Customer Reviews

Curses, Inc. and Other Stories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These wonderful short stories are twisted, enjoyable fast reads that no Harry Potter fan should miss while waiting for book five to arrive. It has all kinds of witty witch stories, from the truly scary "Lost Soul" and "Past Sunset" to the laugh-out-loud funny "To Converse With the Dumb Beasts" and "Boy Witch." The off-the-wall fantasies engross readers from the beginning and don't let go even after the last page is turned. The forward and afterword from the author explaining her insperation and the collection's title are interesting, but don't add anything to the book and are at times bland, the reason this book only gets four stars. Still, they're not bad and you shouldn't skip them, especially if you become a fan of the book. All in all, a collection of short stories you won't want to pass up. Great, and highly reccomended!

I am a 13 year old, and Im pretty new to short stories, but after I found this great book at my bookstore, I knew I was hooked. The title story is hilarious, and has a great ending. Vande Velde has a great sense for making funny, spooky, kooky and intelligent short stories, yet doesnt bore you or overdose on gore. I loved this book, and Ill be sure to get other books from Vivian Vabde Velde!

At first I couldn't stand how these stories end, but then I realized that if they ended the way I wished they would, they wouldn't be half as interesting or as thought-provoking. It would just be a well told, cliched archetype we've all heard a million times.

Fives points to Vivian Vande Velde for another awesome book!

I have always enjoyed author Vivian Vande Velde's wonderful storytelling ability. Her talent rests in the fact that all her characters and settings are vivid and truly engaging. If she is writing about a middle schooler, her dialogue is genuine and not pretentious. On the other hand, her stories set in historical time periods are equally genuine and engaging. Curses, Inc. and Other Stories is a mixture of modern-day and medieval tales that will delight, chill, and amuse you. My favorite stories in the collection are as follows:

1. Curses, Inc. When middle-schooler Bill Essler stumbles upon a mysterious web site while surfing the net, he determines to have his revenge on Denise Bainbridge, the girl who humiliated him in school. This story is amusing and very fun. We get what we pay for.
2. "Skin Deep": This story is very poignant and one which I truly can relate too. Ardda is a homely young woman who has the power of wishing things into existence. When she rescues a prince who has been accosted by bandits in a snowy wood, her life is forever changed. This story truly illustrates human nature and shows how very superficial we all have a tendency to be.
3. "Lost Soul": Chilling and seductive, this story relates how a young man meets a mysterious lady beside a stream. Dare he love her?
4. ""Witch-Hunt": A relevant tale that will remain with you long after you finish reading it. I won't give away any of the plot of this one.
5. "Cypress Swamp Granny": A tale set in New Orleans during the Reconstructionist era, this story features a greedy heiress determined to get what she wants no matter the cost. This tale is humorous, poignant, and very suspenseful.

These delights are only a sampling of what awaits you in this collection. Please give this book a chance. Also check out Vande Velde's All Hallows' Eve, which is a wonderful book of Halloween tales. God bless you all.

I will review each story individually first

Curses, Inc.--the title story, is about an 8th grade boy who jilts his date a week before the big dance because he doesn't want to spend his game money on some stupid dance. It was funny to see how cheap this boy would be. He originally starts out with a Jinx that would cover the girl's body completely with warts. This turns out to be too expensive so he instead wants her to lose her dog. Each curse thereafter is slightly more expensive and slightly more 'disastrous' to the girl. In the end nothing was as it seemed and the boy learned a very expensive lesson.

Skin Deep--I loved this story. Ardda is this unattractive sixteen year old girl who lives by herself to avoid having to deal with people. She has the power that her 'wishes' come true and got tired of having the villagers constantly asking for her to wish them things and then make cruel jokes behind her back. She thinks her luck has changed when an injured prince lands in her backyard, but sadly he turns out to be less then princely. She gets her revenge however.

