Every Thursday we go a travelling.  We pack up our spotted hankies with provisions and go in search of the tropes of fantasy.  Yep, it’s time for some Tough Travelling as hosted by Nathan at the Fantasy Review Barn.  This week : CURSES are long-standing ill-wishings which, in Fantasyland, often manifest as semi sentient. They have to be broken or dispelled. {Can include}

-Curses on lands, curses on families, curses on buildings, cureses on rings/swords, curses on people, curses with conditions.

And so, without further ado, I give you my list – although I feel compelled first of all to mention the play that shall not be mentioned, you know, that Scottish play, Shakespeare?  Cursed for sure.  Did Shakespeare really use true witches incantations (queue evil laughter).  Anyway, moving swiftly on:

1. Cursed by Benedict Jacka – the clue, of course, is in the title.  I’ve read the first couple of this series and enjoyed them.  One of the characters definitely has a curse – Luna.  But, I’m not going to tell you about the curse because that would spoil all the fun of reading it for yourself.
2. Blackbird, Mockingbird, Cormorant by Chuck Wendig – Miriam Black.  I do LOVE this series and so this may be something of a cheat.  Could I possible get away with Miriam being cursed with the ability to foresee the exact time and nature of a person’s death – following her own near death experience (I think that was when the ability manifested – but my memory could be being tricksy!)
3. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.  Something of a ghost story and something of a psychological thriller.  I’m plumping for the house being cursed by badness.  Badness by the person who built it and badness of what happened within it’s walls.  Anyhow, it seems to be evil!!
4. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – I loved this book!  Anyway, the young girl of the story, Sophie, finds herself cursed by the Witch of the Waste.
5. Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence – very entertaining epic adventure involving Prince Jalan and Snorri ver Snagason who are cursed by a witch and their fates are tied together.
6. Ring by Koji Suzuki – in which a video tape is cursed and anybody who watches it will die within a specified time frame.
7. White Cat by Holly Black – I haven’t finished this series yet but I did enjoy the first two books.  Set in the world as we know but with an alternative history where curse workers have been banned.

Honorable mentions:

Harry Potter!  Three curses which shall not be named here!

LoTR – the one ring – cursed!

Princess Fiona – cursed to change form at the end of each day.