After a pub brawl and a quick chase through the Tala streets, Aya captures the culprits she’s been tracking and uncovers a secret plot happening right under their noses. The exiled kingdom of Kakos is amassing weapons to finally strike back, but what is more alarming is that their agents have displayed dark magic that has not been seen for generations. Despite their prickly relationship, Aya must work with Will, the queen’s enforcer, to seek aid for their kingdom as the threat of war looms over them all. The political game they must play requires finesse, but the pair is also hiding secrets of their own. Both must find a way to work together to save themselves and the kingdom they have dutifully served before Kakos destroys it all.
Let’s start with the magic system which is practically nonexistent. Despite a list of all the magical orders and their affinities at the beginning of the book, the powers and their role are largely absent from the story. It’s a shaky foundation for an entire plot built around a woman with rare, unprecedented power. The first strange thing is that many of these powers never play a role in the story. People are labeled as an “Incend” for fire affinity or “Terra” for earth, but we don’t ever see these affinities in use or brought in to support the story. Hell, our two main POVs are a “Sensainos” (sensation and emotions) and a “Persi” (persuasion) and we rarely see their affinity in action. And when the characters decide to use their affinities, the application of that power is like a puff of smoke. The story loves to tell us that Will or Aya are using their affinity on a person, but what does that actually mean? We don’t understand how the power is used, how it manifests, what its limits are, nothing. Aya simply wants to persuade someone and we, as the reader, are told the affinity is successful and the scene carries on.
The story itself is also vague, and I attribute that to a lot of the character connections and plot points happening off-screen. For example, the main and secondary characters have been mingling for many chapters when suddenly, it’s shared that Will is great friends with someone in the group despite absolutely zero interactions or clues given to the reader. This is immediately followed by a scene where that character supports Will, and it all feels very contrived. There’s not a lot of logic between relationships and plot points because the reader is not given context. When done well, withholding information from the reader reveals the most jaw-dropping twists and an addictive level of exhilaration. However, Curse withholds information that creates noticeable gaps that make the reader stumble awkwardly and piece together large chunks of an unknown and murky story.
Curse also hits on one of my biggest pet peeves—when a character does not display any of the qualities or characteristics that would be required of their super special role. In this case, Will serves as the queen’s feared enforcer and Aya is the queen’s talented and cruel spymaster. They could have easily been cast as bakers for all we see them displaying qualities that would have earned them two of the most powerful positions serving the queen. I would be more understanding if the story did not rely on these roles, but the entire plot centers around the enforcer and spy completing a successful mission for the queen. These fancy and intriguing roles got slapped onto the characters but ended up having the same weight as their name. It’s unfortunate when this happens because the character feels unimportant and their purpose questionable. Nothing sets them apart from anyone else in this story and then on top of that, they’re just bad at what they do, and not in a purposeful funny way.
As someone who picked up The Curse of Saints purely out of curiosity, I didn’t have expectations—good or bad. I simply wanted to see where this TikTok-to-publishing journey ended and unfortunately for me, it was not an enjoyable one.
Rating: The Curse of Saints – 3/10
-Brandee
