What a wonderful book ! A complex but relatable lead character and fully formed back up characters. The world is rich and flawed just like real life, so is more believable. This grabs you from the opening line, which has to be the best one in years. The depiction of mental health issues feels real and done with great compassion.

DNF at 30%. Sadly, this book and I weren't compatible but there are definitely some cool ideas in here.

Cursebreakers is officially out on September 12, 2023! Thanks to Madeleine Nakamura and Red Hen Press for sending me an ARC through Netgalley. This doesn’t affect my review in any way.

TWs: Chronic Bipolar Disorder, drug use, suicidal thoughts, & destructive tendencies

Adrien Desfourneaux is a professor at the Pharmakeia and a magician with a tragic past. Determined to lie low after a disastrous research experiment years ago, his life is suddenly turned upside down once more after he finds out that the massive city of Astrum is stirring, when the citizens of Pharmakeia suddenly fall into a magically induced coma. Decided to turn things around, he is suddenly thrust into a scheme of a mess brought upon by a faction of magicians along with the tyrannical and violence-fueled military. Adrien, along with his failing mental health and his friends, Malise, Casmir, and Gennady, a complex, young Vigil, are set to find out the truth and end the curse once and for all.

This was an explosive stand-alone story built upon a complex, futuristic world of magic and politics. Though arguably, for an extremely massive world with lots of elements, it lacked a proper manner of construction, but I think this book was written really well in terms of the queer rep and expresses a great, intimate portrayal of chronic bipolar disorder and destructive tendencies in adults. This was my first time reading a story about a forty-one-year-old male MC. Nakamura’s writing has delightful prose and her plot was incredibly straight to the point. For a fantasy book, the characters presented in this story were incredibly realistic and exceptionally human as they delved into the intricacies of adult friendships. And lastly, what I enjoyed the most is that the story wasn’t focused on finding romance, but it was about surviving your own demons and presents a great conclusion.

DNF @20%

This may be the third ARC I've DNFed ever. All 3 stars are for the really well done portrayal of bipolar disorder. As for the rest of it - if I'm reading a shortish standalone fantasy and I'm 20% in and still have almost no idea of how the world or magic works? No. And that's with the main character as a professor who spends a fair amount of time exposition dumping in the first few chapters. Not everything needs a Greek or Latin inspired name.

Again, the bipolar portrayal was amazing from what I read but the rest of it was borderline incomprehensible. I might suggest it to someone who wants dark academia but is running out of books to read in the genre but overall not going on my list of recommendations.

DNF'ed at 34% - The description and ideas of this book had so much potential, but the characters and the prose really threw this book into the ground. Might try again when it comes out, but I was honestly disappointed in how repetitive and annoying the main character was. Yes, there is supposed to be mystery and suspense when trying to figure out the problem of the plot, but it got very tiring. I felt like I was just in limbo, not really going anywhere and eventually not caring where the main character went either.

"In my greater and lesser moments, I fear that I must be fated for sainthood. Martyrdom, then, as they're so often one and the same."

[Review contains spoilers]

Sometimes you read the first chapter, or dare I say even the very first line of a book, and you just know that it's going to have a death-grip on you from beginning to end. After finishing the little prologue to Nakamura's debut Cursebreakers, I felt that exact way. This book is a wholly unique concoction - a fantastic amalgamation of mystery and steampunk, sprinkled with a dash of dark academia conspiracies and mental daimons. I loved every second of it.

➺ The plot: magic, mind control, and militarism

All is not right at the Pharmakeia, one of Astrum's foremost schools for the education of magicians. More and more of the Pharmakeia students are disappearing from its halls, only to show up again with a mysterious curse that leaves them in a comatose state. Meanwhile, the Vigil is becoming an increasingly overbearing military presence at the institution given the current tensions.

Adrien Desfourneaux is a Pharmakeia professor who is trying to run from the mistakes of his past while struggling daily with the precarious nature of his mental health. When the curse becomes increasingly entangled with his history as a disgraced ex-physician and the events that led to his downfall, Adrien becomes an unwitting participant in a struggle between forces much bigger than himself.

