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A Curse Dark as Gold | 
| Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
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Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 25456
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0439895766
EAN: 9780439895767
ASIN: 0439895766
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 a very good fairy tale retelling from a new author November 25, 2008
Charlotte Miller and her sister Rosie have problems. Their father has just died, leaving their family mill in deep debt. Their long-lost uncle has arrived and is pushing them to sell. But their small community relies on the mill for its residents' livelihoods, and Charlotte isn't willing to give up her life and her friends' lives so easily. When Jack Spinner shows up and promises a way out, Charlotte makes a bargain with him to save the mill, but she gets far more than she bargained for and must figure out the mysterious connections of the past, between Jack Spinner, her mill, and her family. The book starts out in a solid, historical-feeling kind of way; only slowly does Bunce introduce the fantastic elements and thus the real impetus of the plot. It's a little too slow in the beginning, yet it builds up to real tension by the end.
Charlotte is an intelligent and dedicated heroine, and I appreciated that, but I have to admit that by the end, I was a little impatient with her unwillingness to share her burdens and her increasing knowledge of the situation with anyone. This dimmed the charm of the main romance for me: I couldn't quite believe in how quickly it started and how it could have been maintained in the face of Charlotte's pigheadedness. I rather preferred the secondary romance, a very understated one between Charlotte's sister Rosie and one of the millworkers, and I'd have liked to see more of that.
By now, I'm sure you've figured out which fairy tale this is a retelling of. I love fairy tale retellings and have read a lot of them, and I thought this was a very good one, adding a lot of depth to the tale of "Rumpelstiltskin". I especially liked the setting, which is based on Bunce's research into English and American wool mills in the late 1700s, on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, which provides some conflict in the plot, as Charlotte must face competition from mills with more efficient, automated systems. Bunce creates a tightly knit neighborhood around the mill, showing how one business can nurture an entire community.
Barring the small issues with pacing and characterization I've noted, I really enjoyed _A Curse Dark as Gold_ and will be looking for more from Bunce.
Curse Dark as Gold November 22, 2008
When Charlotte's father died leaving the wool mill and her younger sister Rosie to care for, Charlotte thought the world should be ending. As the elder and more practical and stubborn sister, Charlotte was used to running the finances for the wool mill that kept the tiny town of Stirwaters afloat. She was aware of the curse on Stirwaters that was tied inexplicably to the mill and her family but didn't really believe it until catastrophe after catastrophe began to assail her and Rosie.
When it is brought to her attention by her father's friendly out of town banker that her father had borrowed 1000 pounds that Charlotte knew he could never repay and that 600 of that was due immediately Charlotte knew she was going to have to combat the curse or lose Stirwaters and her mill family of workers.
Rosie, young and beautiful and impulsive, calls on the Fae to help and a man introducing himself only as Jack Spinner comes to their aid to spin straw into gold.
The plot is familiar but new with many complicated twists and turns. Charlotte finds and nearly loses love, her family and her mill but remains strong and true to her desire to save those around her even if she doesn't always go about it in the correct way.
Parts of the story were chilling but just like most modern fairy tales end happily.
 Fair book, although I didn't find it engrossing November 19, 2008
Retelling of Rumpelstilskin set in a recreation of late 1700's. Charlotte Miller's father dies and she inherits the Stilwater mill works (milling as in turning wool to cloth) with its debts, moldering machines, and curses. She must overcome all to save the people of Stilwater and her beloved mill as an evil competitor does his best to force her to close her doors and sell out to him. She does this with the help of a mysterious stranger who turns staw to gold, etc.
There isn't anything really wrong with this book, other than the fact that I just didn't love it. Maybe my problem is that Rumpelstilskin has always been one of my least favorite of the fairytales. Or perhaps it is because the book tells the circular story of Charlotte facing one mill problem after another and resolving each by the skin of her teeth. After the fourth of fifth time I knew she would do so and ceased to worry about her.
The only thing that really bugged me though was Charlotte's excessive independence and pride. She had financial problems that should she fail meant severe consequences to not just herself, but the towns people she loves and feels the need to protect. But she won't go to her rich husband for help because it isn't his problem. I wanted to knock her head into the side of the mill. Saving the people is more important than her own personal vanity and proof of resourcefulness. Her unwillingness to ask her husband for help felt more like the author's need to have her face more problems than a reality of Charlotte's personality.
Still, the book is well written. The characters are a little bland, but overall the story sets out to do what it meant too. Worth a read, although perhaps not at hardcover prices.
a good book November 5, 2008
The book I am reviewing A Curse Dark as Gold and it is written by Elizabeth C. Bunce.
A Curse Dark as Gold is a story of a family whose parents are dead, and they have to takeover the shearing business. Their father didn't tell them was. They have no mortgage! Then they found a man who can help them. They paid half the mortgage.
I liked this book because it held my attention and at points my eyes would not leave the page. And this book is appropriate for sixth and up.
Angieville: A CURSE DARK AS GOLD November 1, 2008
I've savored this one. I mean, I read a chunk every day, don't get me wrong. But if something happened to come up at night during my normal reading time, instead of muttering, "Vital point," like I usually do, I was up for it.
Watch a movie? Sure.
Clean out a few more boxes from the study? Let's do it!
Because I just didn't want this book to end. It more than lived up to the expectations I had, having heard such wonderful early reviews. And I was so pleased that it did because the initial prospect of a Rumpelstiltskin retelling was not all that attractive.
Let's face it, in its original form it's an awful fairy tale. Awful Dad sells his nameless daughter to Awful King in exchange for money. Awful King threatens nameless daughter with death unless she is able to spin straw into gold. Otherwise he'll marry her. Then to top it all off, creepily Awful Dwarf appears and saves nameless daughter's bacon....in exchange for her potential first-born child. And she's willing to make this Awful Bargain because she really doesn't want to die and can see no other way out. So she marries Awful King, makes a baby with him (shocker!), and, when Awful Dwarf comes to claim his due, is only able to save her baby by guessing his Awful Name. Yeah. Not my favorite fairy tale.
Turns out it wasn't Elizabeth C. Bunce's favorite either. I love that she rewrote it because it bothered her. And she did such a splendid job filling in the cracks, reworking the plot, carefully shaping it into a lovely tale of courage and ill luck, curses and redemption. The setting was a perfect choice: eighteenth century England, just on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. And the beautiful names. Charlotte Miller, Randall Woodstone, Shearing, Stirwaters, Jack Spinner. The names truly belong to their characters and places. I could tell each one was carefully chosen for effect, like a Dickens cast. And I was drawn to them, the animate and inanimate alike. For the mill, the mansion, and the curse itself are characters in their own right. Bunce's beautiful, unselfconscious writing propels the story forward to its climactic conclusion. This is a dark, drafty, remarkably real tale and, like Jack Spinner, it will spin its golden thread around you.
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