This Cursed Light: Book Review
Emily Thiede’s second book This Cursed Light is humorous, heart-pounding, and cinematic. As the sequel to This Vicious Grace, This Cursed Light continues to follow Dante and Alessa after saving their island from destruction and another looming Divorando (meaning devouring in Italian). The two lovers face many challenges ahead of them in this banter-full book.
After almost losing Dante six months ago whilst saving their island, Alessa is ready to live happily ever after with her former bodyguard. But Dante can’t rest, haunted by a conviction that the gods aren’t finished with them yet. And without his powers, the next kiss from Alessa could kill him.
Desperate for answers, Dante enlists Alessa and their friends to find the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring his powers and combining forces to create the only army powerful enough to save them all. But Alessa is hiding a deadly consequence of their last fight—a growing darkness that’s consuming her mind—and their destruction holds more dangers than anyone bargained for. In the mysterious city of the banished, Dante uncovers secrets, lies, and ghosts from his past that force him to ask himself: Which side am I on?
When the gods reveal their final test, Dante and Alessa will be the world’s last defence. But if they are the keys to saving the world, will their love by the price of victory?
This Cursed Light is perfect for lovers of Romantasy, featuring two star-crossed lovers who fight to overcome the road blocks put in their way by the gods Crollo and Dea. There’s certainly a stronger emphasis on the interpersonal relationships in Thiede’s novel, with the fantastic largely being the backdrop. If you’re looking for a YA novel with fantasy at the forefront, this book is for you.
From the get-go, Thiede plunges the reader into the action. Her witty banter rings true from the opening scene of Dante sparring on a dockside. The muscled heart-throb is one for any reader who loves an attractive, strong-willed male co-protagonist. But Dante only has eyes for Alessa. She is equally smart and slightly fiery, no wonder when she’s a powerful deity chosen by the gods for their other-worldly plans. Set in a revised, fantastical setting of Renaissance Italy, Thiede re-writes the star-crossed lovers story with delight and humour.
Whilst I admire Thiede’s directness in firmly putting the reader into the fast-paced plot, a short summary of This Vicious Grace would have been appreciated. Both for readers who have read her first book and ones who have not. The gap between the publishing date of the two texts warranted a bigger summary, which Thiede either chose not to include or it was cut out during the editing process. Although, I understand that if this was included, other readers may have interpreted it as unnecessary info-dumping. Personally, I would have appreciated a brief summary within the first ten to fifteen pages of the book. My recommendation would be to read This Vicious Grace before taking on this one, or at least a very detailed plot summary of Thiede’s debut book.
Readers come to learn more about Thiede’s secondary world in this story. In This Cursed Light, she introduces a group called the ghiotte, a group of demons disguised by Crollo as humans supposedly sent to find a healing fountain. The ghiotte are Dante’s people who were cast out and banished from Saverio. In the book, Dante and Alessa set off on a quest to find the ghiotte in attempt to team up with them to defeat Crollo and the looming threat of Divorando, which has the potential to destroy the world. However, as the main focus of this book appears to be the romance part of the romantasy genre (although Thiede’s genre of writing is a mix between YA, new adult, romance, and fantasy). The rich tapestry of magic in Thiede’s secondary world is largely lost, only coming to the fore towards the end of the book.
Thiede’s humour is the greatest strength of This Cursed Light. Her cinematic writing— driven by dialogue—perfectly conveyed the unique dynamics between friends, family, and lovers. I especially loved the scene of Dante getting man-flu, as a ghiotte he was a nearly invincible bodyguard and solider before the end of This Vicious Grace. Thiede hilariously extrapolated the notion of men often thinking they have superhuman powers (which Dante did have in the first book before he died and came back to life) when the reality is, they can catch a cold like anybody else. Not only was this a relatable moment that made me giggle, and made me think of when my father or male friends get sick, it shows that even beings in the fantastic can be brought to their knees when suffering with a blocked nose.
The balance between plot, dialogue, and description was a little heavy on the dialogue side. A positive if you love to read novels that already feel like they’re made for television. I enjoyed the use of dialogue: it was quick and conveyed the astute characteristics of Dante, Alessa, Adrick (Alessa’s brother), and Talia (friend of Dante’s and ghiotte). However, I felt that Thiede leant on it too much to drive the plot. This dialogue-heavy text has its main feature as both the greatest strength and weakness to the writing style.
I admired how same-sex relationships were normalised in this book. Not enough fantasy includes diversity in this way, that it’s expected rather than conveyed as unusual. Because relationships enhance magic in this book, ensuring that relationship diversity is included makes This Cursed Light more inclusive than other YA romantasy I have read. I did find many of the relationships shallow: extrapolating the idea of ‘I want you but I can’t have you’ in the opening third of the book felt tedious at times. Personally, the grand gestures of love were lost on me, and unrealistic even for fantasy. Because of the revised star-crossed lovers theme, I found some of Dante’s heroic actions predictable and the culminative juncture in Dante and Alessa’s relationship wasn’t really culminative at all. Maybe that’s me being cynical about young, fantastical relationships. I would’ve preferred a bigger flaw to cause a rift between the protagonists.
However, This Cursed Light was a thoroughly enjoyable read: progressively paced and didn’t linger too long on one scene, sweet and simple, and pictorial without throwing loads of description at the reader. This book is a strong example of writing that shows not tells.
This Cursed Light is ideal for fans of Stephanie Garber, Leigh Bardugo, and Kerri Maniscalco (although much more sexually tame than the latter author’s work). Out now in all major book stores, Thiede’s latest book is the perfect story for a warm, fun read this Christmas.
Rating: 3/5
BUY A COPY HERE: https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-cursed-light/emily-thiede/9781399700160
