Mary: Hello and welcome back to YA Book Club! Today we’re talking about Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon, which has been on our TBR for quite some time now. Menon is one of our favorites, and we’ve talked about her novel There’s Something About Sweetie in the past, and we even did a whole podcast episode about Make Up Break Up. Of Curses and Kisses is different from any other Menon book I’ve read before simply because it has kind of a fantasy spin. It’s a contemporary retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” (we can get into which version later), and there is a curse as the title implies. There’s not really magic or anything, but there is a fabulous boarding school and lots of money, which is basically magic, isn’t it?
Emily: And it’s in Colorado, near Aspen, which I bet is really magical. I did think when I started reading it that this was supposed to be a “magical” boarding school, just based on the synopses I read about this series as a whole. And yes, this is the first in a series all set at the boarding school. We can talk more about the series later, but for now let’s talk about the fantasy aspect. It’s not really that the school is magical. It’s just that some magical things happen there. Which honestly was fine by me. I think my fantasy speed right now is just a little pinch of magic sprinkled into real-world situations. How did you feel about the level of fantasy/reality in this book?
Mary: I also thought it was going to be a magical boarding school! Once I figured out that it wasn’t, I was still cool with it. I mean, for me boarding schools always seem a little mysterious, and potentially dangerous because it’s a group of teenagers with limited adult supervision, living on their own away from their families. That would’ve been my dream in high school, so it feels really magical in the book. Also, yes, that setting.
I really enjoyed how Of Curses and Kisses leaves the curse up to the readers’ interpretation. Throughout most of the book, we’re left wondering if the curse is real, or just a story that the Emersons made up to justify their relationship to the Raos. Then again, when rubies begin falling out of Jaya’s pendant and are unable to be placed back in – even by a talented jeweler – I started to think maybe the curse was real, a little bit of magic woven right in. I agree with you that I’m feeling a little burnt out on fantasy right now, and I enjoyed that this was more realism than outright magic.
Menon has created a magical place in St. Rosetta’s, for sure, but I think the characters are what I was most interested in. We really get a sense of the school as a community, and I could definitely see the potential for this world to unfurl in future books. What did you think about the cast?
Emily: Yes, this is what I really wanted to talk about. I think one of the really great things about the boarding school setting (and why I love it so much) is that you get a lot of time to meet a full cast of characters and start developing their side stories. In this book, Menon has planted a lot of seeds for future stories featuring other characters in this book, which I loved. On that note, I should say that this series is planned as more of a collection of novels with linked stories rather than a series that follows one storyline over the course of several novels. This is sort of similar to her other YA novels. When Dimple Met Rishi introduces readers to characters who become the main characters in other books like There’s Something About Sweetie and From Twinkle, with Love. I love, love, love this, and as we all know I’m a huge fan of those books. For me, this served more of the same energy. And in a boarding school, these characters’ lives are even more linked because they’re stuck with each other all school year, day and night.
Mary: Absolutely. I think Menon does this really well, and I always enjoy seeing how characters she sets up in one book gain a life of their own in another book. Particularly, I was really interested in the potential for Caterina’s transformation. She has a mini-arc throughout the novel where we see her go from dating a sleazy, stupid boy to realizing that she can choose to love herself and be with someone who really likes her. Caterina initially seemed like she was going to be a shallow, vain villain, but by the end of the novel, I was really rooting for her. I also enjoyed Daphne Elizabeth – who’s in a love triangle of sorts with Caterina and the gross Alaric. I’d be curious to see if she and Caterina can become friends and be the ultimate testament to girl power. Was there any side character you particularly liked?
Emily: It should be noted that Caterina is the main character in the second book, which I found out when I was only a few pages into this one and I was like, “Really?” Because at first, yes, you’re right. She does come off as a shallow, party-obsessed rich girl who cares more about manipulating people into doing what she needs them to do than actually having friends. But as is usually the case, behind every powerful woman is a douchey asshole doing everything in his power to make her feel like shit about herself. And that’s totally what’s happening here. I’ll be excited to see Caterina’s story fleshed out more in the second book.
I’m honestly really curious about Jaya’s little sister Isha. She kind of gave me Dimple from When Dimple Met Rishi vibes, and I love that book. So maybe book three will be Isha’s story. Who knows?
Mary: I also loved Isha! She seemed sweet and smart, and I want her to succeed as a robotics engineer (if she wants, of course). Isha and Jaya played off of each other well, and I could really see them as sisters.
Emily: I guess it’s probably clear to readers already that I really enjoyed this book. But I do have some critiques about it as well. And Mary, I know you do too.
Mary: Oof, you know, I really struggled with this book in general, and I’m not sure why. I really like Menon’s work for the most part, but I think I’m in a reading slump that shaded how I feel about Of Curses and Kisses.
My main complaint was with our main character Jaya. I couldn’t understand Jaya’s motivations at some points in the novel, so much so that it became distracting for me. It seemed like she was driven by appearances and how others viewed her family, but she was willing to risk an awful lot to pull one over on Grey, which is…not a good look.
