Twice Cursed: An Anthology by Neil Gaiman, M. R. Carey, Sarah Pinborough, Marie O'Regan, A. K. Benedict, A.C. Wise, Adam L. G. Nevill, Christina Henry, Helen Grant, Joanne Harris, Joe Hill, Katherine Arden, Kelley Armstrong, L. L. McKinney, Laura Purcell, Mark Chadbourn, Paul Kane, Angela Slatter / A.G. Slatter
Published by Titan Books
Age Group: Adult
Format: Anthologies and Short Story Collections
Genres and Categories: British Authors, Scottish Authors, Magic Users, Royalty Characters, Vampires, Mental Health, Trauma, Dark Fantasy, Fairytales, Gothic Horror, Curses, Various Magic
Series: Cursed #2
My Rating:
Published on: 18th April 2023
Pages: 368
Disability Representation: Hallucinations, Mental Health, Mute, Suicide, Trauma
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Forbidden Planet / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones / BookBeat Audio
Add to Goodreads

From the fun of the fair to the depths of hell, experience sixteen more curses in this sequel to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology. A blend of traditional and reimagined curses from fairy-tales to Snow White, from some of the best names in fantasy.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Take a trip to a terrifying carnival and uncover the secrets within, solve a mysterious puzzle box and await your reward, join a travelling circus and witness the strangest ventriloquist act you've ever seen.

In this follow-up to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology, you'll unearth curses old and new. From a very different take on Snow White, to a new interpretation of The Red Shoes, the best in fantasy spin straw into gold, and invite you into the labyrinth.

Just don't forget to leave your trail of breadcrumbs...

Featuring stories from: Joanne Harris Neil Gaiman Joe Hill Sarah Pinborough Angela Slatter M. R. Carey Christina Henry A. C. Wise Laura Purcell Katherine Arden Adam L. G. Nevill Mark Chadbourn Helen Grant Kelley Armstrong A. K. Benedict L. L. McKinney

This book was provided for free by NetGalley, Rockstar Book Tours and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

After hearing good things about Cursed, the first book in this anthology series, I expected great things from Twice Cursed. I don’t know how well Twice Cursed compares to its predecessor, but this anthology was very disappointing and contains some extremely disturbing stories. Considering how many reviews praise this book without mentioning such problematic stories, it makes me question the good reviews that the first book got. While the anthologies contain different stories by different authors, they have an editor in common, and I wasn’t that impressed with the editing of this anthology.

The first hint that something was amiss with the editing in this anthology was that the two biggest names were given the first two spots. I’ve only read one book by Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki, which is a very stylised piece of writing, and I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I went into ‘The Bell’ with little expectations, and found it to be a likeable, but very brief story that felt more like a fictional introduction than a part of the anthology. It set up the anthology nicely, and that was about it.

The second story was easily the most disturbing story, and after seeing another reviewer mention that they were disappointed that it was a reprint, I decided to check up on that. It turns out that this is the third reprint of ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’ by Neil Gaiman, and it was originally written in 1994. The age of the story goes towards explaining why this story is appallingly disturbing. However, why editors seem to think it is still acceptable to include stories that sexually victimise children in anthologies almost thirty years later is beyond me.

Please skip the hidden section below if you do not wish to know further details.

Honestly, if the next two stories had not been of such high calibre, I probably would have walked away from this anthology after that story. It had left me with a yucky feeling, and I was beginning to wonder exactly what type of anthology I was reading. Thankfully, Angela Slater and M.R. Carey both got the memo that horror can be creepy and disturbing without involving underage children. Slater first came to my attention through one of her other short stories (this time in the Hex Life anthology) and ‘The Tissot Family Circus’ is once again of excellent quality. As with all of Slater’s works that I’m familiar with, it’s a clever story that lingers with you well after you’ve finished it. In comparison, in Carey’s ‘Mr Thirteen’ a support group for people with curses gains a new member who isn’t all they appear to be.

The next story was another disturbing story that is once again a reprint. ‘The Confessor’s Tale’ by Sarah Pinborough originally featured in the Hellbound Hearts anthology, also edited by Twice Cursed’s editor Paul Kane. A disabled young boy (mute and coded autistic) is the focal point of Pinborough’s horror story, which is filled with child mutilation, multiple sexual assaults and torture. Additionally, the young boy ends up transforming into something monstrous at the end of the story and escapes to another realm. While this could be taken as a metaphor for a disabled character leaving for a world that will accept them, the fact that the boy turns into a monster and that this is written by a non-disabled author suggests to me that this wasn’t what Pinborough was aiming for at all.

