Customer Reviews

Cursed

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
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Jeremy C. Shipp's CURSED is, like his other work, unlike anything else. It does not follow a recognizable formula. You will not guess the ending halfway through. Instead, we get to know a group of strange and wonderful characters, who have all been cursed. There are no witches or black magic, but instead a touching story that focuses on the care and feelings the cursed individuals have for one another.

If you're getting a bit tired of cheap attempts at being gored to death by the likes of the same old formula authors, give CURSED a try. It's offbeat, yet totally accessible, thought provoking, yet never preachy, touching without being sappy.

Despite the inherent irony in the statement, CURSED will leave you feeling uplifted.

I purchased my copy of Cursed with no preconceived notions. Actually, I downloaded the free Kindle sample, just wondering what Mr. Shipp's work was all about, then found myself thoroughly hooked.

This book will not appeal to everyone, but for readers who enjoy wit, character depth and an offbeat look at real human flaws, carried by a strange and compelling story that refuses to rely on cliche, then Cursed is a 5-Star choice.

I highly recommend this one. It's so far off the beaten path you just can't help but smile. Well written, deep and intensely human -- absolutely worth the read!

Donna Carrick
author of The First Excellence, Gold And Fishes and The Noon God

3 AND ½ STARS

After reading Cursed, the one thing you can never say about author Jeremy C. Shipp is that he isn't original. I was fascinated by the setup of characters cursed with relatively minor problems - something right out of a Bentley Little novel. And while the main character, Nick, was annoying at times and apologized to others on literally every other page, you find yourself being immersed in this bizarre little world. The lighter tone begins to darken considerably in the final 50 or so pages and really ramps up for a satisfying finale.

I would have preferred more description and atmosphere because most of the text consists of back-and-forth dialogue, and although clever, there are only so many quips I can read without characters starting to feel one and the same. I'm not sure I would label this as straight horror, but there is still a lot to like here. I also think it would make one heck of a stage play if there was ever an adaptation. If you are interested in something completely off-the-wall and eclectic, I would recommend reading Cursed.

From the first page, no, from the number at the top of the first page (#12), I was hooked. The writing is light, clever and witty. The characters are painfully human, touchingly self-aware, and really nice, in a dysfunctional, I wouldn't really want to spend an evening with one of them, sort of way.

It is a book about being cursed. Ostensibly a story about Nicholas and his friends Cicely and Abby who are trying to find who cursed them so they can get their lives back, there is another book just beneath the surface, about people who are damaged and hurting and the cruelties they suffer in a world that blames them for being who they are. It's about the real-world curse of being what life made us.

It is dark. For all its playfulness, flashes of insight, and sprinkles of lovely humour, the book never lets you forget that our hero and his friends are suffering, that this is not a nice world they inhabit, that bad things are happening to them and everyone they love. All the time. Relentlessly.

So I'm very pleased to say I can recommend this book to everyone. Shipp has obviously stared into the abyss of the human condition and the abyss has just as clearly invited him over for a drink and a chat.

I got a PDF preview of Jeremy C. Shipp's latest book CURSED. He put out the call on Twitter and I answered. That right there says a lot about Jeremy; he thinks outside the box. Without getting onto a rant about the current status of the publishing industry, it's things like this that help get the word out. I can say right off, this is a book worth getting the word out about. His thinking outside the box also applies to his writing as well.

I knew very little about CURSED before I started reading it. I'd heard a little about it on Snark Infested Waters, which is also where I first heard about Jeremy. About all I knew to expect was something about a curse, and possibly something bizarre. This book has plenty of both, and in the good way.

CURSED starts you off right in the middle of the action, following the style of `in late, out early'. It was slightly disorienting, but after reading a few pages, things start to make sense. This isn't bad. The characters themselves are in disorienting situations themselves, so you have a taste of what their lives are like.

The characters are very colorful and multi-dimensional. No one feels like a throwaway character. The story is told from the viewpoint of Nick, a very layered character. The narrative reveals what he is thinking, how he feels, and what he says externally to hide these things from the outside world. Cicely is the main supporting character and has a very different outlook on life and is very colorful. Her wit and whimsy adds a wonderful light to the story. Gordon is Nick's roommate. He is a blind guy and I think that Jeremy must know a blind guy because I felt the character was very real and his blindness is dealt with in a way takes everything into account.

