Re:Cursed

This work is phenomenal, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite stories on this site. Despite how new it is, the content that has been parsed out in its 60 some chapters is very rich in world building, value, and emotional connection. The genre of this work is one that I am relatively new to, this being a horror story of the occult & body horror variety; but in face of the fact that I am not a diehard fan of this theme I find myself compelled to read every chapter as it is released.

The work is currently portraying itself as revenge story in which the main protagonist is able to repel the chains of helplessness and gain the agency needed to fight against her oppressors. These oppressors being the cruel and deranged society of that she was born into and that wishes to benefit off of her literal sacrifice. 

I like that fact that the story doesn’t seem to lean away from the fact that to achieve the goals of her revenge she will have to burn herself and undergo drastic changes in the process. Many revenge stories end up lacking in this regard as the stories have the protagonists either forgive or abandon their desire for revenge, leaving those characters who are deserving of pain unpunished.

The world building of this story paints a universe that is unique and rich in dystopian aspects that are varied from the more popular dystopian tropes as of late.

The work is a breath of fresh air and has the reader constantly waiting for the next chapter release.

The writing feels formulaic in the writing style. Like as if the story got drowned out and lost focus. It's hard to find something to grasp. I stopped reading when it felt like I was skimming through the pages. The text in the writing has a lot of cohesion but that has no value when the story suffers from what it should have focused on instead. 

stories about fighting fate are very compelling, and this one is no exception. using what once doomed nix to death as a tool to fight fate is very satisfying to read, especially with the insight we get into her self image and confidence

nix being a spiteful girl with so much anger in her is really relatable, and it’s a really good story about fighting back against a world that wants you dead no matter the cost. 

the setting is also absolutely incredible; an orbital platform above a black hole that has alien gods in it? genuinely never seen anything like it. impeccable. the descriptions of curses and corruption and the power of names is sick as hell and it’s really worth a read

so I wrote a whole review for this but I’m on phone and it didn’t post so ima summarize. A new world that’s not just a “earth reskin” the power system has a lot of thought and care put into. Nix as a character is great wish we could see more of her out of the classic “the cults know” with the bay harbor butcher music play in the background but anyways it’s fire give it a read

I like it despite the occasional missed word or misspelling. Lovecraftian protag and more horrors for them to fight. Powerful MC and a delightfully flexible magic system. The story has lots to grow with. Teen female mc risks a lot but this never strays into sexual territory which is unfortunately common. I like it. 

A unique setting with an eldritch litrpgesque powersystem with an interesting mc.

It's quite early in the story but a few future plotpoints are apparent that I'm excited for.

Can't say much about grammar as it isn't my strong suit.

Really great stuff.

P.S. the review word minimum is annoying

Overall: I enjoy the plot, the character interactions and the world building. The MC has her flaws, but also her strengths so she makes for a more relatable character than some. The world is pretty unique as well, with a lot of potential expansion to be done in further books. 

Style: Well written and pretty well paced, it starts off with a bang and then dips in pace for a bit before taking off. The writing is solid, and I enjoy the way the author weaves together multiple different plot threads that all come together nicely. There's a lot going on that our MC is only getting snippets of, and so you know there's a deeper game(or more) afoot, but not how much yet. 

Story: I love a good revenge arc and Regressor stories, so this is great. The whole Eldritch gods thing and how they are interacting via the black hole is just super cool. And while I've read some stories that are all revenge focused, this one has definitely felt both well deserved, and also nicely balanced. The MC is very powerful within her "band" of strength, but can't hope to overcome the most powerful so shes working to get there in what feels like a mostly reasonable manner. So I can appreciate both the relative strength and weakness, and how that plays out. 

Character: The MC is both smart, and clever enough to be enjoyable to read, with a touch of the battle maniac. She's also got some common sense and a well developed self preservation built in, so that's nice to see! There are also definite consequences for her actions, and she seems to be learning and developing from them which I appreciate. 

Grammar: Pretty solid here, I've noticed a fair amount of typos etc, but nothing unusual for a posting here. If the book gets printed I'd imagine a good editor will fix most of those. But overall really decent. 

But once you do it's a lot of fun!

The world building is unique and strange, the power System is a bit confusing but fits very nicely into the setting and I'm generally a big fan of the whole 'eldritch inspired fantasy' going on.

The only problem I think I have with this one is that sometimes the description of one thing or another can be a bit confusing, especially so at the start which made getting into the story a lot harder than it necessarily had to be.

Either way, I like what's there and the current arc is imo amazing.

Re:Cursed has kept me thoroughly engaged with it's premise and plot for it's entire length thus far. the world is very interesting and explore themes of eldritch settings quite effectively and with a solid amount of variety to them. the plot itself follows nix a girl who after 7 years of preparation/torture by the cults of her world was sacrificed and given a second chance going back to where her problems began and follows her doing her best to avoid repeating her fate and to do the things that were denied her the first time around by having been turned into a sacrifice, all while planning to take revenge on and destroy the very cults that tried to use her life for their own ends.

overall story is well worth a read, one of my new favorites atm

Style: Well written.

Grammar: I haven't noticed any errors so far.

Story: The world building here is very interesting! Joroboros makes many interesting and eldritch environments, along with a complex (and grimdark) world and I like that a lot. Unfortunately, the main story itself isn't as interesting. The pacing is very slow, and yet little is done with that slowness except for sometimes showing off the environments the author created. It may seem like, given the 'cursed' theme, that our plucky protagonist is meant to be read as the underdog, but she isn't at all. Most pressingly, the very first ability she gets is the world's equivalent of a nuclear bomb, an ability that she can throw around whenever she feels like and originally has no consequences. None of the 'curses' she possesses have been shown to be anything less than extremely beneficial, other than the threat other people could figure out they're there. In practice, without much cleverness she's able to strike so high above her own level that anyone on her own feels like a chump. She hasn't faced any significant setbacks so far, and whenever she's in a dire situation it always resolves itself quickly somehow or another. With the nuke button (among others) always in her back pocket, it makes it hard to care about the stakes that are thrown about.

Characters: This is my main problem with this novel so far. The world is just so grimdark that basically anyone she meets is an enemy. The few people she does know she grew up with, and them and her interactions with them are written well. Unfortunately, she's so paranoid that these interactions barely happen. The robot dude is fine, but he doesn't develop by definition. Her enemies don't really have complex character motivations beyond being horrible obsessive backstabbing cultists, and she can't interact with the politics in any real way because the only politics of concern to her is that everyone wants to sacrifice her. Nix also hasn't developed much for a long while. The interactions she has had, at least, have prevented her from going full murderhobo, but her motivation has remained spite without much else. I've had stories where an isolated main character can hold the story, but Nix just doesn't do it for me.

Conclusion: This story draws itself out for a long time, but doesn't do anything with it. There are very few character interactions, meaning that the book has to rely on action sequences. The action sequences don't work because none of the stakes ever end up mattering. What's left is a lot of environmental description, which is definitely cool but also distracting from what's going on. This creates a novel that is well written and bingeable, worth reading for the worldbuilding alone, but lacking some of the substance needed to be great.