Emily: Jaya’s motivations were not really a problem for me. I think she is a character who puts her family first, above herself, at all times. As far as what she does with Grey, I don’t see her messing with Grey as being something that is really going to make her family look bad, especially because she never expected to take things that far. She just wanted to lead him on and then break his heart. Is it a silly plan? Yes. But is it going to make her look bad? I don’t really think so. People date people and break up with them all the time.
Now, her obsession with appearances and putting her family before everything else was frustrating, especially when she tried to convince her sister not to sign up for robotics. But I think I got the idea early on that we as readers were supposed to know that this was stupid. And I anticipated that part of Jaya’s journey in the novel would be letting go of antiquated ideas of what it means to be a royal and what it means to be a family.
How we’re trying to be walking into the homegoing dance.
Mary: Right, that’s true. I don’t think there’s ever a point where the novel is expecting readers to think Jaya is being reasonable. Devotion to your family is one thing, but the lengths Jaya is prepared to go to seem extreme. By the time she was saying she was going to marry Kiran because of a RUMOR, I was like, girl what are you doing?
Speaking of, I cannot imagine being ready to pledge myself over to someone so BORING and, frankly, evil as Kiran Hedge. He seemed like such a little turd, and him being the other option for Jaya (her sort of arranged marriage as opposed to true love with Grey) made Grey seem all the more attractive.
What kinds of critiques did you have?
Emily: I always, always, always have trouble reading about super rich people. Because in the back of my head, I think, “You’re rich. Who cares?” So the fact that all these kids are spoiled as hell and get to take regular trips to Aspen on the weekends? I’m super jealous. I don’t really care for wish-fulfillment type stories, which is what I think a lot of that is. Some people love reading about characters doing all the fun things they wish they could do. Some people love to live vicariously through the characters’ stories. I don’t. I just want everyone to be as miserable and poor as I am. I know that sounds like a joke, but I’m kind of being for real.
Mary: Oh, absolutely. I love it when there’s not a happy ending and everything doesn’t get wrapped up nicely. I also am kind of with you on the rich people being hard to read about bit. I mean, I like reading about rich people who suffer a big fall, or somehow get punished for living in excess, but when people are super rich, rude, and just…fine? Nah.
Emily: Also, I think we have to talk about this “Beauty and the Beast” retelling. For one, the references felt a little forced. Like in the end, when Grey is like, “I always thought of myself as a beast,” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Like, okay, yes, we get it.
But also, this was somehow a retelling of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast more than it was influenced by the fairy tale itself? I always think it’s so weird when stories do that. Like, how are you going to do a retelling of a retelling? Why wouldn’t you go back to the source material? If you’re going to do a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, do your research and understand what parts of the story are from the original and what parts are from Disney. Now, like the original fairy tale, Jaya did ask her father to bring her home a single rose. But like the Disney movie, we get a rose with petals that fall, signifying when the curse will be completed.
I don’t know. I get that Menon is trying to do a whole fairy tale retelling thing with this series, but that was the part I cared the least about. Never once was I like “Oh this is so cool that this is a new take on ‘Beauty and the Beast’!” Most of all, I didn’t think about it, but when I did, I didn’t really like what the story was doing with it.
Mary: It felt like the references to any fairy tales were completely unneeded. I agree that it’s strange that the book kind of seems to be going off of the Disney version (which takes a lot of liberties), and by the end the “Beauty and the Beast” stuff doesn’t seem to have much of a bearing on anything.
For me, my problem with this was the marketing around the book, which probably wasn’t on Menon at all. Lots of the marketing promotes the book as being a retelling, but it’s kind of…not? At the beginning, there was a LOT of talk about how Grey looks “feral” (lol), and obviously we have the rose and the curse, but other than that? IDK, it just didn’t work for me.
I’ll also say, unrelatedly, that this one was a little too long for me. I like Menon’s writing, but there were things that felt unnecessary, and it seemed to take a long time for us to actually get things going.
Emily: I wonder how much of that is just setting up the world for future novels. Like we meet her Australian classmate who lives next to her, but she doesn’t really do much. I can’t even remember her name. But I kind of hope she pops up again!
I had a really different experience with this though. I read the majority of this book in one day. I think I’m at the point with Sandhya Menon where if she comes out with a book, I’m gonna read it. I do plan on reading the rest of this series. The second book, Of Princes and Promises, is out now, and there is a third book planned for 2023, but it doesn’t have a title yet.
Mary: Nice! I’m not writing off this whole series – and I definitely love Menon’s work – but this novel just didn’t do it for me. Again, that could entirely be because of the type of mood I was in, or how long it took me to read. I rated this book 3 stars on Goodreads, and I think it pretty solidly fit that mark for me. What did you rate it?
Emily: I rated it four stars. I really enjoyed it and felt drawn in by the characters and the romance, even though there were a few things that weren’t perfect for me. This was a pretty solid four star read. I am 100% in for the second book!
What are we reading next?!!
Mary: Up next we’re reading Cold by Mariko Tamaki, who avid YA Book Club-ers might remember from This One Summer. I’m super excited for this one!
Okay, one more.