The Hardest Beginning by Catherine Corry
Genre: Fantasy, Science fiction
This is the first book I’ve read from this author, and I’m very pleasantly surprised with how much intrigue it has. The Hardest Beginning is novella length and takes no time to read. Catherine Corry does something pretty unique and, for the most part, pulls it off.
You meet and follow 12 different characters throughout the history of the world as they are cursed for various reasons. I can’t really go too much further into that without diving into spoiler territory. But The Hardest Beginning is the prequel to an upcoming trilogy I will very likely be checking out.
The pacing felt rushed at first, but once you’ve met everyone, it starts to make sense. My one complaint is that there might be too many characters to follow – which is why it felt rushed. It feels like an anthology of short stories at the beginning since you’re following each of these characters as they’re afflicted by the same curse, but these stories converge towards the end. All in all, the prose was interesting and the story far more intriguing. I’m looking forward to reading more from Corry.