Cursebreakers is an engaging mystery. I did think the story was, however, more about the journey rather than the actual "whodunit" aspect. You get to know kind of early on who is partly behind the curse. It's really this gradual unraveling of events and the breadth of their reach that kept me hooked on the core plot.

➺ The setting: steampunk adult fantasy meets dark academia

The world of Cursebreakers is divided by those who possess magic (which is based on the elements) and those who do not. This is by no means a novel concept. It is, however, a lot less straightforward than it sounds. One of the big reveals in the book is that the people behind the Pharmakeia "curse" are experimenting on students and soldiers in an attempt to impart magic on them by breaking down the barriers of the mind. I found this interesting, as it implies that all people may be capable of magic. Various concepts related to the "mind" are also prominent themes throughout the book.

You get the sense that there is so much more to this universe outside of our little view of the Pharmakeia. That is always an impressive achievement for an author - to make a larger world feel expansive and lived in even though we are only shown a small glimpse of it. There are two empresses, complex tensions between opposing military and magical factions, brainwashed child soldiers who are mind linked to these canine-like beings called "raches," and witchfinders with mekhania eyes. Everything was so vivid even though Nakamura doesn't spend page after page on worldbuilding.

➺ The characters: peak enemies-to-frenemies

But when all's said and done, for me at least, a good setting and magic system can only get you so far. It's really the characters that elevate a story, and the characters in Cursebreakers were glorious. I absolutely loved our narrator, the magician Adrien Desfourneaux. It's been a while since I was this invested in a protagonist, and I liked that the POV character was a professor rather than a student in a magical school setting. Adrien is such an atypical and flawed hero. He's in his 40s, an academic professor rather than a fighter, and a man who struggles continuously with what appears to be bipolar disorder. His narrative voice is very distinct - rich in witty sarcasm but also with this underlying sense of crushing self deprecation. Adrien is fascinating in all his contradictions. He views himself as cowardly, but his actions continually speak otherwise. He views himself as solitary and aloof, but we see just how much he cares for the wellbeing of his students and his closest friends.

Adrien is also an unreliable narrator. We reach a point in the story where the people around him question whether or not the things that transpire are real or a fictitious byproduct of his illness, and even we begin to doubt how much of what he is conveying to us is not clouded by his state of mind. Seeing how the spiraling events takes a toll on Adrien's mental health and the way in which his friends and even the reader doubts him because of his illness was particularly devastating.

The other character we spend a lot of time with is the bloodthirsty Vigil soldier Gennady Richter. Like Adrien, he also is an incredibly fascinating individual. Gennady is rude, impulsive, and extremely unpredictable. Also a little bit too eager to solve problems through murder brute force. Throughout the story though we see how the people around Gennady from his sister to his unit captain constantly view him as monstrous and unfeeling, and it was really interesting watching him do his best to reject this part of him and be good. It's easy to root for Gennady on his journey towards being a better person.

Honestly, Nakamura really hits it out of the park with the interactions and the bond that develops between Adrien and Gennady. Their friendship was 100% the highlight of the book for me, and I'd say that it's one of the best "enemies-to-frenemies" I've read in a while. The way they balance each other out and their searing quips were all at once fascinating, entertaining, and surprisingly...heartwarming. In the first half of the book Adrien is constantly reeling in Gennady and his violent tendencies, but by the second half when Adrien is the one about to do something unwise Gennady is just like "whatever" *eye roll* but then immediately goes to stop him out of concern. Peak platonic mentor-student relationship, I love them both, A+++ 👌

The side characters also were so good. Malise is Adrien's best friend and doctor, a literal angel, and just a genuinely good person. We could all use a Malise in our lives. Casmir I wanted to punch in the face. His dynamic with Adrien was so toxic and there were just too many red flags. He kept accusing Adrien of being cruel to HIM when honestly I think Casmir was the cruelest character in the story. Even more so than some of the villains. Casmir definitely gave me those gaslighting vibes and he was seriously a load of ICK. I'm very glad Adrien was starting to move on by the end of the book, as he deserved so much better.

All this to say that the incredible cast of characters really makes this book special. Cursebreakers is an impressive debut and standalone fantasy that likely will be one of my top reads of the year.

I actually loved this book. It’s like a mix of very dark academia, fantasy, questionable narrator, and everything in between.

