Rating: 60% | D | ★★ Warnings: + Sexual content + Violence Synopsis (from Goodreads): After selling her soul to become Queen of the Wicked, Emilia travels to the Seven Circles with the enigmatic Prince of Wrath, where she’s introduced to a seductive world of vice. She vows to do whatever it takes to avenge her beloved sister, Vittoria...even if that means accepting the hand of the Prince of Pride, the king of demons. The first rule in the court of the Wicked? Trust no one. With back-stabbing princes, luxurious palaces, mysterious party invitations, and conflicting clues about who really killed her twin, Emilia finds herself more alone than ever before. Can she even trust Wrath, her one-time ally in the mortal world...or is he keeping dangerous secrets about his true nature? Emilia will be tested in every way as she seeks a series of magical objects that will unlock the clues of her past and the answers she craves... Non-Spoiler Review: Kingdom of the Cursed was my most anticipated book of 2021. While I didn't love the first book (a review of which will soon be available From the Archives), I found the tension between Emilia and Wrath compelling enough that I wanted to continue the series. I find myself echoing that sentiment after reading Kingdom of the Cursed, only more irritably and disappointedly. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where this book goes wrong, but perhaps the answer is that almost every single one of its 448 pages feels scrapbooked together from some larger, more cohesive book. Kingdom of the Cursed runs into many of the same problems as Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo—so many characters and none of them important, so many plot lines and none of them concluded. This book gives neither a satisfying arc of character development for Emilia nor does it advance the plot (which, again, what precisely was the plot?) established in the first book. This book read like an installment in a completely different series. I also found Maniscalco's writing to be more difficult to read than it was in the previous book. Not only are settings and food described in ostentatious detail, but the dialogue comes off as stilted and superficial. (Some of it, I imagine, owes to the novel's first-person point of view, which I am admittedly biased against in nearly all literature.) Maniscalco falls into the trap of creating a veneer of antiquity by disowning nearly all contractions, a choice that I believe is historically inaccurate (though I am happy for more precise clarification on this matter from experts). One of the reasons why this novel was highly anticipated aside from the usual sequel hype was because of Maniscalco's transition from YA to New Adult (NA). To put it plainly, the transition doesn't work. The novel spirals out of the tone set in the previous book and becomes something wildly salacious but without any real meaning—sex and lust for the sake of sex and lust. The reader inevitably circles back to the question posed at the start of this review—what was the meaning behind all this? (Click "Read More" for spoilers.) Plot (21/30) Beginning, Middle, and End (all 7/10s) The plot of this novel is so convoluted that it's hard to know where to start. This book feels like a collection of vignettes rather than a cohesive story. Emilia bounces from idea to idea without actually accomplishing anything, and this is nowhere clearer than her escapades in Wrath's court. She and Wrath spend ample time together seemingly doing nothing except trying to avoid acting on their attraction towards each other. There is no tension, only lust, that, in the context of the previous book and the fact that Emilia and Wrath are still supposedly "enemies," is inexplicable. Off the top of my head, here are the plot points that I remember:
Only half of these plot points are actually resolved, and all of the resolution occurs within the last 10% of the novel. The other 90% of the novel is composed of confusing, if not nonsensical, lustful interactions between Emilia and Wrath that have no real meaning given that every time they interact romantically, a new secret comes out. It's all very exhausting and irritating. The twist in the previous novel worked well because even though there were small secrets revealed along the way, Wrath's betrayal was large enough to surpass those smaller secrets in meaning. Kingdom of the Cursed does not succeed in the same way because each secret is given equal weight and the reader is expected to dig through the rubble themselves. And, of course, the novel's conclusion must be addressed. More on that below. Characters (16/30) Development and Allure (both 8/10s) Kerri Maniscalco said on Instagram that this novel is character-driven. And given the chaos of the plot, character development is all one can latch on to. But I question whether or not there's actual character development in Kingdom of the Cursed rather than simply the absence of plot development. Emilia becomes more cunning, but does she become wiser? She learns the ways of Hell, but does she truly learn to see the world in a new light? And, on a related note, what does Wrath learn, if anything? Like the plot, both of their characters are so different from the characters established in Kingdom of the Wicked that the reader almost feels as though they're reading an entirely different series. Emilia and Wrath's respective character stagnations, combined with the fairly icky and potentially nonconsensual nature of chapter 17, when Wrath magically manipulates Emilia, makes them both shed the allure that they'd gained in the first novel. And all this has the reader wondering, if this novel isn't plot-driven and it's not character-driven, then what is it? Writing (10/20) Descriptions and Flow (both 5/10s) As I mentioned before, Maniscalco's writing style is overly ornate to the point of ostentatiousness. I feel as though I could recite a list of the items in Emilia's wardrobe better than I could describe any single aspect of the plot. Moreover, so much of the characters' dialogue and internal monologues are wince-inducingly contrived. Conversations are stiff and unrealistic. "I miss her." The flow of the writing is also severely affected by the scattered plot. The book's premise is that Emilia must solve her sister's murder, but the book only seems to be tangentially about Vittoria's death. And, again, most of the half-baked plot lines introduced in this novel are either discarded completely or solved in the last 10% of the novel, making for a very frustrating and off-kilter reading experience.
I also briefly mentioned above that Maniscalco's writing fails to adequately address the mature and sexual content of this novel. Does Emilia truly become liberated through sex? Or does she only view sex as something outside of herself—thereby excepting herself from her own internal prejudices against it? These unanswered questions cast a pall over the entire novel that made me uncomfortable. I felt as though there were a veneer of something sticky on my brain as I was reading—a slimy, oozing, discomfort. Closure/Set-Up (13/20) Logic (6/10) and Allure/Closure (7/10) The very chapter. The very last page. Did any of it make sense? Why Maniscalco chooses to end the story on what essentially amounts to both nothing and also a complete ending, no cliffhanger to be seen, will always be a mystery to me. When I reached the last page, I kept flipping, expecting the story to go on. I expected Emilia to confront Vittoria. But no—the story had ended in almost an irksome, whole-circle way, by bringing it back to Emilia and Wrath's half-baked relationship. Ultimately, the internal monologue I derive from Kingdom of the Cursed is as follows: Did I like the novel? No. Will I still read the sequel? Yes. And therein lies the issue, I suppose.
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