This is a great introduction for young readers into the world of King Arthur and his knight. This is book one in what I hope will be many books by Thomas Wheeler and this story will soon be a Netflix movie. Nimue is a fay who's villages and people are being slaughtered by the Red Palidins. Her mother's dying words are to take a powerful sword to Merlin so the rightful king could protect them. Along the way she meets many of the knights and folk that surround Arthur from Guinevere, Gawain, Lancelot and more. Lots of gory action that will satisfy readers who like adventure and video combat games. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher. The publisher requested that reviews not be released until a month before publication, which is in October 2019, but since Amazon-owned Goodreads already has nearly sixty reviews as of this posting, I don't see any harm in publishing mine and getting it off my lengthy to-do list!

This was written like a movie and it didn't work. A novel needs to be written like a novel, but I understand this was conceived as a multimedia project and I think that was the problem: we really got a sort of a movie script translated into a novel. I understand Netflix has plans to televise this next year, but I won't be watching. I can only hope they do a better job in the writing, because although I was intrigued by the plot and I tried to like this, I couldn't get with it and DNF'd it at just over 25%. Initially, when I'd seen Frank Miller's name attached to it, I'd thought it was a graphic novel, but it isn't. It's a really long book which goes nowhere fast, and Nimue is sadly-lacking in anything to appeal to me in a main character

Having grown up in Britain, I'm familiar with the Arthurian legends, but I'm far from expert in them and I didn't realize, initially, that Nimue is one of several names that are given to the Arthurian Lady of the Lake. The thing is that in this novel, she was such a non-entity that I wasn't impressed with her at all. She's a changeable, inconsistent, weepy little brat of a girl who is all over the place.

Her mother's dying wish is that Nimue take this magical sword to Merlin, who will know what to do with it, but at one point very shortly afterwards, Nimue is considering selling the sword for some cash so she can escape! This is after she supposedly feels really wretched that all of her people are dead, and despite the guilt that she carries over a fight with her mother before her mother died. Shortly after that, when a guy wants to take the sword from her, she suddenly decides she wants to keep it from him and cuts off his hand! Way to keep a low profile Nimue.

What really turned me off this novel though, is how this guy Arthur (yes, that Arthur, apparently), moves in on her, starts stalking her, and suddenly she's getting the wilts and the vapors whenever she's near him. He takes over and Nimue loses all agency, becoming totally dependent upon him in true YA fashion. Barf. That's when I call "Check please, I'm done here." Why even have a female lead if all you're going to do with her is make her subservient to a male? Why even call the male Arthur? Just call him Jack and be done with it. That's the most over-used name in literature for the alpha male, so go with it, and forget about making your story original.

The book - in the portion I read anyway - completely abandons all Arthurian legend, just FYI. I didn't worry too much about that, because it was supposed to be different, but a nod and a wink to it here and there would have been appropriate. And in the end it wasn't different from so many others I've read. It was an Indiana Jones from medieval times: Arthur Jones and the Very Lost Crusade. That said, the whole thing about Arthurian legend is that it's always presented wrongly - with knights in shining armor. The people who gave rise to these legends never were those knights. Arthur was at best a tribal leader, dressed not in chainmail but in a leather jerkin and leggings.

Most of the writing, while shallow, was serviceable, but some of it was downright bad. We got the trope of the flecks in the eyes, which is so rife in YA that it's nauseating. Usually, it's gold flecks so kudos to the writer for going with green, but it's still flecks! That wasn't even the worst part though. The worst part was when Nimue noticed these: she was, for reasons unexplained, practicing sword-fighting with Arthur. It was night. They were hiding in a copse off the road, to avoid being seen, and at best had a small fire so how, in the virtual pitch dark, is Nimue going to see green flecks - or any kind of flecks - in Arthur's eyes? It doesn't work! Let's quit it with the YA flecks.

Did you know that 'whicker' describes movement? Well that's not surprising - because it doesn't! A horse whickers when it makes soft whinnying noises. It has nothing to do with movement - except movement of the lungs and larynx! Yet this writer has this: "He whickered his horse down the road at a trot." What the hell does that even mean? Did the horse whicker as it trotted down the road? That's not what he's saying here. Maybe he means the horse moved down the lane like the late Alan Whicker, the globe-trotting and much imitated British television presenter? That could work, I guess: "As the Kaleidoscopic Knights ride reverently along the rocky road, we have wonder why the nefarious, nincompoop Nimue isn't with them...."

At one point - during her ever-changing attitude toward the sword - Nimue declares, "I have to bring the sword to Merlin." Actually she has to take the sword to Merlin. I know in modern usage, people say 'bring' and it's bad grammar, but it's what people do. The question is, would this modern parlance have been in use a thousand years ago? I doubt it, and this is emblematic of another problem with the story - the modern lingo. I don't expect the writer to write it in medieval English, but I do expect at least a nod and a wink to cadence and modes of expression back then, yet here, the language is completely modern in every regard. Disbelief is not only not suspended, it's hung, drawn, and quartered, and dead and buried.

This inattention to what was being written sometimes comes back to bite the author such as in, "She realized that whatever was inside her darkness had made her come, had somehow drawn her there," which made me laugh out loud the first time I read it. It was merely bathroom humor I'm afraid, but the real problem was that I had to read this sentence twice more before I properly understood what he was saying.

That's not a good thing, and it wasn't the only time, but fortunately it didn't happen often. The damage was done though and the problem was that the unintended humor in that sentence made me keep thinking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and having lines like "...if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!" running through my mind didn't help to take this seriously, especially since I was having trouble taking it seriously to begin with! So while I think the basic idea for this story was a good one, the execution of if left far too much to be desired for my taste. I can't commend it as a worthy read.

When I saw the premise for this book, I was very intrigued. I'm a sucker for a good retelling of Camelot and will read anything that illudes to those stories. While I did enjoy this book, the plot felt a bit jumbled in parts and was a bit hard to follow. But it was worth reading and I look forward to seeing it on the screen as I think it will lend itself well to television.

Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy of this book in excitement for my honest review.

I need more. I need this released now so the fandoms can start. I need Tumblr posts with more art, I need memes, I need more...Netflix movie can not be her quick enough either.

This re-imagining of the Arthurian legends will appeal to graphic novel enthusiasts due to the illustrations throughout. All of the main characters from the legends appear but not in a way you might expect. Some readers will be captivated by the new spin on the old tales. I appreciated the strength of the female characters as well as their doubts. The beginning of the novel was confusing with so many different things happening, but that mirrors the action and the feelings of the characters. They don't understand all that is happening either. The middle of the book is more clear and then the ending is again muddled as secret alliances come to light. It is a very violent story which I didn't particularly enjoy, but I know some readers will like the book better for that. I would recommend it to more mature readers, not middle schoolers, because of that.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Cursed by Thomas Wheeler appears to be a retelling of the legend behind Arthur and the legendary Excalibur. We will receive a visionary version of this tale from Netflix next year. I look forward to seeing the interpretation of this tale on the screen. Nimue is our host on this journey. She is one of the Sky Folk, a Fey. The fey are feared by the Church and are hunted by the Red Paladins. They are murdered, tortured and their homes are burned to the ground. Nimue's mother is the head Druid in her clan and Nimue is feared by her own people over the "Curse" that befell her when she was a child. When the Red Paladins come to Nimue's village, the chaos begins and Nimue must run for her life. Her mother sends her on a quest to find Merlin, the legendary wizard of lore. She is to give him a package, which is revealed to be the Sword of Power, the Devil's Tooth.

Along the way, we encounter more of the Arthurian legend characters such as Morgan, Uther, Gawain, Percival and even Lancelot. Their roles in this drama have changed from what we traditionally recognize from tales like "The Faerie Queen" by Edmund Spenser. There is strife on many fronts from Uther's struggle for control of the throne, the Fey trying to survive and the Church looking for supreme rule of the land through fear.

There are some unanswered questions that will apparently have to wait. As we are left wanting more at the end of this tale.

3 1/2 stars -

This was a bit disappointing - I typically love the King Arthur retellings, but this one was a bit grim and very violent. I think the overall concept for the plot was quite appealing, and I did like the conflict between the new world and the old. I thought the characters were fine. They had enough depth to keep me reading to find out what happens to them. The writing is well done. Sadly, I didn't really enjoy the illustrations. I've liked Miller's graphic novels, and his participation in this venture was a huge draw for me. But this time, his art didn't grab me.

One reason I took my rating down to 3 1/2 stars is that book reads like the first of a series and ends without a true resolution. If there's more to come, this won't be a bad thing, but if this is supposed to be a stand-alone we needed a couple of additional chapters to tie up the loose ends.

Overall, the book is fine, just not great. It is an interesting take on these well-known tales.

I was really excited for this one but sadly it wasn't the book for me. I love King Author retellings and I was also sold on it being a gender bent one. It just fell flat for me.

I.need.more! It's been a long while where a story ended and I was t ready to fully let go. Absolutely blown away by the writing style and character development!

