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GloomCookie #13-17
Broken Curses
The drama continues with GloomCookie's third collection. Lex & Damion are haunted by a terrible curse, Sebastian struggles to understand his increasing powers, and Chrys learns about her past.
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
439 people want to read
About the author
Serena Valentino
155 books6,026 followersSerena Valentino is best known for weaving tales that combine mythos and guile with her work on the comic book series GloomCookie and Nightmares & Fairy Tales, and her best selling Disney Villain Novels which have earned her critical acclaim for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty and extraordinary female protagonists.
Her Disney Villain novel series would be best enjoyed if read in this order: Fairest of All: The Story of the Wicked Queen, The Beast Within: The Story of Belle’s Prince, Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch, Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy. Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch and The Odd Sisters: A Villains Book to be released in Summer 2019. Book 7 will be out Summer 2020, Book 8 summer of 2021, and Book 9 Summer of 2022.
Serena lives in New Orleans with her dog Gozer, and a very tiny kitty named Momma.
Contact: Serena@serenavalentino.com
Her Disney Villain novel series would be best enjoyed if read in this order: Fairest of All: The Story of the Wicked Queen, The Beast Within: The Story of Belle’s Prince, Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch, Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy. Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch and The Odd Sisters: A Villains Book to be released in Summer 2019. Book 7 will be out Summer 2020, Book 8 summer of 2021, and Book 9 Summer of 2022.
Serena lives in New Orleans with her dog Gozer, and a very tiny kitty named Momma.
Contact: Serena@serenavalentino.com
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 10, 2019
Sadly, I did not love it. I so adored the first Gloom Cookie, with it's elegant intertwining story-lines, it's superb creation of heroes, villains and maidens in need of rescuing.... when they were not being totally viable modern girls doing cafe gossip.
The beauty and complexity of the stories in number I was enhanced by the stunning artwork. I am a total fangirl for all of Ted Naifeh's work so it is probably a little unfair of me to compare anyone else with him.
Nevertheless.
In this book, I did not feel that either the stories or the artwork came close to the first in the series. I know it is unfair to judge, but I can't help it. After all I read this one because I was so impressed by the first one.
The stories have moments where their former brilliance can be glimpsed, but they don't come close. The twisty, intertwining plots and stand alone segues that charmed me in the first novel, here, became confusing and irritating. I really, have no idea how some of those plots were meant to go. No understanding of why some things happened.... The monster under the bed? There seem to be two of him? maybe? or perhaps one that went rogue? Where did this other dimension come from? I have no idea.
Sebastian is still a good character but his 'powers' seem random and less of a plot development than a persistent, and I mean PERSISTENT deus ex machina. None of the characters seen three dimensional. That lazy ability to round a character out that made the first stories so good, is missing from all of the characters and that is very, very sad.
The artwork - is not bad. Not really, it is not up to Naifeh standards but it has a nice stark use of black/white edges in places. It is very minimalist though and while it can be effective in places (like the reverse image usage in illustrating Chrys) at other times it just feels really bland. Suits the story, but that is hardly a compliment to either the artist or the writer. I am glad I bought the first one, equally glad that I did not buy this one.
The beauty and complexity of the stories in number I was enhanced by the stunning artwork. I am a total fangirl for all of Ted Naifeh's work so it is probably a little unfair of me to compare anyone else with him.
Nevertheless.
In this book, I did not feel that either the stories or the artwork came close to the first in the series. I know it is unfair to judge, but I can't help it. After all I read this one because I was so impressed by the first one.
The stories have moments where their former brilliance can be glimpsed, but they don't come close. The twisty, intertwining plots and stand alone segues that charmed me in the first novel, here, became confusing and irritating. I really, have no idea how some of those plots were meant to go. No understanding of why some things happened.... The monster under the bed? There seem to be two of him? maybe? or perhaps one that went rogue? Where did this other dimension come from? I have no idea.
Sebastian is still a good character but his 'powers' seem random and less of a plot development than a persistent, and I mean PERSISTENT deus ex machina. None of the characters seen three dimensional. That lazy ability to round a character out that made the first stories so good, is missing from all of the characters and that is very, very sad.
The artwork - is not bad. Not really, it is not up to Naifeh standards but it has a nice stark use of black/white edges in places. It is very minimalist though and while it can be effective in places (like the reverse image usage in illustrating Chrys) at other times it just feels really bland. Suits the story, but that is hardly a compliment to either the artist or the writer. I am glad I bought the first one, equally glad that I did not buy this one.
April 28, 2020
[spoiler]There's a temporary happy ending,[/spoiler] but this is still too much fluff, not enough crunch.
October 30, 2010
First let me say this: I love this comic series. I understand that it's a satire, but I didn't like how the story was so disjointed & that there were plot points that we never were able to see. How exactly did Lex finally start dating Damion? The part where she caves into something bigger than herself (no pun intended) would have been fantastic to see. However, by this volume I'm used to that. I still didn't like it, but I got used to it. Thank goodness Valentino's storytelling got better as she moved onto other projects.
This volume really is the best of all of the series. The artwork & detail is incredible, and the storyline is the most linear of all 5 books. There are some elements that come out of nowhere, but all in all there is no jumping around or omission of plot elements. For some this volume really could be considered as the "true ending" of the series & that volumes 4 & 5 were just "sequels".
In this volume we see (somewhat of a spoiler) the end of Damion's quest, but we also begin to see the beginning of his & Lex's relationship troubles as well as the beginning of the end of another couple's big breakup. If only this momentum could have been kept going the series would have ended with a bang, but unfortunately while the buck didn't stop here, it definately stayed here for a long siesta.
This volume really is the best of all of the series. The artwork & detail is incredible, and the storyline is the most linear of all 5 books. There are some elements that come out of nowhere, but all in all there is no jumping around or omission of plot elements. For some this volume really could be considered as the "true ending" of the series & that volumes 4 & 5 were just "sequels".
In this volume we see (somewhat of a spoiler) the end of Damion's quest, but we also begin to see the beginning of his & Lex's relationship troubles as well as the beginning of the end of another couple's big breakup. If only this momentum could have been kept going the series would have ended with a bang, but unfortunately while the buck didn't stop here, it definately stayed here for a long siesta.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2012
lovely - the best art of the series so far.
May 16, 2013
3.5 stars - The drawings of Lex were better than the last volume, but I miss book 1 Damion's look.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews