Review, A.Lee Martinez-"Too Many Curses"

[JessiAnne26]

I was recently at my library waiting and checking to see if books that I had requested had come in yet. Sadly, they had not yet arrived and I was left to find something else to read in the interim. I checked the shelves of young adult fiction, (my favorite genre) and found nothing that seemed worthy of my commitment at the time. (Reading, while an extreme pleasure does neccessitate that I make time between a 10 hour job, spending time with my signifigant other and puppy, and sleeping for 8 hours, to keep up with the stories i check out.) I finally settled on checking out two books to keep me in the throes of a good story while i waited for the books i requested. A. Lee Martinez's "Too Many Curses" had interested me initially, i will admit, because of it's cover. I picked up this colorful 316 page paperback, read a sentence or two and decided this book would contain an adventure I haven't recently, or ever, enjoyed. I was not dissapointed.

The story doesn't seem to be set in any particular time, but it does revolve around wizards and wizardess'. Readers first meet the wizard Margle the Horrendous through the eyes of the protagonist of this story, Nessy. Nessy is the keeper of the castle in which Margle the Horrendous has captured and cursed all of the enemies that have come across his path. Nessy is charged with feeding the cursed souls, and keeping all the rooms, hallways, and everything in between neat and tidy. She takes great pride in keeping the castle in order, and has quite a few companions, she daresay friends, to keep her company on her every day tasks. Eventually Margle the Horrendous faces a great disaster and Nessy must clean up the mess that her master left behind in the wake of his own disaster. All of her friends are willing to meet all of the challenges that come with this, and this makes for great fun for the reader page after page.

What's really enjoyable about this story is that every chapter provides a new adventure. Some new obstacle that the protagonist must face and overcome is put about and it gives the reader a chance to think about how they might handle the situation Nessy finds herself in. This story is great for children and adults alike. It certainly stimulates the creative brain and the reader can easily empathize with the protagonist and her one problem at a time approach. The content flows nicely, no spelling or grammatic errors seem apparant (bravo to the editors and publishers of such a book, sometimes these things slip away and it's hard not to notice), and the heroine's journey is easily discovered-if a reader should happen to be concerned with such things. All together, this is a very nice story and i would reccomend it.

A couple of things might have made the book more appealing to me or left me apt to tell my friends about it. The first of which is in the first few chapters it's easy to get lost in which characters which. I don't mind keeping track of a few main characters, (Margle, Nessy, and maybe 2 more) but there seem to be several cursed characters to keep up with instantly. I can see why the author did it (they've made a point of just how many curses Margle laid upon souls) but i found it unpleasant to have to recall which character was which for roughly a third of the story. Perhaps because of all of the confusion of all of the cursed monsters at the beginning, I had given up on imagining what the characters looked like in my imagination. I find that rather sad as a lot of these characters must be a lot of fun to dream up, and i'm certain the author had a good time thinking up just exactly what a "nurgax" would look like. Even at the end, i must admit, i don't have a clear mental image of what Nessy, or any kobolds looked like-other than they were purple and had four legs. Character details in some places was overwhelming, and in others was weak. It detracts from a story, i feel, to have such inconsistency.

Overall, I enjoyed reading "Too Many Curses." It was fun, every chapter proved adventerous and gave me insight as to how one might go about solving giant troubles in the every day life, and perhpas that was the metaphoric point of this book (but i can't be sure). If someone asks me to read a book that includes a lot of monsters, that aren't very scary, (simply cursed to be monsters) this is a book i would reccommend. I might also reccommend this to a new mom looking to tell her child a fun bedtime story over the course of a week or so. This is not a book I urgently believe everyone should read, but there is a specific audience i would reccommend it to, and I certainly am glad i took the time to read it.

Thank you,
Health, Wealth and Love to you all!!

[gali]

Thank you for the lovely review. I have read his book "Monster" and liked it. I will add this book to my reading list.

[JessiAnne26]

Ah gali, I so appreciate a vet like yours responses!!!

[Timea]

The plot of the book seems great as you described it, I also find your recommendations quite helpful, a lovely review