Content Overview
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My Opinion
(4.5 / 5) “True love is not about romance. True love requires sacrifice. A willingness to place another’s life above your own.”
I loved this book. I somehow did not realize that it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I think that added to the story. Kemmerer took the original story and spun it into something much more exciting. Adventure, intrigue, love (good romance, not cheesy or forced), curses, witches, dragons, swords and so much more! She even threw in snarky remarks here and there which were funny and fit well.
For the content, I feel like most kids middle grade and up can read it. The content was mostly mild with a few violence elements that each person will have to decide on their own. Swearing was minimal and the romance was innocent.
A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers #1)
Brigid Kemmerer
Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s pulled into a magical world.
-Excerpt taken from book flap.
Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.
Detailed Content Review
Language
F***-
H***- 15
S***-
A**- 1
B****-
D***- 3
Bas****-
Religious Cursing-
J****-
Chr***-
G**- 6
L***-
Derogatory terms etc-
A picture of a man holding up his middle finger.
Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking
A woman is seen staggering a little. It’s obvious she is drunk.
Champagne is on a table.
A man pours wine.
A woman serves apple mead.
A man pours wine for a young woman. They both drink.
A group of people drink mead.
A young woman is given a dose of sleeping ether. A man drinks wine.
A man buys beer and spirits for a crowd.
Men drink beer with dinner.
Two men drink shots of spirits.
Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty
A man of royalty used to request women be brought to him with big breasts and tiny waists. He now says, “anyone will do.”
A man has a picture of himself kissing the neck of another man. In a text they state “I love you.”
A man is holding a mom and kids at swordpoint. His friend yells to take the woman and a young girl because he, “likes them young.”
In the presence of a prince, people will assume a young woman is his whore so he calls her “lady.”
A man states that no woman can hold his attention for a fortnight.
A woman kisses a man. He is pinned against the wall.
A young woman helps a man get out of armor. He thinks it feels more like undressing him. They sleep in the same bed for many nights.
A man kisses a young woman softly. Then he pulls her against him. She untucks his shirt and fingers his skin.
A young woman kisses a man.
Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood
A man who turns into a beast, has blood under his nails and he wonders how many people he killed. Due to his curse, he has previously killed his family and castle occupants and many more. He found them dismembered with their blood on himself.
A man left a blood trail from cutting his own arm.
A man threatens to break people’s arms or fingers etc, he punches them and threatens them until they give him money.
A man knocks a woman unconscious and carries her, watching to see if no one is watching. A young woman intervenes and hits him with a crowbar making him drop the woman. He knocks her down, she fights him off but he holds her down and abducts her. She fights another man with the crowbar she still has, hitting him in the waist then aiming for his head. A sword is drawn to fight her multiple times.
A woman of magic is using her nail to make a man’s throat bleed. She then trails her fingers along another man’s stomach and he doubles over in pain. She does this again later. One man spits blood multiple times. She grabs his hair and jerks him around. She later slices a young woman’s cheek. Many times she has severed a man’s tendons, broken bones or pinned him to the wall with a sword.
A young woman wears a dagger on her hip.
A young woman tries to stab a man but he knocks her down. He holds her wrist causing her pain.
A young woman hears screams and realizes a house is on fire. A man is holding a sword to a woman and children screaming. Another man yells to kill some and take the others. The young woman runs over him with her horse, he’s bleeding on his head but pulls her off, sits on her and hits her. He is stabbed from behind. More men come, they get arrows in their chests and more. Blood flows.
A man admits to abducting hundreds of woman. Some are returned, some die.
There is a room full of blood on the walls and floor. Body parts are floating in the blood.
A woman is put to death for deceiving a king. More are put to death all at once to prevent magic transferring.
A young woman pulls her dagger and aims at a man but a sword stops her.
A man throws his knife and stabs a man in the knee. Blood seeps.
A woman vaguely implies that soldiers were killed and eaten.
A young woman slaps a man.
A man points a sword against a woman’s chest. Another does the same.
A man is shoved into a wall, a young woman is grabbed, her throat pushed on. Then a knife is stuck in a man’s eye, another knife in another man’s neck. Both are dead. Many are fighting, many are bloody. A hand is cut off, blood is everywhere. A man holds a sword to another’s throat, pushing hard.
A man sees a vision of dismembered bodies of adults and children, blood, arrows, fire. Men fight each other over a dead deer. A beast attacks a young boy and tears him apart. “Nothing but so much blood and flesh and viscera.” Later, he sees a home burning, soldiers barring the door to prevent escaping and swords stabbing through the door slats.
A body is found, his throat cut. A man holds a sword to a man’s throat, drawing blood. A woman shoots an arrow through a man’s wrist. A man slices a man’s throat and he slumps and dies.
A man grabs a woman before she can slap a young woman. He then holds his dagger at her belly and drives it in. Blood spills. He stabs her in the shoulder. Blood spills from her mouth. The woman tells of killing the man’s family members. In a vision, a man holds a gun to a man’s head.
A leader cuts out people’s tongues if they lie to her.
A man stabs a sword through a woman’s chest.
A man jumps off a large height to end his life.
A man collapses in a door, bloody and unconscious. He has claw marks and gouges all over. When he wakes he grabs a man’s neck and squeezes hard. He later twists a man’s arm behind his back and points a dagger at him.
A group of men break down a door and shoot.
A massive dragon-like creature screams and chases a group. It snatches a young woman off her horse. It attacks men on the ground multiple times. Blood spills freely from it’s wing wounds.
Soldiers carry swords and daggers. The enemy has catapults and crossbows. Blood sprays during battle, the dragon creature attacking. Screams, blood, shredded bodies, boulders being launched and blood coating the land. The dragon is hit. A young woman is shot with arrows multiple times. A man cuts off another man’s head.
A woman of magic sends searing pain into a young woman. The young woman attacks the woman, she is cut with a sword, feeling the searing pain again. A man stabs a woman.
A man dreams of when he sliced a woman’s throat. His throat was cut in the process.
Potentially Intense Themes
A man who is somewhat immortal has thrown himself off a cliff multiple times to try to kill himself. He has also impaled himself, tried to drown himself. He wants to be beheaded.
A mother is slowly dying of cancer. Her son steals money to pay for her treatments.
**SPOILER** A mother dies of cancer.
Descriptions of a beast- bear and wolf-like animal might frightening. Also, descriptions of a massive dragon-like creature.
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Would a middle schooler be able to read this or is it inappropriate?
I’d say it depends! My 14 yo has read it and liked it but she’s also read Hunger Games and such. The violence is high and gets higher throughout the series. Some kids are more sensitive to certain things so I’d look at what books they’ve previously liked (or what the parent feels is appropriate). If they’re used to reading Jennifer Nielsen and Shannon Hale or even just junior fiction in general, then this might be too much for them. Email me if you need recommendations if this one doesn’t work.