The Bounded Curse by Ana Stanojevic is a young adult fantasy about opening up a cursed world. The book is an ode to Harry Potter, using three children, two boys and a girl. But in The Bounded Curse, the girl, Avery, is the lead.
Harry Potter is a well thought out magical world with some of the best world building. The Bounded Curse piggybacks off that. In this land, the whole world is like Diagon Alley, with wizards casting spells everywhere.
Since the novel uses Harry Potter as its foundation, it does very little world building of its own. We don’t know if there are non-magic folk, but we do know they celebrate Christmas. There is also an 80s that was apparently a long time ago? It was a little confusing.
The world felt brand new, but we’re told it has been around for over 1,000 years.
The story is short, but it left out so much.
This is my fourth self-published read. I love giving back and taking a chance on self-published authors. You can feel the enthusiasm for writing in Stanojevic’s voice, but the book leaves so much for the reader to fill in.
There is a final reveal of a name at the end that felt like it was supposed to mean something and be a big reveal. But the name was never mentioned in the book. To compare it to Harry Potter, if you just said Voldemort with no context, it is just a name.
I thought the best part of the book was when Stanojevic stepped away from Harry Potter and did her own thing. I liked the cursed hidden world filled with wooden crosses and spiders with no heads. That was creepy, but it only made up about 5% of the book.
I also liked that the magic is controlled by a medallion they wear along their chest, and if it runs out of magic, you die. That was an interesting idea that I would have liked to see explored more.
Why did I read The Bounded Curse by Ana Stanojevic?
Ana emailed me telling me all about her book. The pitch sounded good.
Her book only has 10 reviews and 9 ratings on Goodreads for The Bounded Curse. I review everything I read, so I will add another. I did wish I liked it more, but every review counts in my opinion.
I will not be doing a video review for The Bounded Curse.
The Plot:
Young wizards from Esquira find out the tales their grandparents told them could be real about a cursed land, and the plan to find it.
Recommendation:
I cannot recommend The Bounded Curse.
Writing a book is hard. I’ve only published short stories, so she has accomplished more than me.
I think the enthusiasm for writing is there. I would recommend stepping out of the Harry Potter shadow and creating something new. I did think the writing style used might appeal to a middle grade reader more.
Rating:
The Bounded Curse by Ana Stanojevic
2 out of 5 stars
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