In Cursed, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer brings the haunting fairytale-inspired Gilded duology to a thrilling conclusion that will have fans―old and new―spinning.
Hi, Marissa! Welcome back to The Nerd Daily! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Thanks for having me back! I am a writer of young adult novels, the host of The Happy Writer Podcast, and a homeschooling mom to my 8-year-old twin daughters.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I don’t remember discovering it. I was always telling stories, even when I was really little. I would tell stories to my mom and ask her to write them down for me so I could illustrate them. I remember once being at the library and searching the online catalog for some really specific thing – like, “a book about a princess who travels through an enchanted forest and finds a haunted castle and meets a mermaid and a fairy and defeats a dragon” or something, and I was so frustrated when the search engine kept coming back with zero results. Finally I had the thought – if it doesn’t already exist, maybe I need to write it! That is one of my earliest memories for knowing that I wanted to be a writer.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
- First book I remember reading: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- Made me want to become an author: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
- Can’t stop thinking about: The Gilded Wolves Trilogy by Roshani Chokshi
Cursed is the conclusion to your Gilded duology and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Cursed storyteller vs. mythical hunter
What can readers expect?
Cursed continues after the cruel cliffhanger at the end of Gilded – with Serilda trapped inside the Erlking’s haunted castle and trying to figure out how to free herself and the people she loves, which becomes increasingly complicated as she uncovers more and more about the Erlking’s ultimate plans. There are a lot of monsters, ghosts, and gods, and we get to travel to Gravenstone, the forgotten castle deep in the Aschen Wood, which was a really fun setting to play in.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing the conclusion and how you were able to overcome them?
There are a number of mysteries and reveals that happen over the course of the story, so a big challenge was figuring out how to space them apart and reveal them to Serilda and the reader in a way that felt inevitable, but hopefully still comes as a surprise. It’s always hard to strike that balance between giving just enough clues and hints, while still withholding enough that your readers (hopefully) won’t guess everything that’s coming up. I try not to worry about this too much when I’m writing the first draft, and just trying to figure out the main trajectory of the story, but in revisions I spend a lot of time deleting, cutting, and moving information around.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring one last time?
I really enjoyed writing the pantheon of gods, a few of whom you get to meet in Cursed. Solvilde is my favorite, even though the only show up for a brief period in the book. I feel like I could write an entire spin-off series all about Solvilde!
What draws you to retellings?
I’ve loved fairy tales my whole life, so I have a lot of appreciation for these stories and how universal their themes and messages are. As a writer, I love that I can take a story that is familiar and beloved, and yet there is still so much room to put my own spin on it. I can look at it from different angles, fill in some plot holes, answer some lingering questions, or take the story in an entirely new direction—with new characters, or a new setting or time period. There is so much room to explore, all within these relatively simple frameworks.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on the companion novel to my contemporary romance Instant Karma. This book will focus on Jude (Prudence’s twin brother), who is gifted a slew of lucky coincidences from the universe and uses them to ask out the girl of his dreams, which is all great… until his luck starts to run out.
Lastly, what have been some of your favourite 2022 reads? Any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
Hosting a weekly podcast in which I talk with other writers has given me so many incredible books to talk about! Some of my personal favorites from this year have been: One for All by Lillie Lainoff, The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas, and Mattie and the Machine by Lynn Ng Quezon.
For 2023, I got to take an early look at Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, a new fairy-tale inspired fantasy by S. Jae-Jones. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for more people to read it!