The plot revolves around a group of characters who have been cursed in some way, and they are investigating as to why they are cursed, and who or what did it to them. As they learn more about their curses, they learn more about each other, and what it means to really care. The relationships are real and visceral. The plot is paced at a quick pace, but not too fast, like a taxi driver that gets you there in a timely manner without making you wet yourself.

The writing is not like anything else I've read. It is a very tight prose that is fast to read. Nick makes lists of things and these are written out in the book. It is very different but it flows right along with everything else. It was actually refreshing to read, because it is different.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is a menagerie of quirky fun, dark and gritty situations, and internal conflict. It is not an easy book to put down then forget to pick up again. I found myself caring about the characters and really wanting to discover what they want to discover.
The mystery is interesting and not a standard whodunit. Something is very wrong in the lives of the characters and each clue as to what it is not only brings them closer to the answer, but puts them in further danger.
I did not see the ending coming, even though I knew there would be a twist. It doesn't come out of the blue, it makes sense when it happens, and that's how it should be.

If you like mystery, strange tales, stories with realistic characters, you will find CURSED to be a cornucopia of all of these things. I give it two BUY THIS BOOKS up! You can even get a signed copy!

Reading, not Red Bull as the company would have us all believe, gives you wings. It's a fact that may seem horribly obvious, but for many, reading simply is the method you take to vacate the real world and be transported into something powerfully foreign. If it's good fiction, our perceptions are twisted and changed.

I expect much from books. I expect to be dazzled. I expect to be wrapped up in a story, in characters I either love or loathe. What I don't normally expect, is to be overwhelmed and awed by what I read. Sure, there are works that have changed my thinking. There are writers whose talent and ability are so awe-inspiring that I feel somehow pathetic by comparison. But reading a collection about relationships shouldn't have left me gobsmacked. It shouldn't have left me thinking for days afterward about how these relationships, in their own unimaginable way, shifted my awareness of what fiction should be.

Fungus of the Heart, a vivid, wildly artistic collection by Jeremy C. Shipp, did just that. I sat down and read, watching through lenses contorted to reveal things I could not imagine. I saw through his eyes and the view was distorted and beautiful. It's a collection about relationships. Full stop. There is no other way to explain it. Now, these aren't relationships you're going to hear about on Oprah or hovering around the coffeemaker at work. These relationships run the gamut from misogynistic men and the females they `own' to sprites who think they are jack-o-lanterns and the creatures of death and violence that love them.

In Shipp's world, we are introduced to characters full of discord, full of self-loathing and the connections they make and are forced into with the world around them. And those worlds? Disturbing, frightening and absolutely infectious. We are drawn in by the conflicts they face, by the horrible sensibilities of each villain and victim and their ultimate desire to bond, to forgive or simply survive. Shipp creates universes where ghosts act as therapists, where an Oak tree makes her daughter promise to save a world she cannot connect with; where vampires take on many identities, but mainly those of, "boy bands and idol singers."

Shipp told me that Fungus of the Heart was a map to his values-- the respect he has for relationships and the importance of those relationships in his own life. But his characters are beyond flawed. They do their best to disrespect the relationships they have and the result is disastrous. He says his characters, "have emotional, physical, spiritual needs, but are often screwed up in one way or another, and so they don't know how to get their needs met in a healthy way."

The beauty in all these flawed characters is the way in which their journeys are chronicled. It isn't alliteration or some sad attempt of using plot devices that gets these stories across. Shipp's above that. But he has a inimitable voice and that voice comes alive, is made real with every harrowing misadventure his characters take. In all honesty, I've never read anything like this. Not ever, and that's saying a lot. I read far more than I should. But, I was swept up in every war-ravaged landscape, in each village, in every hut I traveled to in this collection. I cared about these haunting characters, wanted to reach out and connect, wanted, sometimes, to give them a smack across the head. Ultimately, however, I know it was Shipp's very clever, astonishing voice that drew me in, that made me think, made me keep thinking.

When you read this collection, bear in mind that you're not in for horror stories or stories drawn in a manner you've ever read. You're in for a something surreal, something beautifully fantastic and I promise you, you won't be bothered by the battle scars you walk away with. You'll be grateful, satisfied that you bear those marks, proud that you took the journey right along with these misguided, damaged characters.

TS Tate
[...]

