Read or Die

Review of THE CURSED PRINCESS CLUB VOL. 1

Cursed Princess Club Volume One by LambCat

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m always a sucker for the shojo manga style, which this delivers in spades. Maybe too much? It straddles the line between being too cute and sugary for the tale it’s attempting to tell. Which is a shame because this approach of the ugly sister is different from any other I’ve encountered. I hate seeing it get buried in so much saccharine writing and nonsense.

Gwendolyn is a unique character. Instead of being reviled or hated, she has love and support. (We’ll ignore Frederick for now) That sets up a different narrative than a reader usually expects in these situations. There’s obviously more going on here – the mirror is a big clue – but not immediately throwing her into the tower or down into the kitchens is a nice change of pace. And the Cursed Princess Club, in general, is an interesting viewpoint.

I just wish the humor didn’t rely so much on cliche. That takes away from the story. It was fine initially, but it becomes so repetitive that you want to start grinding your teeth. There has to be a happy medium between telling a satisfying tale and keeping the jokes to a minimum. All while retaining the “cute” style.

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