Cursed
Marissa Meyer
In Gilded we learned that at her birth Serilda was given a gift, or maybe it's a curse, by the God of Lies and Fortune Wyrdith. In the iris of each of Serilda's eyes there is a golden spoked wheel. That, however, is not the gift -- it is only its sign. Her gift is that she is a storyteller, and the stories she tells are true. For example, at the school where she assists she told the children stories about the sour, crabby old teacher Madam Sauer. In Serilda's stories, Madam Sauer was a witch. Later it transpires that Madam Sauer is a witch. Whatever story Serilda tells turns out to be true -- turns out, in fact, to have always been true. Do Serilda's stories alter reality or merely reveal it? Is Madam Sauer a witch because Serilda's stories made her one, or is it merely her gift to speak truth when telling a story? If this were not fiction, it would be an interesting philosophical question whether those two possibilities are in fact distinct. Indeed, if we call it a hypothetical rather than fiction, it remains an interesting philosophical question.
The core of Marissa Meyer's Gilded duology, Gilded and Cursed, is a retelling of Rumpelstitskin, much augmented by plot elements from other folkloric sources, not to mention Meyer's fertile imagination. Most of the event of the classic Rumpelstitskin story already occurred in Gilded. Serilda is the miller's daughter. The greedy King who asks her to spin gold for him is the child-stealing Erlkönig of German and Scandinavian stories. In Meyer's story, the Erlking also leads the Wild Hunt. The actual goldspinner is a poltergeist called Gild who haunts the castle of the Erlking. He and Serilda fall in love. As Cursed begins, Serilda is pregnant with Gild's child.
In the classic tale the King marries the miller's daughter, and she has a child, which she had promised to the goldspinner in exchange for his services. In the classic tale the goldspinner is a "kleines Männchen" -- a little manikin. He shows up to claim the child and she begs to keep her child. The goldspinner tells her that he will let her keep the child if she can find out his true name. The miller's daughter, now the Queen, does that and everyone except the goldspinner lives happily ever after.
Those events form the outline of one plot line of Cursed. Serilda's lover Gild takes the place of the goldspinner of the classic tale and is a hero of Meyer's story. There are, however, other plot lines involving the Erlking and what he wants -- his desire to bring back his lover Perchta from death, and a plan to free himself and the Wild Hunt from the constraints under which the gods have bound them.
Why is Cursed extraordinary? Well, first, the plot is intricate and works. Meyer puts a lot of balls in the air, keeps them all moving, and catches them cleanly at the end. It is a display of virtuosity I never tire of, when it is done really well, which it seldom is. (I was particularly impressed with the way in which she wove the naming of the spinner into the plot.) Second, Serilda is an appealing heroine. I couldn't help liking her, admiring her, and feeling for her and wanting her to win. Third, I really loved the concept of the story-teller making the story true. It is thought-provoking and also produces brilliant plot twists.