From then on, Twice Cursed began to get better, and while there were still a few hit-and-miss stories that didn’t quite hit the mark with me, they were the level of creepy horror I’ve grown to expect in a horror anthology. They creep you out, but they don’t leave you with an icky feeling that makes you wonder too much about the author who wrote them.

Katherine Arden and Helen Grant spin us tales that make us think about the future. In ‘The Viral Voyage of Bird Man’ by Arden, a man is cursed with immortal life and to tell people he meets his story. As the man reaches the present day, he interacts with a young woman who takes his story online, where it instantly goes viral. When she asks him what’s different between people now and three hundred years ago, he realises that just how much people have forgotten. It leaves the reader wondering whether the bird man is the man who is actually the one who’s cursed.

Grant’s story was one of my favourites in Twice Cursed, and shows Grant at the top of her game. In ‘A Curse is a Curse’ we’re transported to a future that has moved past technology advancements and returned to the old ways. Ruins of settlements are looked on with superstition, viewed as the result of curses and witchcraft rather than science. When a visitor makes Maggie question whether curses are real, talking to her about the time that came before, her mother responds with “a curse is a curse” and there is a real power to those words. What actually defines a curse? Is it magic, or is it how something makes us feel? This is one that is going to stick with me for a long time.

Kelley Armstrong has been one of my favourite authors for well over a decade now, and her short stories are always a delight to read. Her addition to Twice Cursed could have stepped out of one of her urban fantasy series and left me desperately hoping that she expands on the world-building in ‘Just Your Standard Haunted Doll Drama’. Featuring her usual witty banter and slick writing, it features hexes and introduces the idea of someone who specialises in joke hexes. It’s a wonderfully creepy story that left me wanting more!

Other stories that caught my attention were ‘Pretty Maids all in a Row’ by Christina Henry, the deliciously dark ‘Dark Carousel’ by Joe Hill, and ‘St Diablolo’s Travelling Music Hall’ by A.K. Benedict. The anthology ends on a sinister note with ‘The Music Box’ by L.L. McKinney.

There is a distinct lack of diversity in Twice Cursed, in the stories and in the selection of authors. There are no stories featuring an LGBTQIA+ character (‘The Angels of London’ refers to a minor character as a “cross-dresser” and a “drag queen”), and except for ‘The Music Box’ by L.L. McKinney, no stories appear to feature people of colour. Incidentally, L.L. McKinney is also the only author of colour featured in the anthology. The only disabled character, as mentioned, is featured in a story where their disability is used in a negative context.

Normally as I read through an anthology I can get a feel for the editor/s reasoning for placing stories in the order they have chosen. In Twice Cursed, there doesn’t seem to be any order other than placing two best-selling British authors first and everyone else after. The stories flow in a mix-match of styles and genres, fairytale retellings (usually Snow White) thrown together with horror and speculative fiction. While most editors tend to try to cater for audience reactions, placing a mild story after a particularly disturbing one, for example, that isn’t the case in this anthology. There doesn’t seem to be any regard for the audience, considering the disturbing nature of some of the stories, mix-and-match, uncommon for anthologies to include reprinted stories; however, this one felt like it had more than usual. For those who wish to know, the four stories contained in this anthology that have been republished are ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’ by Neil Gaiman, ‘The Confessor’s Tale’ by Sarah Pinborough, ‘Dark Carousel’ by Joe Hill and ‘The Angels of London’ by Adam L.G. Nevill.

I feel that there is a good selection of stories in Twice Cursed, but a few authors went too f;r with their stories. We go into horror anthologies expecting a certain level of safe darkness that leaves us creeped out. Heinous acts may be mentioned, but they are done so briefly and without detail, just to remind us of how dark the world can be. To give us too much detail is to cross a line, and that is exactly what has happened here. The fact that the two stories in question are reprints is even more worrying, and considering some of the fantastic new writing other authors submitted, I personally don’t see why they needed to include them – unless it was to add their names to the cover just to sell copies.

Despite these issues, I would be remiss in saying to avoid this anthology completely because there is some strong work in here by other authors. I just strongly advise checking the content warnings for each story before reading it. 

Thank you for reading my review for Twice Cursed!

What are your thoughts on anthologies featuring stories that were already published in another anthology?

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

Support Just Geeking By

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did please consider sharing it on social media using the nifty buttons at the end of this post <3

If you enjoyed this content please consider helping to support my blog. You can do this in multiple ways (click here to find out how!) or by donating via Ko-Fi to help me reach my current goal.