When Adrien’s biggest mistake of his career seems to start happening again, he needs to investigate to keep it from happening again. While he starts to uncover the malicious actors behind the people falling comatose and subsequently dying, he discovers more than he anticipated. As his mental health is slipping, he gets deeply involved in uncovering the plot; however, as someone with a history of hallucinations and mental breakdowns, very few people take him seriously. When things start to unravel, so does Adrien, with so much pressure he is headed straight for a mental breakdown. Can he help uncover the plot and save the people? Will his mental health hold up long enough to finish what he started?

This book was just a delight and I read it all in one sitting.

Cursebreakers was a visceral read that closely followed Adrian, a bipolar professor who finds himself caught up in solving a mystery.

It was a great book with a fantastic sense of urgency and closeness to the main character, and the building of the rapport with Gennady was phenomenal.

Their budding friendship was a highlight of the book, as was the expert depiction of bipolar disorder, weaving the experience into the character in such an inextricable fashion that the story itself could not play out as it does without Adrian's "condition". This is the best form of neurodiverse/disability rep, in my opinion, since these aspects of our lives are impossible to separate from who we are, informing every moment, every decision, and to see that feature so skillfully in a fantasy story was incredible.

The book only scored shy of full marks entirely on account of being a little slim. With the rich worldbuilding and exciting plot unfolding, I needed more meat on Cursebreakers' bones.

(photo review post to come on Instagram closer to the time of release: link provided to my page)

Welp, I have a massive book hangover now.

Cursebreakers is the story of a conspiracy between a group of magicians and a subset the military force that oppresses them. It's also the story of Adrien, a magician, professor and disgraced physician as he tries to navigate his akrasia (this world's equivalent to bipolar disorder), his guilt over the failed experiment that cost him his job and reputation and the complex relationships he has with the people around him.

I found this book to be, at times, emotionally devastating. And that's saying something with me - I got through the entirety of The Song of Achilles with barely an emotional flicker. There were some scenes that made me unbelievably sad and angry on Adrien's behalf, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Casmir, his "keeper" (a figure who takes care of him and has legal power over him during his episodes) and the man he's in unrequited love with.

While I appreciate that the author makes Casmir a complex character with both his flaws and his virtues, and while Adrien is certainly not without his faults, I have to admit it's been a while since I loathed a fictional character quite this much. He's a spineless, self-important coward and quite honestly I had more respect for some of the villains than I had for him.

Instead, I loved Adrien as a protagonist. He's an unconventional choice for the protagonist of a fantasy novel. He's neurodivergent, he's in his forties, and, despite being a very skilled magician, he's a non-combatant and never really learns to fight over the course of the novel. He's not equipped to deal with the situation he finds himself in, and he acts like it. He spends most of the book terrified. And this makes him one of the bravest fictional characters I've encountered in a while - he's scared, he's aware of the danger he's putting himself in, but he acts anyway.

The rest of the cast was similarly great. I adored Gennady, the young soldier who is Adrien's primary ally in unraveling the conspiracy. His relationship with Adrien is fascinating - they start out as natural enemies, and then slowly come to rely on and trust each other. Adrien eventually becomes something in between a mentor and almost a father figure for him.

Cursebreakers delivered on something I really wish we saw more of in fantasy: it's a story largely set in a magical school told from the point of view of one of the professors, and also depicts an (unconventional) mentor-pupil relationship from the point of view of the mentor.

There are some aspects of the book that might not be for everyone: I found the prose to be gorgeous, but it is archaic, which might put some people off, and the world-building, while complex and fully realized, only delivered enough exposition to allow the reader to follow the story, and no more. This didn't bother me, as I'm not someone who primarily reads fantasy for the world-building, and what we saw was fascinating enough for me. I particularly loved the approach to magic, which is treated as a science to be studied.

It's also not a flawless book. The pacing, in particular, was at times both too fast and too slow, with the intrigue/conspiracy plot not always merging perfectly with the character-driven aspect. However, I was enjoying the story and the characters too much to really be bothered by the occasional pacing issue. It's a stunning debut and will probably be one of my favorite books of the year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an e-ARC of this book to review. I struggled a little with the worldbuilding in the book, which felt like it needed to be fleshed out more. That said, I loved the disability and queer rep in a fantasy setting and found this book overall entertaining.

