Skip to main content

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

I've been savoring this one. I mean, I read a chunk every day, don't get me wrong. But if something happened to come up at night during my normal reading time, instead of muttering, "Vital point," like I usually do, I was up for it.

Watch a movie? Sure.

Clean out a few more boxes from the study? Let's do it!

Because I just didn't want this book to end. It more than lived up to the expectations I had, having heard such wonderful early reviews. And I was so pleased that it did because the initial prospect of a Rumpelstiltskin retelling was not all that attractive.

Let's face it, in its original form it's an awful fairy tale. Awful Dad sells his nameless daughter to Awful King in exchange for money. Awful King threatens nameless daughter with death unless she is able to spin straw into gold. Otherwise he'll marry her. Then to top it all off, creepily Awful Dwarf appears and saves nameless daughter's bacon....in exchange for her potential first-born child. And she's willing to make this Awful Bargain because she really doesn't want to die and can see no other way out. So she marries Awful King, makes a baby with him (shocker!), and, when Awful Dwarf comes to claim his due, is only able to save her baby by guessing his Awful Name. Yeah. Not my favorite fairy tale.

Turns out it wasn't Elizabeth C. Bunce's favorite either. I love that she rewrote it because it bothered her. And she did such a splendid job filling in the cracks, reworking the plot, carefully shaping it into a lovely tale of courage and ill luck, curses and redemption. The setting was a perfect choice: eighteenth century England, just on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. And the beautiful names. Charlotte Miller, Randall Woodstone, Shearing, Stirwaters, Jack Spinner. The names truly belong to their characters and places. I could tell each one was carefully chosen for effect, like a Dickens cast. And I was drawn to them, the animate and inanimate alike. For the mill, the mansion, and the curse itself are characters in their own right. Bunce's beautiful, unselfconscious writing propels the story forward to its climactic conclusion. This is a dark, drafty, remarkably real tale and, like Jack Spinner, it will spin its golden thread around you.

Links
Bookshelves of Doom Review
Look Books Review
Miss Erin Review, Miss Erin Interview
Sarah Miller Review
Labels:

Comments

  1. Erin5:41 PM

    Great review for a great book. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angiegirl6:15 PM

    Such a great book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Original Kos10:23 PM

    Congratulations! So excited for you guys.

    I want to read this book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angiegirl12:35 PM

    Thanks, Kos! We're excited, too.

    And I think you'd really like this one. Really the most original reworking of a fairy tale I've read in ages.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:08 PM

    Thank you! I'm delighted you enjoyed it. And may I say, what a perfect job you did summing up the Awfulness of the original fairy tale! So true.

    ~ecb

    ReplyDelete
  6. Angiegirl1:15 PM

    Thank you! I keep trying to describe to people what you did with it to make it so different and wonderful and I end up saying, "Oh, just read the book!"

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard11:09 AM

    What a fantastic review! I love your description of the original fairytale, with which I am in complete accord. It's one of my least favorite fairytales, which may be why I have put off reading both this retelling and Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver. But I will be bumping this one up to near the top of my TBR pile now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Angiegirl5:59 PM

      Totally understandable reason to avoid the retellings. But I can attest this one and SPINNING SILVER are both absolutely lovely. I'm so glad both authors chose to rework such a problematic tale.

      Delete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Angie's 2026 Must Be Mine

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2026: And no covers on these yet, but I'm just as excited for each one: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower Finest Kind of Fate by J.J. Mulder My Kind of Guy by Sarina Bowen Ravenous by Kresley Cole Mastermind by Sarah MacLean Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison Villain Edit by Rosie Danan What titles are on your list?
2 comments
Read more

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Review + Giveaway!

It seems a long time ago now that I first read Shiver -- the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. But looking back I started it on the plane ride to BEA and finished it there in the conference center, fingers gripping the cover tightly, while sitting on the floor in one of the many autograph lines. And now it's May again and BEA is right around the corner and I emerge from my recent and nasty reading slump stupor to find a copy of Linger sitting in my mailbox like a glove thrown down in the dirt. "I will be the one to pull you out," it whispers to me slyly. "Just open me up and take a sip. I promise--one sip is all it will take." And I look at it with fear and longing written all over my face. "You promise?" I ask  intently. "Because it's been a long walk in the cold and I'm not sure I can take another disappointment." "Just open me up," it says, confidence written all over its cover. And so I do. And everythin...
161 comments
Read more

Shiver Blog Tour: Interview with Maggie Stiefvater + Giveaway!

When the opportunity to interview the delightful Maggie Stiefvater came my way, I literally jumped at the chance. I've been a big fan of Maggie's ever since I read (and loved) Lament last year. I had the pleasure of meeting her at BEA in May and I can tell you she is as spunky and funny and delightful as you would imagine the creator of Dee and James and Luke would be. Her new novel, Shiver , has just been released and you can read my review here . To celebrate the release Maggie kindly made some time in her hectic schedule to answer a few questions. The result is well worth reading. Enjoy! First things first: What was it like seeing (and stroking) Shiver in hardcover for the first time? Um, absolutely amazing. I was actually nervous about seeing it for the first time -- as in butterflies in my stomach odd. Which anyone who knows me well can tell you is very, very bizarre. I knew my editor was going to give me one when he met up with me at ALA, and I was more nervous for t...
74 comments
Read more