When someone sent me this book to read, I knew nothing about the writer's background or his other novels, and I had no clue what Cursed entailed - I didn't even read the product description, the jacket sleeve or any other reviews. I thought this would decrease my chance of being disappointed if I had absolutely no expectations. I enjoyed this story so much, I read it in one sitting, and will probably use my "blank-slate" method again in the future. However, I now expect nothing less than fantastic story-telling from author Jeremy C Shipp.

The narration is provided by the main character, Nicholas, who is fond of explaining everything in the form of lists. Shipp also uses a lot of straightforward dialogue, without heavy descriptions of the characters or settings, which kept the story going at a quick pace. Some readers may find it annoying to have so many situations broken into one list after another, accented by conversations with few sentences, but others may find the minimalism refreshing.

However, the simplicity of the novel's structure is deceiving; Nicholas actually has a very complicated problem - a curse. Being used to curses in fiction involving vampires or werewolves, I was a little confused in the first few chapters when nothing blatantly supernatural occurred, but when he crosses paths with his friend, Cicely, it's revealed that she is also experiencing a curse of her own.

Every day someone slaps Nicholas, regardless of what he does to prevent it. He soon discovers that Cicely has been dealing with a problem in the same time frame; she woke up one day to find a tennis ball in her hand that she is unable to let go of. The two of them meet up with Abby, who lost all trace of her family, at the exact same time the problems began for the other two. Cicely eventually forms a theory that Abby may hold the key to unraveling the source of their "curses."

The three of them begin investigating the remaining people in Abby's life to learn more about her past. After consulting a psychic aptly named, Kin, they discover that living with their curses may be easier than confronting the source. By the time Nicholas, Cicely and Abby cross paths with Ruth - yet another character with her own blight, I was thoroughly frightened, and could feel their sense of helplessness, as Nicholas considered giving up in order to preserve what is left of their lives.

This is a story about fear. Nicholas is forced to admit his fears about his past, and his relationships with the people around him. Cicely and Abby must also face their own vulnerabilities. Otherwise, they will remain cursed.

I look forward to reading Sheep and Wolves and Vacation.

After reading this book I want to read all of Jeremy C. Shipp's books! 'Cursed' is funny, weird, original, compelling and in my opinion a MUST read.
Nick and Cicely are friends and they are both 'cursed' on the same day with ridiculously odd curses. Nick's curse means he will be slapped every day, whilst Cicely is forced to hold a tennis ball in her hand for ever; if she drops it the world will come to an end. They meet Abby, who is also cursed, and become friends with her through their common problem. Nick used to be an alcoholic, so when his behaviour is called into question his friends and family assume he has started drinking again. In fact, the person or thing that has cursed him is ruining his life along with the lives of his friends.
We follow Nick, Cicely and Abby through some strangely wonderful scenes as they try to put their lives back together and find out who or what has cursed them.
I was hooked on this book from the start. It is very entertaining and well written. I like the way the narrator thinks in lists; this makes the prose move quickly, adding to the feeling of fast-moving action.
Although this book is a fun read, it does seem to contain a deeper more complex element. The curses are ridiculous, but at a deeper level, they can be interpreted as reflections of the problems people face in their lives (such as the real problems faced by the characters including alcoholism/addiction, bereavement, and divorce), and the way people try to deal with those problems emotionally. In fact, the way the main character makes lists of things all the time, shows an addictive side to his personality.
The characters were all very realistic, if slightly eccentric. If you are looking for a book that will keep you interested, make you smile, and surprise you with its twists and turns, 'Cursed' is the book for you.

This outstanding novel is about a guy named Nick who:
1. Makes lists about everything.
2. Is dealing with a strange curse placed on him and his friends.
and
3. Is one of the more interesting characters I've come across in a horror novel in quite some time.

While the first half of CURSED reads like a bizarre mystery, the second dives into unique psychological horror, written in Shipp's witty, dark, and (at times) head-scratching style. While not as difficult to follow as his impressive first novel, VACATION, CURSED is:
1. Scary
2. Wonderfully original
3. At times, hysterical
and
4. Highly recommended if you're thirsting for something truly different.

One highly enjoyable scene pits Nick and co. in a surreal, SAW-like death trap, while the ending manages to be dark yet highly positive. The prose is quick, sharp, and makes this 214-paged novel read like a 20-paged short story.

Shipp's got the goods.

Jeremy C. Shipp offers us a look into the darkness and I like what I feel and imagine. An insanely great book, which transports the reader into his or her fears. A total thumbs up. Anticipation is bubbling over for his next work.