Cursebreakers was an interesting read- not my favorite or least favorite. I'll try again soon, but the prose was just too pretentious for me to be drawn in. I like that there's mental wellness representation, though!

Thank You, Netgalley, Red Hen Press and Canis Major Books for the e-Galley.

I found this book to be quite an interesting read, and the plot was great and I very much enjoyed the charcters and their relationships immensely and thought the mental health (main charcter has a type of BPD) and queer aspects, were very well done. Especially, the fact that the characters being queer was sorta normalised in this world and not the whole point of the plot or a conflict point.
However, there wasn't as much world building as you would expect from a fantasy novel and felt it could have been fleshed out a little more and the ending was a little disappointing.  There  wasn't a map, this book should totally have a map, love a map

A flawless 5 stars! This is the best debut I’ve read this year!
I don’t even know where to start, I want to praise every single aspect of this book.

The worldbuilding checks all the marks: I can best describe it as a combination of steampunk and elemental magic (my friend joked it reminded her of Wizard101). I found it to be not overly info-dumpy; most of the concepts are just thrown around casually, as the characters are familiar with them, but they are intuitive enough to not pull the reader out of the story. If anything, they even give an immersive touch to the story.

The prose and pacing are 10/10. The book is told from the limited point of view of the protagonist, Adrien, and I really enjoyed his wit and the way he described the other characters. The characters, of course, and the relationship between them are the strong suit of the book. The friendship between Adrian and Malise, and later the budding friendship between Genady and Adrien were the highlight of the book for me, especially the way they contrast each other. The book also features a queernormative world with most of the cast being queer and has no main romantic relationship, which are big pluses for me.

The author doesn’t shy away from portraying the characters in a realistic way. They’re not perfect, they don’t advance the plot for ‘the sake of greater good’ and can be quite selfish in their reasons. The whole conflict of the book actually gets kickstarted because of Adrian’s feelings of guilt with a previous accident.

The only fault I can find with this book is that it’s too short and I need more. I am in desperate need of a sequel, and even though the main conflict is resolved by the end of the story, there are a few loose ends I’d love to see explored in further instalments.

Thank you to Red Hen Press/Canis Major Books for an ARC of this book to review.

This book follows Adrien Desfourneaux, a manic bipolar professor of magic, as his life and mind unravel around him. In this world, magicians are strictly regulated and their powers are feared. If they were to use their magic to kill someone or inflict harm, they would be tried as witches. Years ago, Desfourneaux was a healer who tried to perform an experimental procedure on a group of sickly individuals (known as solarium patients) when it went wrong. Instead of being healed, those patients fell into a coma and have not woken up since. He was tried for witchcraft but found not guilty in the end. When new patients start popping up with the same symptoms as his solarium patients, Adrien is pulled back into his obsession to try and get to the bottom of it.

“In my greater and lesser moments, I fear that I must be fated for sainthood.”

To start off, I really enjoyed the friendships portrayed in this book. My favorite hands down has to be the friendship between Gennady and Adrien. They’re blunt with their thoughts which is a refreshing twist. Even if the communication can be brutal, I appreciate how open it is between them. Malise is just an all around great character and her vibes were so cozy! The ‘my dear’ parts were great.

The plot being a dark mystery unraveling with Adrien’s own compromised mental health is really interesting. I haven’t seen a book lately that was able to tie in an unreliable narrator with a fantasy world so well. There are some parts where Adrien includes commentary because this story is being told from his point of view later on that were nice additions. It brought you back into remembering that this is all a recount.

Regarding the mental health aspect, I don’t know if I love it or hate it? I did enjoy how Adrien and Gennady both have mental health issues and how they play such an important part in the story. However, some of the dialogue surrounding their illnesses felt off putting. Adrien described Gennady in some unwelcoming ways despite the fact that he’s supposed to be one of the most understanding characters. I think some parts were outright crude (the scene with Casmir near the end in the office) and the sudden introduction with addiction felt out of the blue. I found it unnecessary how much detail the author went into when it came to the addiction scenes. Instead of focusing on how the drug was an issue, Adrien’s declining mental state, or any other option of topics, almost all the addiction scenes just explicitly described how he shot up and how good it felt.

