How many curses can one woman handle? Clara Blackwood finds her happily-ever-after interrupted by yet another family curse in Cursed Once More by Amanda DeWees. I had reviewed the initial book in this duology, With This Curse, quite a few years ago and was very impressed with DeWees’s grasp of classic Gothic tropes. After hearing how much I loved the first book, the author was kind enough to send along the sequel. It had gotten buried in my TBR pile until now, but I was delighted to finally dive back into DeWees’s luscious Victorian Gothic world with Cursed Once More.
Clara Blackwood had finally defeated the Gravesend curse—the ill-fortune that seemed to haunt the manor in which she grew up as a servant and now reigns over as the baroness. She lives at Gravesend in marital bliss with her devoted husband Atticus, working together with him on their philanthropic projects. But when a series of desperate-sounding letters arrive from her estranged relatives, Clara can’t resist the chance to learn more about her mother’s family. Clara and Atticus arrive at Thurnley Hall to find her grandmother on her deathbed and anxious to reveal vital information to Clara. But her boorish uncle Horace seems willing to go to any length to prevent the Burleigh family secrets from being revealed. And how does her uncle’s charming young ward, Victor Lynch, fit into this tangled web of secrets and mistrust? When Atticus goes missing, Clara realizes that discovering the nature of the Burleigh family curse may be a matter of life and death—for herself, her husband, and their unborn child.
The Burleigh family curse hinges on the concept of monstrosity, which is examined from several angles in Cursed Once More. One angle is the way that physical disability was often demonized in this era. Not only do Atticus and Victor face the cruelty and ridicule of their peers, but they are also the targets of superstitions that link any physical difference to supernatural evil. The Romanian servants at Thurnley Hall, meanwhile, are concerned with literal monsters—having brought a strong belief in the reality of vampires over with them from Eastern Europe. Surrounded by this environment, Victor becomes particularly intrigued by the power that monsters hold and obsessively researches vampires and their ilk. But as Clara ultimately determines, what makes a monster is not one’s physical differences or supernatural powers, but rather one’s actions and the way one treats others.
Of course, all of these Gothic tropes and plotlines need a suitably Gothic setting, and Amanda DeWees does not disappoint! While the first book in this series featured an elegant manor house with a decorative set of ruins built to add to the ambiance, in Cursed Once More, Clara encounters the real thing. Thurnely Hall has been in the Burleigh family for generations, and its age is evident in the disused wing of the building that has been allowed to crumble into ruins. Physically deteriorating castles and estates are a particularly common setting in Gothic literature. And as in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” or innumerable examples from Southern Gothic literature, the destruction is metaphorical as well as literal. The Burleigh family is a classic example of disgraced and corrupted nobility. As their wealth seeped away, the once-grand family seat fell into disrepair, its decay mirroring that of the family’s legacy. The ruined wing serves as a reminder of how far this great family has fallen, though it is also the site of practical dangers, such as falling rocks and concealed hiding places. In contrast to the first book, the curse is attached to the members of the Burleigh family, rather than the house itself. However, in Gothic literature, the identity of the family and the house they inhabit are so intertwined that the distinction scarcely seems to matter.
If you were a fan of With This Curse, or simply love a good callback to classic Gothic tropes, don’t miss Cursed Once More. The book has been out now for several years, now, so you can find it on shelves at your local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Once you read it, be sure to come back and let me know what you think!