I was able to read Cursed by Thomas Wheeler for free from Netgalley via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. From the cover and the description it seemed that the story was going to be about a strong female protagonist. This book in on high demand and I wanted to be in the 'know'. I tried and I was unable to get into the story.

Book: Cursed
Author: Thomas Wheeler
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing me with this ARC.

I went into this one with really high expectations. I mean, look at just how much it has going for it. However, I do feel like this book was just made for the screen and the screen alone. I don’t know what is it about taking a script and turning it into a book just makes everything fall apart. I think this would had been much stronger in script form.

The plot was really basic. This is pitched as almost being a female King Arthur, but it doesn’t come out like that. Arthur is still a male. It’s fine, I guess, but the plot as a whole just wasn’t as fleshed out as it come have been. Thomas uses a lot of techniques that other fantasy authors use, but it just doesn’t work here. I think he had done something different and really fleshed out the story, then things may had worked a little bit better. Again, I bet it will work on the screen.

I liked the reinventing of some of the characters, but others, no. For example, our lead character, Nimue is not my favourite. She’s supposed to be this great thinker and all of that, but she doesn’t come across like that. The author is trying way too hard to make her into something she’s not. This creates a lot of problems in the overall presentation of the story. Merlin was also very poorly done. He should had been the most interesting character here, but he wasn’t. The minor characters were great and I wish we could had gotten to see more of them.

The artwork, I thought, was really unnecessary. Whenever I saw this was illustrated, I thought it was going to be done a little bit more tastefully. Normally, I do love illustrations in books, but the ones in this one just kind of annoyed me.

Overall, I am very disappointed in this one, but I do think I will give the show a try. This book comes out on October 1, 2019.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/0QG_IKzwtAc

Cursed is a YA retelling of the King Arthur told from the point of view of Nimue, a female Fey whose village is viciously ransacked. The aftermath leaves her orphaned with a final mission given to her by her mother, get the sword to Merlin. Its not my normal cup of tea, but i'm sure for those who are into this genre it would be a hit. Was just a case of not the book but my issue in regards to it. Thank you NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

High schoolers and above will probably like this book, not appropriate for middle school and below as it's very violent. I'm going to forget it's supposed to be an Arthurian retelling and precursor to a Netflix show because it reads like a script. Based on the written work only, it kept me reading, I was invested in the main character, but as mentioned earlier it is violent with slightly graphic depiction. Nobody is truely good or sacrificing in this, they all have their agendas. The bad guys are really easy to hate and to cheer for their demise. So the written work was an okay read, however the art work leads a lot to be desired. There are full illustrations and those were okay, but the line drawing looked like a middle schooler did it with computer graphics and a mouse, and I actually collect lowbrow art and comic books, so to say it's disappointing was putting it mildly. My biggest pet peeve was the cliffhanger ending of all the major characters, everyone was left hanging by a thread.
Aside to the book itself, it only came as an adobe restricted reader download which made pages load very slowly breaking the flow of the story, and the artwork took forever to load. I had to keep going to my desktop to see if it was glitches or if it was art work that was hanging the program up. I would suggest to the publishers to allow this to be reviewed in other options in the future. I do thank the authors and netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Unfortunately the arc was missing pages so I was unable to read it. Can't wait to read it once it's published! I love Frank Miller works, so I'm sure it will be great.

I love the idea of this book!!! Cursed by Thomas Wheeler is definitely a book that needs more. More work, more character development , perhaps even more plot development. Reading Cursed was a bit jarring to be honest, the sentence structure and transitions were abrupt.

I know that this book is made into a series for Netflix....so I hope that in directing the shows more attention will be paid to the writing and the structure.

<b>.5 stars</b>

<i>This review is based on an ARC ebook received for free from NetGalley. I am not being paid to review this book and what I write here is my own opinion. My rating scale is below.</i>

<b>brief summary</b>
A deeply disappointing reimagining of Arthurian legend with Nimue as the protagonist.

<b>full review</b>
The best word to describe this book is disappointing. The prose is simplistic, almost juvenile, and pairs well with the illustrations. For those who picked up this book excited by Frank Miller's involvement, prepare to be disappointed. The illustrations look like the sort of artwork a middle school student might doodle on their notebook if they were forced to use Microsoft Paint and a glitchy mouse to do so. However, since the text reads rather like the sort of quasi-fanfiction a middle school student might write after deciding the Arthurian tales needed more genocide and lepers, the illustrations and the text are well-matched, with neither able to redeem the other. The upside to the immature prose is that it makes for very fast reading, so one need not linger on this unnecessarily lengthy book overlong.