Unfortunately while the plot was great, the actual writing threw me for a loop. It felt like the author picked up a thesaurus and spent hours going through it. It was nearly unbearable at times. For example, “In my opinion, a better term for mania would be teratothymia.” Another example, “The perennial why did I do that? The quintessential I couldn’t help it.” I recognize that Adrien is a professor so this may have something to do with it, but I found it clunky in actuality.

Another thing I felt was lacking was the world building. I desperately wished to understand what was going on, but terms were just thrown around without much explanation. I had a very hard time imagining this world in my head and to be quite honest, I didn’t. I just pictured people talking with blank backgrounds. It was entirely nondescript and the descriptions that were given lacked overall structure. For example, I could not figure out what the words Oktidy and Primidy were until I realized they were just days of the week. I thought maybe they were holidays or physical locations? I wasn’t sure! It was just a general lack of explanation all around.

The ending was a little bit of a disappointment for me. The conclusion that was built up from the start, the tension that I felt through the whole book, was essentially faded to black. The characters weren’t well fleshed out apart from Adrien himself and even Gennady was lacking depth.

I wanted to give this book 3 stars, but I’m sad to say I have to give it 2. I think it has great potential but the parts that are lacking greatly affected the entire story.

Also as a personal opinion that didn’t affect my rating: I hate Casmir.

If you are going to read this book, please take into serious consideration the trigger warnings. Some include: explicit descriptions of addiction and needle use, depression, violence, mental health portrayals, bipolar disorder, and more.

Thanks God that's over.
The first 80% I could have given up loads of times, then it got good.
To many people and to many big words lol

I received this as an ARC, but will be telling my whole truth. I surprisingly enjoyed reading this book. My emotions were ever so high at all times and I felt a sort of kinship to the main character. I, myself, struggle with depression and obsessive/addicting habits, so my drive to see Adrian succeed was high. He disappointed me greatly halfway and somewhat towards the end, but because of how the book actually ended I was proud of him too. It’s hard talking about a sensitive topic such as this, but I appreciate the way things were told in a slight fantastical manner, without disregarding the real troubling implications such diagnosis have on people. Overall a great read, though sometimes hard to get through with the way I had to guess at times what some of the places or words meant in the different language given to us, would’ve wished for a definitions section just to make it easier on some of us, but I got by alright. Definitely would recommend the read.

I am GAGGED. I'll begin with what enraptured me the most. The first person POV of a forty-one year old ex-doctor turned professor Adrien Desfourneaux (which I only knew how to pronounce because
I recently learned Jason Derulo's real name was spelled Desrouleaux lol), with a substantial case of past trauma(+guilt) and chronic mental illness was written SO unbelievably well.

His flaws were present and drilled deep into him as a character along with an awareness to go along with it, that as a reader, I have to applaud the complexity the author has given to Adrien to make him come to life in those pages. These various facets of his character are wonderfully and convincingly weaved into the story through his actions and his introspection at any given situation, from that of a teacher, patient, magician, to addict. (The last one was in its way a little difficult, nothing extreme, but it wasn't like how drug use is typically portrayed in fantasy fiction, at least from my possibly-limited experience) given that the awareness I mentioned made reading about his relapse had made it a little chilling, by how clinical and detached his character felt during it.
There was a sort of confidence in writing him that paid off as well. He wasn't an MC made out to be easily liked from the get go. Not disliked either, mind, but a lot of what we know about Adrien basically boils down to being not-terribly-shining qualities, so to speak😅😅
He can be a bit difficult, to himself and those that care for him. But it's this vulnerability that's what makes you want to root for him. And that's just his personality. There's no point in saying everything about what makes him so well-written because there are still sides to him that is eventually explored deeper into the plot that I don't want to just be repeating myself🤡

