The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White (Camelot Rising #3)

Reviewed by Sam!

Review for the previous book!

What I drank prior: I’m out in Salt Lake City for Ginny’s grad! And Parker is here too! Which naturally means we’re all supes hammered and have been for 3 days

Goodreads Overview:

The gripping conclusion to the acclaimed Arthurian fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White finds Guinevere questioning everything—friends and enemies, good and evil, and, most of all, herself.

While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. But the greatest danger isn’t what lies ahead of Guinevere—it’s what’s been buried inside her.

Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin’s help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred—and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent war.

Guinevere is determined to set things right, whatever the cost. To defeat a rising evil. To remake a kingdom. To undo the mistakes of the past…even if it means destroying herself.

Guinevere has been a changeling, a witch, a queen—but what does it mean to be just a girl?

Drunk Overview: this is the final book in this series. Gwen has left Arthur and Lancelot and Modred is bringing her to his mom and aunt and gma and it’s quite dramatic. Anything to save Camelot ya know? (Groan)

Spoiler-free Thoughts: I truly and completely love that I hated every book in this series. Like, not a single book was good. This one especially was like “imma leave for no reason and then just go back” just like the Serpent and Dove books. Drunk hate reviewing these have been fun esp since you know how much I love Arthurians.

Characters: they all suck. Like literally all of them. Gwen is trying so hard to figure out who she is but none of it makes sense. Like, at all. And then you’ve got the love interests, Modred and Arthur but like the story actually goes, Lancelot is the main person so that was forced in this book. Like just… figure your shit out. And then the bad guys made literally no sense. Why do they want what they want?? There’s no decent motivation.

Plot: walking, doing dumb shit, and then going back where you left. That’s it. That’s the plot. She like… has to make good with one of the villains and then that’s immediately ruined like… come on. They hadn’t even finished solidifying this new “tolerance” of each other and that understanding when it wa immediately ruined. Just too many ways this author wanted the book to go and she tried to force all of them at the same time.

Writing Style: it’s YA… it’s fine

World Building: you should NOT be forcing this much world building in the finale. Some is fine, to close loops from earlier but never new concepts. But that’s what we got.

What to pair it with: coors light.

Rating: 0/5

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,
Sam