{"id":27688,"date":"2025-07-27T20:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27688\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T20:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:46:11","slug":"cursed-in-the-lost-city-by-gabby-hutchinson-crouch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27688\/","title":{"rendered":"Cursed in the Lost City by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Cursed in the Lost City, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Farrago!<\/p>\n

Molly Stubbs<\/p>\n

Cursed in the Lost City markets itself as a fantasy romance book. But it\u2019s actually more of a fantasy romance, superhero epic, alternate history, detective thriller, road trip adventure book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In short, you get your money\u2019s worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having said that, to get the absolute most out of this charming little story, it\u2019s highly recommended you read its first instalment, Cursed Under London. Allow me to bring you up to speed anyway, at least with our very large cast, just in case this second book in the series is too tempting for you.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Cast<\/p>\n

Fang is a grumpy Catayan about as deep as a black hole and Lazare is a loveable Parisian popinjay with a failed acting career (but don\u2019t tell him I said so). The two find themselves on opposite sides of London, and a few months apart, brought back from the brink of lonely deaths. Not only that, but now Lazare can fly thanks to his ghoulish wings and Fang can cast a reverse fae glamour, creating disgusting illusions that are very handy for repelling enemies during the countless fights he gets into. Have they found the secret to eternal life? Or is this a curse beyond comprehension?\u00a0<\/p>\n

To find answers and get back to mortality, the two team up with Nell, a Welshwoman and successful apothecary, and Amber the very small dragon. And finally (turn back now, here be spoilers), Tem, a half-human half-fae child with some abilities of her own, namely the power to reach back in time and retroactively protect those she loves\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a centuries-old vampire in a ten-year-old\u2019s body, zombie Christopher Marlowe, Queen Elizabeth and her cephalophore ladies in waiting, a psychotic alchemist, a p\u00faca ambassador to upper London, two sets of street gangs, a sexy werewolf dockworker, and a Royal Guard composed entirely of birds headed up by the formidable six-foot swan (sometimes goose), Captain Honkensby. Oh! Don\u2019t forget William Shakespeare. No fantastical \u2018ailment\u2019 for him \u2013 he\u2019s magic enough as he is, I suppose.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s barely the first book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Readable<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll leave it there for now. Don\u2019t worry, our capable author makes it all a lot more understandable. In fact, one of the strengths of Gabby\u2019s writing style is disguising just how much she\u2019s packing into her paragraphs. The exposition isn\u2019t always expertly hidden, but it\u2019s wrapped tightly in jokes and character dynamics, and before you know it she\u2019s implanted an entire world in your imagination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, such a writing style could be a bit\u2026\u2019marmite\u2019. For example, though the story is set on the cusp of the 17th century, readers won\u2019t have to slog through masses of description or \u2018old-timey\u2019 language. The dialogue is refreshing and the prose is readable. However, if you\u2019re looking for historical accuracy, you\u2019re not going to find it here \u2014 and not just because there\u2019s an entire underground Britain populated with magical creatures and Wales is still an independent nation.<\/p>\n

You read that right. In Gabby\u2019s world, in which magical creatures of all kinds live side-by-side with and underneath humans (just go with it), Wales is ruled over by King Llewelyn III. His ancestors were able to fight off English colonisation thanks to the help of a formidable dragon, Queen Redthroat.<\/p>\n

In gratitude, we gave the dragon pride of place on our flag and rule over the Lost City of Llanelli, an above-ground home for fantastical beings. Redthroat is generous and dignified and majestic\u2026or that\u2019s what Welsh schoolchildren are taught. Perhaps dragons aren\u2019t as good as we all think \u2014 they\u2019re certainly not very polite.<\/p>\n

Gabby was born in Pontypool, so it\u2019s no surprise she\u2019s got a good grasp of welcoming Welsh culture and our reverence for the spiritual\/magical. Even so, with characters from all corners of the globe, it\u2019s clear she\u2019s done her research. This is even more commendable since fantasy usually gives authors a little bit of leeway when it comes to the facts. Yet, whether it be the imperial Ming dynasty or travelling players, the weird, wacky, and wonderful embellishments Gabby makes to our objective history are based on a strong foundation of genuine knowledge.<\/p>\n

Sequels\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lot of sequels struggle to recapture the atmosphere that made their older siblings so good, primarily because plots are wrapped up in a neat little bow by their last page. It\u2019s apparent, though, that Gabby wrote Cursed Under London with Cursed in the Lost City, and perhaps a few more instalments, in mind. Fang and Lazare\u2019s quest is still very much ongoing when this second book begins.<\/p>\n

But, thanks to a command of pacing, it never feels too protracted. There\u2019s a blissful balance between breakneck action and tender, emotional moments that serve a purpose beyond just padding things out. Before you know it, we\u2019ve travelled across the country hounded every moment by a self-righteous swan.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the sequel improves on its predecessor in terms of stakes. While pain and death were very real in the first book, I read with the expectation that everything would turn out alright in the end. Such a quirky little story could only conclude happily, right? Except the curse isn\u2019t lifted as we rejoin our cast, and there\u2019s another round of unhelpful villains to contend with. Gabby manages, among a cast of characters that you can\u2019t help but want to hug, to inject some real evil into her antagonists which ramps everything up even further.<\/p>\n

Having said that, our leading lads, ladies, and fairies are hardly morally sound either. Another of the sequel\u2019s strengths is that we get to see other dimensions of our cast, who are somewhat thrown at us in the first book and possibly a little archetypal as a result. In Cursed in the Lost City, characters are developed massively and each have their own arcs that (almost) see them through the internal conflicts laid out in book one.<\/p>\n

Remember those emotional moments I mentioned? Well, these arcs are the soil from which they bloom, and our two leading gents are very, ahem, fertile. Fang and Lazare are not only cursed with immortality, but also with an equal parts frustrating and fascinating will-they-won\u2019t-they romance. We get a few crumbs here and there, and I gobbled them all up greedily. Gabby also plays with the tried and somewhat-tired romance tropes very well. We all know how it goes when there\u2019s only one bed for our romantic leads. Well, in the Cursed series there\u2019s only one bed six times!<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/p>\n

As implied, sequels are hard to pull off. But I am very happy to say that I preferred Cursed in the Lost City to its counterpart. Maybe it\u2019s because the author had more time to worldbuild, took advantage of the opportunity to dig deeper into her characters, or maybe it\u2019s just because this book has a big focus on Wales, and I\u2019m very (not so) quietly patriotic.<\/p>\n

Whatever it is, it works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cursed in the Lost City is lighthearted when it needs to be, times its punches perfectly and definitely never pulls them. It\u2019s got pathos enough to bring a tear to the eye, and loveable, \u2018libidinous\u2019 characters abound. If high fantasy is too much work and contemporary romance too boring, this story is the one for you, whichever book you start with\u2026But start with the first, please \u2013 I desperately need someone to talk to about this series. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Cursed in the Lost City by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch is published by Farrago!<\/a> and is available from all good bookshops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Support our Nation today<\/p>\n

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\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cursed in the Lost City, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Farrago! Molly Stubbs Cursed in the Lost City markets itself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-27688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}