case, she has a pronounced limp and weakness in one of her legs. She does not let this illness define her, however, and manages to make her way around the world just fine. Kemmerer portrays her well in this regard. She is a character with this disorder, but it does not define her. It is mentioned from time to time, but is not treated as a big plot point. It's just a part of who she is, which is true for the hundreds of thousand of people who have it in real life. You don't often see protagonists with medical conditions like this where the condition is not the whole focus of the story. I appreciated this. We need more characters like this in our young adult books.

Rhen and Grey were also characterized well. Rhen was suitably tormented by the curse, and his feelings of guilt and despair at the situation were interesting to delve into. Unlike in the original fairy tale, Rhen is initially cursed because he spent the night with the evil enchantress, promised her the world, then didn't deliver. Of course, he was spoiled and selfish in his youth as well, but having the enchantress be a spurned lover was an interesting twist on the story. It made the curse more personal, and allowed the enchantress character to have a bit more depth. She appears throughout the story, and her cruel, twisted behavior helps the reader sympathize more with Rhen. He definitely learns and grows throughout the cycles of his curse, seeing him be forced to watch his kingdom suffer because of his selfishness while he is stuck in time makes this change feel genuine.

I admit though, that I was more of a fan of Grey, the lone, faithful guardsman to Rhen. He stays by his prince, helping him try to break the curse, long after all of the other Emberfall guardsmen have fled or been killed. I have a thing for loyalty in characters, so his perseverance to his job and his unfailing friendship with Rhen really appealed to me. I was secretly hoping that he'd end up with Harper, as there was definitely a bit of a spark between them too, but of course, his type of character wouldn't do such a thing to Rhen.

While the book was engaging throughout, I did think that things moved too slowly in the middle. There were several scenes in an inn where Harper and Rhen assisted some villagers that I could have done without, as well as some sections where they visited neighboring villages that dragged. The novel is almost 500 pages long, and some trimming definitely could have been done here and there.  Also, the story eventually becomes intensely political, with strategy sessions and battle plans taking center stage. I would have preferred more scenes developing the romance between the protagonists instead. However, the ending of the book is exciting and interesting enough to make up for the slow parts and I still consistently enjoyed my read.

The novel ends with an epilogue that contains a major cliffhanger, meaning that I'm going to be anxiously awaiting the sequel that is set to come out in 2020. I will definitely continue on with the series, despite the fact that Harper was (sadly) not bookish at all and there was no library scene. This was a very creative and different take on a classic fairy tale and I am looking forward to diving back into the world of Emberfall next year.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 15/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 29