52 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie GarberA Curse for True Love
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Series Context: The Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy and Stephanie Garber’s Caraval Universe
The Once Upon a Broken Heart series is the second trilogy set in Garber’s Caraval universe, which draws inspiration from many fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast. The first trilogy, the Caraval series (Caraval, Legendary, and Finale), revolved around the fantastical Caraval circus and the magic surrounding it. Jacks and Evangeline played minor roles in Finale before going on to be the main characters in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series (Once Upon a Broken Heart, The Ballad of Never After, and A Curse for True Love).
In Once Upon a Broken Heart, the first book of the trilogy, Evangeline begins her journey toward her happily ever after by praying to Jacks (the Prince of Hearts Fate) for her boyfriend to come back to her. Jacks is immediately drawn to Evangeline, but since he believes his kiss is fatal to anyone but his true love, he pushes her away and continues to do so throughout the trilogy.
Jacks also discovers that Evangeline is a “key”—one who holds the magic of unlocking in their blood. The two characters become intertwined as Jacks uses Evangeline to collect magic stones he will use to open the great Valory Arch of the North and claim the power within. Along their journey, Evangeline is pulled away from Jacks by the attraction between her and Apollo, which evolves into Apollo’s dangerously narcissistic obsession with her, featured in A Curse for True Love. However, court politics and curses alike throw Evangeline and Jacks together time and again, forcing both to realize they would do anything to protect the other.
Literary Context: Fairy Tales and Romance
The Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogies fall into the genre of fairy-tale fantasy romance. Though the world of the books is full of magic, the main plotline is the love story between Evangeline and Jacks, thus placing the books firmly in the romance genre. Garber blends the romance genre with fairy-tale and fantasy elements to create a world in which there are greater and farther-reaching consequences to love than there are in the real world. Through vivid descriptions of the world and its elements, Garber grounds the reader in her fairy-tale universe, making the setting part of the story and essential to Evangeline and Jacks’s romantic arc. Curses, dark rituals, and enchanted landscapes offer challenges to Evangeline and Jacks’s happy ending. The two are forced to thwart the magic that comes between them, such as that used to remove Evangeline’s memories, while also using the magic of the North to get what they want.
Garber builds further upon the fantasy world by making use of fairy-tale archetypes in the development of the characters of Evangeline, Apollo, and Jacks. As a no-name girl from another kingdom who comes to the North and is immediately beloved by a prince, Evangeline fits the Cinderella archetype. However, she then subverts that traditional fairy tale trope by questioning her happy ending and seeking out another one. Apollo also turns the dashing prince archetype on its head: Instead of being a purely good hero, Apollo is a villain who hides behind lies to convince himself he’s doing good in the name of love. As the roguishly dangerous creature of magic, Jacks should be the villain, and while he does villainous things, they are only a part of who he is, complicating the traditional archetype of the villain. Through his backstory and the tragedy of love he suffered years ago, Garber makes Jacks sympathetic, paving the way for the reader to understand why Evangeline chooses him despite their rocky journey. With each of these characters, Garber uses traditional fairy-tale archetypes and then subverts them, updating them for a modern audience.
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By Stephanie Garber