Past Sunset--I cried a little during this story honestly. It starts with the tale of the Lady in White who roams the backalley street the narrator lives on every night after sunset. Despite being warned many kids still wish to sneak a peek to prove how 'brave' they are. One night a neighbor calls out that she needs help, she's dropped her son's medicine. The narrator's older brother volunteers for the mission and all goes well. Until the Lady shows up and it becomes a mad dash to save the boy's life.

To Converse With Dumb Beasts--What would happen if you were granted the gift of talking to animals? Would they really be as interesting as stories make them out to be? A lonely farmer finds out the answer, but the result is less then he wanted and worst then he thought possible.

Boy Witch--The young son of a witch is left to tend the house while his parents are away. A damsel in distress happens by for a cure to her affliction and the young boy makes things only worse.

Lost Soul--This was a cruel tale of a story. A young man, on his way home from a chore he was to have performed, chances across a beautiful maiden by a creek bed. He falls instantly in love and recklessly promises to return as often as she would like. Is she an undine or sylph as his neighbors have warned him? His obsession turns to murder and in the end he gets what he deserves, but hasn't learned his lesson.

Remember Me--A young man in rich clothing wakes up in the middle of the road, having no idea how he got there or who he is. Traveling to the nearest town does nothing, but subjecting him to the casual cruelty of the noble class and servants alike. Who is he? Where did he come from? Is he a prince? Though we're never given the reason he was afflicted with amnesia, we can draw our own conclusions at the end from the courtiers comments.

Witch-hunt--This was a chilling tale. A young girl's family is persecuted by the authorities for their satanic vices. We are told the story first from the young girl's perspective--as her home is raided and the Witch Hunters claim her parents, but the end of the story is told from the perspective of the Witch Hunter General and the truth is more in line with Fahrenheit 451 then the Salem Witch Trials.

Cypress Swamp Granny--A young girl in the South, just after the Civil War, learns what it means to appreciate what you have. Despite the fact this tale was serious and the end was anything but funny, the dark humor and irony of the young girl's comeuppance is wonderful.

The Witch's Son--A mother tries for 13 years to resurrect her son so that he can take vengeance on those who wrongly murdered him during the War of Independence. I was confused at first why Hugh was killed, but war is a nasty thing and vengeance is even worse. This, unlike many of the other stories, had a happy ending filled with hope.

Overall I'd say the theme of the story was 'Be Careful What You Wish For', since many of the stories focused on a person either wanting better then they had or ignoring what they had. Some were chilling, from an emotional perspective (Past Sunset) and a couple were just hilarious (Curses, Inc. and Boy Witch), but I enjoyed all the stories. Though classified as 'young adult' I think that even adults might find the morals and humor in each story easily.

I think my favorite of the ten tales is unquestionably `Witch-Hunt' as it leads you on a spooky journey with a fantastically true and hilarious ending that will have girls everywhere relating to it. `Curses, Inc' is another story that stuck out to me, with its ironic turn of events and `Boy Witch' was refreshing as we rarely hear of tales of male witches. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Afterword. As a aspiring writer myself, I very much enjoy hearing what inspires fellow writers and Vivian Velde doesn't disappoint.

The art on the cover is fantastic as well. I never get tired of seeing what the mind of Cliff Nielsen can cook up, he is definitely an inspiration to a fellow digital artist. Overall, this is a brilliant compilation of tales for anyone interested in the supernatural, or needs a batch of stories for their next sleepover or Halloween party.

The book is fine not very full of suspense but love the short stories that are completly fairy tales. must read on long plane rides or bus rides.

