amrabad's reviews
396 reviews

 I was let down by this. I get that there are a lot of cursed things out there, but it would’ve been nice to learn more about fewer things. I listened to this and the narration was good. Each chapter was about a different cursed object. A majority of the chapters were only about 6 minutes and there was A LOT of chapters. 

Aside from too much and not enough info at the same time, I wonder about whether or not I can trust the research behind the factoids. In the chapter about the Ring of Silvianus he mentioned that it inspired Tolkien’s One Ring and he said the ring was made by dwarves. If you know anything about LotR you know that’s wrong and that’s a very easy fact to check. He also mentioned in the chapter about Little Mannie with his daddy’s horns he said “I assume” in regards to why it was named that. Do you assume because you didn’t do the research or because it is unknown why? If it’s unknown, just say that. 

Ultimately, I only finished it because I wanted something in the background while working on a project. I really don’t remember anything about any of the cursed objects and don’t feel like I gained anything by reading this book. It had so much potential to be morbidly interesting, but here we are feeling underwhelmed instead. 

I know it’s an allegory to Russia, but I’ve watched a lot of cult documentaries and it seems to apply to a lot of that too. 

He has had such an interesting life. 

I didn’t love the first third or so. I struggled with suspending disbelief at first but as I got to know the characters it got better. Debbie is who I want to be when I grow up 😆 

Enjoyed just as much on re-read

Christ feckin Jesus, Lachlan is superior to Rowan.

I was always a little skeptical about Dr. Wilbur and this reinforces that. I believe the DID diagnosis is real, but I think it’s much more rare than what’s actually diagnosed. 

Well done narration