Book Review: Cursed (Alex Verus #2)

Cursed by Benedict Jacka


I love the idea of Alex Verus, a mage whose main/only real skill is divination. It’s such a clever concept, to have a protagonist with a “soft” skill like seeing the future who nonetheless uses it to avoid bad guys and rain down comeuppance on those who thwart him. Verus is a dark mage who has sort of left his dark mage past behind him. In this magical London, there’s not much ethical difference between dark mages and light mages, but they nominally pretend there is.

This book feels like an action-adventure novel with magic. There’s a lot of guns and henchmen who get killed (though people with a name all survive) and monsters crashing through doors. It’s got a fairly complex plot, with double-crossings, a femme fatale, a smarmy boyfriend, a few damsels in distress (okay, one’s a giant spider, but still …) and lots of plot twists. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s well done and should have been just the thing to help me pass a few hours. It’s well regarded, so I got this even though the first book was only “meh.” I thought I hadn’t given the series enough of a fair shake.

And yet, I struggled to finish it. I’d put the audiobook on and then twenty minutes later I’d shut it off, bored with it. Its plot is too complex to only half-listen, but there wasn’t enough character or worldbuilding to entice me to pay attention. It should have scratched the escapist itch perfectly, but I just didn’t care that much about any of the characters. None of them seemed to have much depth. Considering how much of the plot revolves around Luna, I wanted to feel like she was someone I cared about, but she’s one-dimensional. I really didn’t feel like any of the characters had strong personalities, even Alex Verus. That could be because this is basically Jason Bourne with spells and monsters. There’s a solid plot, but that’s the beginning and ending of it. I’ve liked shallow action-thrillers before, and this was competently done, so maybe I’m just not the right audience anymore.


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