Have you ever been creped out by those creepy camp stories your friends tell you? If you don't you sure will now. In this book there are many creepy stories. All different in their own creepy way; but, yet they are very much alike. These short stories are the kind that you ask yourself how is it possible. They're all about the things you think aren't very creepy like witches or ghost; but, They're not just regular creepy things they're the kind of creepy that makes the hairs on your back stand out. No genius can figure out the trick behind these magic tricks. None of these stories have a part when you think you got how the story is possibly so weird. There's no part where you can say "that's not creepy." These stories are all creepy and weird; but, no one is weirder than the other. All give you that chill down your spine when you just feel that something isn't right; that something's bad is about to happen.
Curses Inc. is one of my favorite stories; but, it is no creepier than any other story in the book. This story is about a boy named Bill Essler and how he tries to get back at his x-girlfriend Denise Bainbridge for humiliating him in front of the whole school. Bill's family was kind of poor. So when he asked his parents to buy the close he needed for the dance they said no. they didn't have enough money to buy the clothes he picked out. Bill didn't want to spend a huge chunk of his money which he planed on saving for video games for one dance. So he told Denise he couldn't take her to the dance. That is when she completely humiliated Bill in front of the whole school when she yelled out that he was a cheap loser. He was so mad when he got home he went straight to his computer to search on the internet for something to keep his mind off of being humiliated in front of the whole school. He found this site called Curses Inc. When he went on this sight he was bored enough to check it out; but, he wasn't expecting it to show some words. He didn't even know what some of the words were. The words were jinx, geas; malediction; hex, and bane. He clicked on the word jinx. It gave him the definition of the word and some examples for all of the words. It was a sight of things that you could make happen to people. The sight was basically as its name states Curses Inc. The sight was basically a place to put different kinds of curses on people. Bill wanted to get back at Denise. So he made a curse to make her lose her dog. Denise lost her dog; but, she lost her dog for 15 minutes. Bill was so mad that he wasted his money on that. He kept going back to the site to complain and then try another way of making Denise suffer. He lost all of his money because every time he tried to make something bad happen to her she would get lucky and somehow get out of the situation. In the end everything he tried didn't work. Denise's life stayed great while he lost all of his money.
Another story was about a woman who could make wishes that came true. The woman's name was Ardda. She lived in a cottage in the woods away from the village she grew up in. Ardda lived away from the village because of her childhood. When she was a young girl she was made fun of because of her looks. They thought she was ugly because she had a patch of purple skin on her cheek; her hair was crazy and messy; also her nose was big. Ardda was special though because she could make wishes come true. She wished herself more beautiful; but, everybody knew what she really looked like. Ardda thought people would like her now; instead, they thought it was horrible for her to try to be something she's not. So when she grew up she moved away from the village to the woods to feel at ease and not be made fun of. People from the village come to her house when they need something. They ask for something and she grants their wish. That is why she lives away from the village to stay away from the people who mock her; but, at the same time she helps the people who need it with her wishes.
This book has many more creepy and amazing stories. These were just two that I liked. All of the other stories are very alike and amazing; but, still very different. I liked the authors' style of writing. It was a unique style of writing. She tells it in a way that makes you stay in suspicion. You can't believe how amazing it is. It's as if you can't grasp the incredible information and you keep reading to try to believe and understand the stories and how amazing they are. I thought that was perfect. If she didn't leave me wondering or questioning everything to try and believe this incredible information I don't think I would have read the book. I loved her style of writing. It was perfect it made me want to keep reading and that's what I like to have in books. I enjoyed reading this book so much because of how amazing everything was. I still can't believe how amazing and weird these stories were at the same time. I really liked this book. It will keep you questioning and you won't stop reading. These stories are all so amazing in the same way; but, they're all different stories

Overall it was a good books there were a lot of stories that i loved a couple that i liked adn 2 that were not the best but if youre a vande velde fan its a good book.

One of the books I picked up recently was a collection of short stories by Vivian Vande Velde called CURSES, INC. This is a collection of stories intended to be released as WITCH'S BREW, but suffered from a title change.

The stories in this collection generally concern witches and spells. I found the tales to be very entertaining. Some of the stories like Skin Deep, start out along familiar paths but end in an original manner. Original endings are par for the course with these stories.

One story, Witch-Hunt, is so close to reality as to be frightening. To Converse With Dumb Beasts was also very real to anyone who has lived with a cat or a dog. But all of the stories are fresh and entertaining as well as original. The whole thing is wrapped up with an afterword about each story's origin and finally the book boasts a wonderful cover (no credit given).