Cursed is the Worst opens on a very specific comic image: a swan shifter named Kiran walking into a door, two pedestrians, and a rack of tiny pink tutus on his way into a barre studio. The premise of an awkwardly cursed man seeking ballet lessons before his sister's wedding is a delight, and E.J. Russell executes it with the practiced ease of an author who knows exactly what kind of story she is telling. This audiobook, the fourth installment of the Mythmatched series, runs just three and a half hours, a deliberately contained piece that delivers its pleasures efficiently without padding them out past their natural length.
The Mythmatched universe that Russell has built across multiple interconnected series centers on supernatural beings navigating a world in which the mythological and the mundane coexist in complicated ways. Kiran is a swan shifter whose clumsiness curse makes his everyday life a comedy of collisions, and who needs to learn to dance well enough to partner his ballerina sister at her wedding without knocking her down. Taj Sekani is a former minion demon who left his old master's service and now runs a barre studio, hoping for a quiet professional life that keeps his infernal history safely in the past.
The collision, literal, in the first scene, between these two characters generates the romance in ways that feel organic to both their histories. Kiran's curse means every interaction with Taj risks physical comedy even as the emotional stakes build. Taj's past means the quiet domestic life he is trying to construct keeps getting interrupted by obligations he thought he had escaped. When Taj's old master demands a favor and Kiran takes a decidedly sketchy shortcut to terpsichorean competency, the two plot threads converge in ways that put both the romance and the relationship's future at real risk.
Boudreaux Times Slapstick Without Sound Effects
Greg Boudreaux's narration handles the tonal balance between physical comedy and genuine emotional stakes with care. Kiran's scenes require a performer willing to commit to slapstick in audio, conveying the chaos of walking into racks of tutus without a visual component, and Boudreaux manages this through vocal timing rather than sound effects. Taj's sections require a different register: weariness, self-protective restraint, and the gradual softening that romance demands. Boudreaux handles both without making either feel like a concession to the other.
One reviewer describes Cursed is the Worst as a lovely continuation of the Mythmatched series, noting that seeing characters from previous books brings such joy. That fan-service dimension, the cameos, the expanded sense of a world already inhabited, requires care in audiobook form because it can feel exclusionary to new listeners. Russell keeps the cameos light enough that they register as warmth rather than obligation, and the audiobook stands on its own for listeners coming to the Mythmatched world for the first time, though series regulars will naturally get more from the surrounding context.
This Novella Resolves Its Curse at Speed
At three and a half hours, Cursed is the Worst is a novella rather than a novel, and it functions accordingly. The plot does not have the room for the kind of sustained development that a longer work would allow, which means the midpoint complication, Taj's old master's demand and Kiran's sketchy shortcut, arrives and resolves with some speed. Reviewers who appreciated the cute and sweet quality of the story found this length appropriate. Those who need extensive world-building development may wish for more room.
Another reviewer observes that Kiran's curse ultimately leads him to the love of his life, that the book is cute, and that she loves the Mythmatched universe, with the cameos from previous characters always being fun. That summary captures the emotional simplicity that is the audiobook's deliberate design. Russell is not trying to write a complex psychological portrait. She is writing a short, warm, funny queer romance in a supernatural universe she has built with evident care. The audiobook delivers that precisely and without apology.
Fourth Installments Should Feel This Complete
Listeners already invested in the Mythmatched universe will find Cursed is the Worst a satisfying addition, the world-building is rich enough that returning to it for three and a half hours feels like visiting rather than starting fresh, and the cameos from previous characters will land for established fans. New listeners to E.J. Russell's work can start here without confusion, though the fuller pleasure of the series context will come with time spent in the universe.
The audiobook suits listeners who want queer romance woven naturally into fantasy rather than centered as its primary subject, and who enjoy physical comedy as a legitimate vehicle for emotional development. The ballet setting is specific enough to be charming and general enough not to require expertise. For fans of the light-supernatural romance subgenre, this audiobook is a satisfying listen from a writer who has clearly found her register and commits to it fully across the compact three-and-a-half-hour run.
As a final consideration for listeners deciding whether to start with this entry or an earlier Mythmatched installment: Russell's connected universe rewards patience. Cursed is the Worst functions on its own, but coming to it with familiarity with the wider world makes the cameos more resonant and the relationship between Taj's current life and his infernal past more charged. If you are new to the series and enjoy this audiobook, revisiting earlier installments afterward will add texture in retrospect. If you are an established fan, Kiran and Taj's story fits naturally into the universe Russell has been building, neither stretching the worldbuilding thin nor retreating from it. The audiobook is, in that sense, exactly what a good fourth installment ought to be: a complete story that makes the overall series feel richer for containing it.
