Twice Cursed

Twice Cursed: An Ever After Tales Collection
by Robyn Tocker
Published by Pete’s Press
Review by Toby A. Welch  
$24.99 ISBN 9781069345998

Twice Cursed, the fifth installment of Robyn Tocker’s Ever After Tales series, takes a beloved fairy tale and gives it a fresh twist.

Tocker began developing this series when she was just twelve-years-old and what a great idea for a book collection it is! She takes classic fairy tales and reworks them, putting a creative and entertaining spin on them. Tocker plans for the series to eventually span sixteen books. Each tale is set in a different country and in a different time period, adding to the literary punch.

Twice Cursed is a spin-off from the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. It takes place in the 1700s, a hundred years after Brier Rose woke from her century-long sleep. Now married to Tsar Leo and living on the outskirts of the haunted forest, she falls into a second cursed sleep. Her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Eliza, must uncover the cause and break the spell, aided by a cast of ragtag characters. (I did struggle to keep all the characters straight at first, but once I made a quick list to tuck inside the book it was much easier to follow.)  

As I plowed through the chapters, a lot of the details of the Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty from my childhood came flooding back. For example, the evil haunted forest, which feels like a character in its own right, and the huge role magic plays in the story.  

The story’s setting in the 1700s adds another interesting layer. Women were mainly valued for their marriage potential – both for their birth family and their marital family – and men for their ability to go to war. Yet there are a lot of similarities to modern times. For example, Eliza’s father is on a desperate quest to get her married off. The fellow he has in mind is in love with another guy and is keeping his sexuality on the down low.

One of Tocker’s biggest strengths is her dialogue. When dialogue is clunky, not true to life, or too sparse, it can make a book drag. But that never happens here. Conversations flow naturally and help keep the story moving forward at a steady pace. 

As I enjoyed Twice Cursed so much, I’m planning to go back and read the first four books in the series and will keep an eye out for future installments in the Ever After Tales collection. As Tocker pointed out in her acknowledgements, “Magic happens when readers dive into a good book.” 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM