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language: English
country: UK
year: 2024
form: novel
genre(s): fantasy
dates read: 20.7.25-22.7.25
Gabby Hutchinson Crouch’s Cursed Under London is the first book in what’s obviously intended to be a series of urban(?) fantasy romance set in an alternate early modern world — specifically, London in 1599. it’s definitely a big step up from my last urban fantasy foray in many ways, but it still fell short for me in some important ones.
Fang, a Chinese man running from his past, and Lazare, an aspiring actor from France, both find themselves affected by a condition they identify as a “curse” after being killed and mysteriously reawakening with supernatural abilities: the ability to generate illusions (mostly gross ones) in Fang’s case and wings in Lazare’s. with the help of the Welsh alchemist Nell and an undersized dragon named Amber, they find themselves caught up in a complicated plot involving both the human and magical governments, several criminal organizations, and the mysterious “fae” enclave as they try to return a kidnapped child to her family.
at its core this is a romance between Fang and Lazare — there is, on multiple occasions, only one bed — with the fantasy thriller plot first and foremost as a backdrop, though it also leaves the romance unresolved for now. the narration alternates between Fang and Lazare, until about three-quarters of the way through, when Nell is somewhat jarringly added to the mix, and a lot of page time is devoted to Fang and Lazare arguing about their relationship, or lack thereof, and especially about Fang’s determination to sabotage any possible emotional ties (romantic or otherwise) between himself and other people. (obviously this is tied to Fang’s tragic past; the novel attempts to convince us that Nell and Lazare’s pasts are also tragic, but the discrepancies between them cause this to fall fairly flat.) at some points the pseudotherapeutic nature of these arguments stretched my patience, but it helps that it isn’t just Lazare psychoanalyzing Fang — Fang gives as good as he gets. I had less patience for the fact that they kept having the same arguments — it may be realistic but it’s not particularly interesting to read.
Crouch has chosen to write in a consciously anachronistic style, which I quite like in principle, although it leads her to some perplexing historical anachronisms that I found jarring — in particular, the implication that London in 1599, even this alternate, fantasy London, has anti-discrimination laws in housing and employment. this brings to the fore my primary question with regards to the novel, namely: why London? why 1599? what is its alternate history setting doing for the text?
the answer, regrettably, is: very little. they meet Shakespeare and Marlowe (a zombie), but that’s honestly kind of it. many locations are name-dropped, but with none of the physical description that creates the sense of placedness that (good) urban fantasy relies on. if the book had simply been set in a secondary world it would have worked just as well — if not better, because I wouldn’t have spent the whole book waiting for it to justify being set in London. the temporal setting was perplexing for similar reasons — anachronistic dialogue aside (which I liked for the most part!), the main benefit seems to have been Shakespeare and Marlowe. no other historical figures appear besides, briefly, Elizabeth I (but not in a way that marks her as unique or necessary — it could have been any monarch), nor do any particular historical events. it doesn’t even engage with period attitudes towards queerness; all the protagonists appear to be bi, but this is never commented on either among themselves or by anyone around them.
as it stands, the most notable historical deviation is that Wales repelled an English invasion in 1277 with magical help, so Wales is independent. unfortunately, the premise that Wales is uniquely magical isn’t especially novel, and this reliance on “Celtic” stereotypes simply feels lazy. I also had to roll my eyes at the reference to “cat-siths” (sic), both because of the grammar and because, in a context where Scotland is independent, the only reason a Scottish Gaelic term would be thrown around by a character who’s apparently a London native is because the author thinks Celtic languages = fairies — or, should I say, “fae” [eyeroll emoticon]. (I also think that Amber greeting Nell “ver’Evan” — presumably meant as an anglicization of “ferch Ifan” but looking like Fantasy Language rather than Welsh — in Welsh as “dynol”, i.e., “human”, is not normal or natural. it’s true that dynol can be used as a noun, but my sense is that that kind of usage is literary, not everyday, and that something like bod dynol “human being” would be more normal.)
the novel also begins by making a strange leap: Fang and Lazare have each died and been mysteriously resurrected with new magical powers. after this, despite — as far as I can tell — not having died and been resurrected a second time, Fang, Lazare, and their allies all assume that this means they can’t die (i.e., that they’ll be resurrected again if anything happens), but I didn’t see any actual evidence for this belief until it finally happens. aside from this, though, the plot is well-constructed and the pacing is solid.
the climax of the novel was predictable in the sense that I predicted it, but I also found it to be a nice change of pace even if it was low-agency. also predictable but less fun was the conclusion of the novel, which is just a kind of boring Found Family thing that pretends it’s saying something profound (“Something new. Something strange. Something neither one thing nor another.”) when it’s really just reiterating an extremely common and popular trope.
ultimately, the book was fine. I was engaged the whole time. the characters are fun. it just doesn’t quite pull off urban fantasy and romance and historical fantasy all at the same time, for me.
moods: adventurous, horny, lighthearted, tense