Cursed Princess Club: Volume One - LambCat - ★★★★.½

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AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: LambCat
SERIES: Cursed Princess Club #1
GENRE: Webcomic, Graphic Novel.
PUBLICATION DATE: January 3, 2023
RATING: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A well-crafted storyline combined with attractive graphics. The title doesn’t indicate how intricate and intelligent the storyline is, so my reading experience went much beyond my expectations. Great for all graphic novel lovers. Looking forward to the rest of the series.


Plot Preview:
Teenaged princesses Maria (18), Lorena (17), and Gwendolyn (16), live with their brother Jamie (also 16) and their overprotective father, the King of Pastel Kingdom. Maria and Lorena are everything you would expect from typical Disney princesses, but Gwendolyn is not so blessed physically. When she overhears her potential fiancé calling her ugly, Gwen runs into the forest, only to stumble into some members of the ‘Cursed Princess Club’. And luckily for Gwen, these are exactly the people Gwen needs to tell her that life is more than looks.


NOTE: I'm reading this book on the WEBTOON app, but as Goodreads doesn't have that option, I'll be updating my progress against the graphic novel entries. This first volume is based on season 1 (episodes 1-29) of the webcomic.


Many of you might glance at that title and the cover, and dismiss this as a flippant princess story for youngsters. I confess, I was also in the same boat. The only reason I grabbed this was that my daughter insisted on my reading it. Boy oh boy, was I wrong in my assumption! ‘Never judge a book by the cover’ is almost always true, but especially so in this case.

The story starts in the usual ‘princess story’ way that made me wonder why I was compelled to pick this up so urgently. But once Gwendolyn stumbles her way into the Cursed Princess Club, the plot development amps up to a masterful level.

Here are some themes/topics you will find in this first volume of the graphic novel series:

💎 A family story that sounds typical but isn’t so.

💎 Excellent character development, with just enough information to let us know their personality but not too much of an infodump to make them predictable.

💎 An intricate storyline that goes far beyond what is initially apparent, and even contains several twists and turns.

💎 Gender discrimination against males as well as females.

💎 Judgement based on looks, objectification based on social stereotypes about physical characteristics, and the value of inner beauty and kindness.

💎 Inclusive representation.

💎 Royalty, princesses, princes and related paraphernalia.

💎 Magic and curses and fantastical characters.

💎 Humour that goes much beyond the corny jokes you typically see in teenage comics.

💎 Easter eggs about Disney tales and pop culture references.

💎An overpampered llama. (Yeah okay, this point isn’t as important as the others, but it is still hilarious!)


The writing is perfect for the Gen-Z crowd, and even incorporates a lot of their lingo, in which, thanks to my daughters, I am a pseudo-expert! 😄

I was struggling to describe the art style, which I loved but couldn’t define accurately being so deficient in the technical knowledge of manga and all things related, so here you have a comment on the artwork straight from the horse’s mouth… errrr… I mean, in my daughter’s words:
“The art style in the initial stages of the comic is reminiscent of typical shoujo-manga art, but over the course of the webtoon, Lambcat's illustrations noticeably develop into her own style. The "pretty" ones of the pastel kingdom's princesses are modelled on anime girls deliberately to show how cutesy and stereotypically beautiful they are.”
Convincing, right?

I am not a WEBTOON reader, partly because of the lack of time rather than a lack of interest, and partly because I have always seen it as something ONLY for teenagers. But my elder daughter is a huge WEBTOON fan, and devours these comics with gusto. While I am all for reading fluffy books for sheer entertainment purposes, I am thrilled that webcomics can be as intelligent and impactful as this one. (I shouldn’t have doubted her taste anyway. But let’s not tell her that!)

In the meantime, definitely recommending this to every reader who loves graphic novels and meaningful stories with a light touch.

4.5 stars, happy to round up wherever applicable because it is perfect for the target age group.

My thanks to the WEBTOON app for this free access to the story!

Rushing to the second volume right away! There is one important reason for the hurry. Apparently, there’s something called a ‘daily pass’ in the WEBTOON app which allows us to read a graphic book at the rate of only one episode per day. And this popular webcomic is turning into a ‘daily pass access’ from the 25th of April. I now have the mammoth task of reading 173 episodes + bonus content by the 24th! Wish me luck!

For your reference: here’s a comparative listing of the episodes on the WEBTOON app and the physical graphic novels.

WEBTOON:




The end.

PHYSICAL GRAPHIC NOVELS:

Volume 1: Complete Season 1, Episodes 1 to 29.

Volume 2: Complete Season 2, Episodes 30 to 61.

Volume 3: Season 3, Episodes 62 to 77.

Volume 4 (To be released in December 2024): Season 3, Episodes 78 to 93.

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