Ever Cursed

LOCAL AUTHOR

Reagan, a witch determined to right a wrong, casts a Spell of Without on the princesses of Ever, taking away something integral to living – food, sleep, love, memory, or hope – as each one turns thirteen. When the youngest turns thirteen, the princesses learn how to break the spell to keep it from being True and lasting forever. Jane, the oldest, leads the way to find the things they need, but her father refuses to help, even to save his wife and daughters from the spell’s effects. Jane painfully realizes she has been doing without more than just food. She has been seeing without understanding and accepting without knowing for years. To save her kingdom she must break all the rules, work with the enemy, and learn her kingdom’s true history.

Hope without hopefulness and memory without remembering to make this a story in opposites and contrasts. Though often ignored or covered up in lies and platitudes, the exploitation of people and especially women by men in power is addressed sensitively and powerfully. Readers know of the situation but not the particulars. Told in the alternating viewpoints of Reagan and Jane, Ever Cursed is a feminist fairy tale with implications and comments on today’s patriarchal society.