Thing I’m not proud of as a parent: We listened to Cursed as a bedtime story for my toddler. Hear me out. I was listening to it at 1.5 times, so it was too fast for him to catch most of it, and he doesn’t know a lot of these words yet, anyway. But the narrator’s British accent is very soothing, and it was effective. I’m counting it as a win.
The storyline is not very soothing. I downloaded the ALC of this book in my job as a bookseller because it promised a King Arthur tale. King Arthur is by nature not a happy story for anyone. This isn’t really one of those, anyway. It’s a pre-King Arthur narrative that’s more twisted than any other I’ve read in that world. I loved every minute of it.
We follow Nimue, future Lady of the Lake, as she inherits the sword of power and tries to figure out what to do with it. We meet all the characters we expect to meet, although not always in the form we expect. There is so much violence, but also tenderness and familial ties and love. Nimue is truly confused and conflicted, and I love that the story centered around her.
I know this is an upcoming Netflix show, but I hope there’s a full series of books coming, too. I want more.
3 Boys 3 Billion Books 