Next amazing thing: Gennady was WILD to read. Did I call Adrien difficult? Well Gennady would be DIFFICULT difficult. Honestly I couldn't even judge him for it cause I was just rendered so speechless by him sometimes that I could do nothin but wait and see what he'd do next. And YET, inexplicably I've fallen for him and the slow buildup of trust between him and Adrien. It was very sweet to see them care for each other for reasons unknown. Was it obligation? Proximity? I don't they were conscious about it either.
They aren't exactly the most compatible people. Neither the military and magicians view the other in high regard, in their world. Gennady is a young and brash soldier who contrasts with Adrien's older and more reserved nature, and they didn't get along more often than not. It was cute though, how the professor could bring out the soldier's protective nature, if a bit violent, at times. Anyway, very interesting dynamic that you don't see often in queer fiction. I would love to see their relationship develop after how the events of the book concluded, but seeing as there are no plans for a sequel I can respect the author's decision to leave them as they are. But I will miss them😭😭

Moving on to the story, it kept a ruthless pace imo. Between a brewing conspiracy, threats and tension, our MC was not having a breezy time. As if it weren't enough, his whereabouts and overall state does nothing for the straining relationships between him and his close friends who want what's best for him. The fact that he has a history with concerning symptoms like hallucinations, and his battle with sobriety casts doubt when he attempts to fix the situation he's in. I'm just glad it worked out for him in the end, for the most part. I'm more into character driven aspects of stories so when it comes to things like worldbuilding and the general magic and political systems, I find that I can generally accept it and just go with the flow. However if you are more particular about these details in fantasy literature it might not be up to par. Though the explanations throughout are satisfactory enough (at least to me), and no glaring plotholes besides the general vibe being a bit too chill after what was supposedly a big event made it a bit anticlimatic. Supposedly. Then I told myself, you know what, it's really none of my business if they go back to business-as-usual after all that and just enjoy the story

Overall an easy 4+ stars rounded up to 5! Good debut
Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I couldn't put it down

Oh my god, so this was fantastic. I was interested in this for the bipolar representation, not really expecting the meaningful deep discourse we got. The mental health and neurodiverse discussions in a fantasy setting absolutely blew me away with how natural it felt to the main storyline. I also loved how Adrian was dealing with his mental health while everything else was going on. This was giving dark academia vibes raised to a more nuanced level.

The book was enjoyable and the role magic played in society was interesting. It sometimes felt like the book lacked some world-building that would have helped certain plot points make more sense. And sometimes the pacing of certain events felt inconsistent/off. I thought the mental-health aspect of the book was handled tastefully.

"It's a wonderful feeling when the daimon cooperates with me. The sharpest joy in the cosmos, and a rage fit to kill."

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to know you're going to love a book from the very first paragraph. It's a rare feeling – especially when you can't know if the plot won't take any turns that will ruin the experience by the end of it. However, i got very lucky with "Cursebreakers".

Adrien Desfourneaux is a former healer with a dark past – his youthful experiments in attempts to eradicate akrasia, a mental illness he himself lives with, led to tragedy and destroyed the minds of his many patients. Having barely evaded witchcraft charges, he now teaches other young magicians how to hone in their talents. As he feels another episode build up and his daimon awaken, the institution he has dedicated his life to appears to be overtaken by a curse, as more and more students and soldiers fall into a comatose state, not unlike those adrien hurt years ago.

The build-up is slow. Nakamura takes care to establish the rules of the universe, the border between magic and technology, and build on the interpersonal relations. The world feels lived-in, revealing only bits and pieces of Adrien's past when he—as the narrator—sees it fit.

Speaking of Adrien himself, he is a wonderfully tragic protagonist. While there is a layer of unreliability, it's far more heartbreaking watching as the people he loves refuse to believe him based solely on his condition. While I can't say for certain whether this is good representation of bipolar disorder, Nakamura's depiction of akrasia and Adrien's shifts between manic and depressive states were convincing. The limitations of magic also made the universe's rules feel more realistic.

One thing I would've loved more of was the interpersonal relationships between Adrien and Malise and, particularly, Casmir. while this works perfectly as a standalone, part of me would love a prequel or a short story that delves more into the complicated feelings between Adrien and Casmir, especially given some of the things left unsaid in their fights.

The flowery prose and the archaic vocabulary won't work for some, but it's precisely the kind of writing style I love. It's a captivating mystery, with a painfully human cast of characters. September can't come soon enough so I can get my hands on a physical copy.