The Empathy Curse is a story that utilizes it's premise very effectively, and seeps with a deep love and understanding of the principles of psychology. Each chapter was filled with a uniquely distinct writing style that oozed personality and offered a perspective that maintained a strong sense of knowledge with a lack of wisdom, making for a compelling internal conflict for the main character to constantly be dealing with.

For me personally, I felt the story was at it's strongest when the plot was progressing and the main characters perspectives were being challenged. His companions challenge his desire for knowledge, while the main antagonist serves as a distorted reflection of his own beliefs. My issues from the story largely come from the start, as I feel like the story takes quite a bit of time to find it's footing, and a noticeable amount of the early chapters feel a bit aimless, with the main character stumbling from situation to situation without any real long term goal to look forward to. Once the story really gets into it though... Hoo boy. I was devouring chapter after chapter looking forward to each one that came next. So many elements are thrown in but they don't feel out of place, and a lot of them are brought back and called back to, which felt really rewarding when I remembered it.

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I want to give a special highlight to a certain archery competition, which I think was The Empathy Curse at it's highest moment. The character writing was on point, the scene was vivid and lively, the antagonists were prominent but still managed to be sympathetic, and the usage of the powers to resolve both the physical conflict and the emotional conflict in one fell swoop was brilliant. While a large battle ensued after, for me personally this was the true climax of the story.

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Overall, although I couldn't enjoy the beginning as much as I wanted to, The Empathy Curse is a story that really resonated with me in how it handled it's characters conflicts and plays with what emotions, memories, and values really mean, both to ourselves and the people around us. Going forwards I hope the author continues to make more works, since I'd love to see the kind of adventure and crew they write next.