Part of what makes the prose so off-putting is that it seems to be a completely different story which the author could not sell on its own merits, and so decided to replace key names with figures from the tales of Arthur and his knights and call it a reimagining. No single character in this story bears the slightest resemblance to their namesake, to the point where it becomes cringeworthy to even claim a connection between them. The naming conventions, aside from those lifted from Arthurian lore, are jarringly inconsistent with regard to origin and bespeak a haphazard approach to research that carries throughout. As with the eventual involvement of Norse raiders. Guinevere turns out to be one of these, despite the fact that she has a very French name.

Plotwise, there is a leading lady (seemingly arbitrarily) named Nimue who was raised by Druids and Feyfolk. She performs a weirdly emo version of a frolic through the text, wielding a mythical sword that behaves like a bloodthirsty version of Tolkien's One Ring as she gathers Fey followers who see her as a prophesied Chosen One. She meets other name checked Arthurian characters and deals with each of them utterly inconsistently. She leads a rebellion of the Fey against Uther Pendragon (who, honestly, didn't seem to care about her and the Fey one way or another until she forced his hand) and the Red Paladins, who are a religious order bent on the destruction of the Fey and her original enemies. The (plague-ridden) Pope comes to Wales to personally oversee the genocide. Merlin is involved, but he's a magicless sot who turns out to be almost as superfluous to the story as the Leper King, who might be Fey, might be a crimelord, and really only exists to pad Merlin's bits of the story. Merlin also turns out to be Nimue's father, because of course he is. He even gets all paternal and proud of her childish Good Guy decisions toward the end.

It would be impossible to recommend this book to anyone in good conscience, except as evidence of the use of namedropping and rehashing classics in the publishing industry. Do not buy it. Do not read it. You will be Disappointed with a capital D.

A good Arthur legend retelling which places the Lady of the Lake center stage! I am not really all that familiar with the Arthur legend (just a lose understanding). So this story encouraged me to do some research into the legend.

The illustrations added a dark, heaviness to the story. The style isn't my cup of tea but I do appreciate the dark, foreboding feel that they create.

I don’t think I’ve been as excited about an Arthurian book since Mists of Avalon! Cursed introduces a whole new take on the old legends of King Arthur and focuses on Nimue, the Lady of the Lake or, in some versions, Merlin’s lover. We first see Nimue as a child, living in a nurturing environment still following the old ways of the Druid. The first chapter is a violent introduction to the unconscionable acts of cleansing and conversion carried out by Christian priests and monks in the Dark Ages. The violence is startling, made especially so by the immediate change in tone in the second chapter as the storyline fills itself in, then pushes forward with Nimue as warrior and defender of the old ways.

All the expected characters appear, but in clever and fascinating new ways. The narrative itself moves fast and holds you tightly as you read page after page, oblivious to time because you just have to know what happens next. Complemented by magnificent illustrations, the story wraps around you until you can’t think of anything else. Arthur fans will devour this, but so will Game of Thrones fans missing that world. Highly recommended.

"Cursed" eBook was published in 2019 (October) and was written by Thomas Wheeler. This is Mr. Wheeler's second novel. 

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in medieval England. The primary character is Nimue, though Arthur, Merlin, and others from the traditional tales of King Arthur are there too. 

In this version of the story, Nimue, whose mother is an Arch Druid, ends up with the famous sword of power. She has also grown adept at very powerful dark magic. Her mother along with everyone else in her village is killed by the Red Paladins, a militant group of the Catholic Church. The Red Paladins seek any and all of the Fey folk they can find. They want to purge their souls through torture and death. They also want the sword of power Nimue carries. 

King Pendragon is another force that wants to hold the sword that he will become the one true king. Complicating matters is the Viking Ice King who is also after the sword. Nimue and her friends must survive this lethal field of adversaries, while she tries to survive and save the Fey. 

I enjoyed the 10+ hours I spent reading this 416-page fantasy. While I liked the overall plot, the familiar characters have little to do with the history we have all grown up with regarding Arthur. I think I would have liked the story better if there had been no effort to tie it to the Arthur legend. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 3.8 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

This is such a cool book and from what I have heard soon to be a mini series on Netflix come spring of 2020. This is a wonderful but refreshing tale surrounding the whole knights of the round table, Merlin and the Lady of the Lake. This book is non stop action from the start and comes with all the suspense and twists and turns one can possibly fit in this book, and they are awesome and fit so well into the story line. The illustrations are interesting and fit with the story, they tell a story of themselves but still leave a lot to the imagination. It is no surprise this will be one of my favorite young adult books of the year so far, I hope Netflix keeps true to it.



This book will appear on my blog on Oct 1st