Curse Bearer Books in Order

The Curse Bearer series is a compact urban fantasy series rooted in Slavic folklore. It begins in modern Chicago, but not the clean tourist version. This Chicago has a hidden underworld of zmory, strzygi, leszy, wraiths, witches, knights, debts, curses, and old rules that still have teeth.

When Among Crows introduces Dymitr, a man from a line of monster hunters. His family and order believe pain is part of their calling, and he has been shaped by that belief. He comes to Chicago with a dangerous mission: find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. To get there, he has to ally with the very beings he was taught to kill.

Ala is a zmora, a fear-eating creature living under a bloodline curse that is slowly destroying her. Dymitr offers her a possible cure in exchange for help. Their bargain is tense from the start because both of them are desperate, and both are holding things back.

That is where the series gets interesting.

Roth uses folklore not as decoration, but as a living social system. Monsters have families, neighborhoods, grudges, rituals, and rules. Knights have holy language and terrible habits. Magic often works through debt, sacrifice, and pain, which means every bargain has a cost even before anyone says it out loud.

To Clutch a Razor follows Dymitr into another dangerous family space. Called back for a funeral rite known as the Empty Night, he sees a chance to steal a guarded relic, a book of curses that could help settle the debt he owes Baba Jaga. The problem is that his old kin are monster hunters, his new loyalties are fragile, and survival may depend on pretending to be something he is not.

The tone is dark, fast, and intimate. These are shorter books, but they are dense with action, folklore, emotional tension, and sharp questions about inherited violence. Start with When Among Crows, then read To Clutch a Razor. The order matters because the second book builds directly on Dymitr's choices and the bonds formed in the first.