A Cursed Cleaning [STUBBED!]

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2024

Author

Ellen Taylor

• E-book AND paperback out now!!
  Sep 8, 2025
• Chapter 1
  Nov 2, 2024

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• notajesterRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I really enjoyed this story.  It was written well, and it made me eager for the next chapter.  I hope the author continues to write stories.  It is semi-litrpg with a new take.  I don't want to say too much and ruin the surprise though.  There is only ever one POV, which I prefer.  The MC is intelligent and doesn't make me shout at her to stop being stupid.  Good story.
• FoamKnightRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This story has a very intriguing premise. It wastes no time in getting to the meat and potatoes of the tale, and by the end of the first chapter I was hooked. Horror and LitRPG seem like a match made in heaven.
  Grammar: I noticed no spelling mistakes and nothing pulled me out of the story. Easy five stars.
  Style: there are a lot of beautiful and atmospheric descriptions that really make the house and the scenery come alive. You can really get a feel on what the MC pays attention to and every once in a while the sinister aspects of the world around her creep in. Very nice.
  Story: The plot and the mystery surrounding our nameless MC are a definite strong point. Information is revealed in just the right speed to keep you interested and craving for more.
  Character: The MC is a nice change of pace from the usual LitRPG protagonist iching to commit mass murder on a grand scale. She feels like an actual person with likes and dislikes, fears and doubts. These aspects of her character inform her choices in a natural way, which makes watching her progress very compelling.
  What are you waiting for? Chapter 1 is right there!
• RuefulRespiteRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I started reading the first few chapters out of curiosity, but it quickly turned into a full binge over the course of a week. Conceptually, the story is something of a litrpg farming sim with horror elements and a race against time. At it's core, however, the story is a beautiful story about the main character and those she loves.
  The day-to-day aspects of the story make reading it an easy rhythm to fall into. It is honestly cathartic to watch the run down house full of bad memories and debris slowly become something that both the main character and readers can be proud of. This easy-going loop is accompanied by the horror aspects of each night (some of which are legitimately unnerving) and the deeper, more emotional scenes. Scenes of sharing in the joys of progression can be followed by gut-wrenching reveals that efforts were just not enough. A real sympathetic link to our protagonist is what really gets you invested and keeps you there for the entire ride. And what a ride it is.
  I truly cannot recommend this story enough. It's relatively short, doesn't overstay it's welcome, and hits you with both ends of its emotional spectrum absolutely stunningly.
• Busrob62Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I liked the beginning of this story very much.  The atmosphere reminded me of  the Early M. Night Shyamalan movies, where you had very little information at the start of the movie but the atmosphere and the setting of the story immediately draw you in.  That’s how I felt here, I had very little information about  the MC, but the deep descriptions of the house and the things in it more then made up for it.  And I had that feeling from the start of a big reveal coming at me in the chapters ahead.
  Grammar:  I’m not an expert, but I saw nothing that tripped me up or drew me out of the story, so I gave it five stars.
  Style:  I don’t like writing first person, but I’m okay reading it.  I don’t however dock points based on my own proclivities,  I think the Style chosen was brought forth and handled well.
  Story:  Even though the story has game mechanics in it, I didn’t feel like I was reading a LitRPG or anything like that.  The mechanics seem to be another facet of the plot, verses a requirement of a genre.  The descriptions of the house and the things in it are great, and not overbearing.   And the suspense is well balanced and reminds me of The Village where the menace of “Those we don’t speak of.”  Hangs over you from the beginning, but you never even see them  till the middle of the movie.
  Characters:  The woman is well written,  even thought there isn’t much information about her in the first 6 chapters, but  she does make you care for her and her situation.  The main character so far though, at least for me has been the house.  The descriptions of the hose and the different parts of it, are so vivid, that o feel like it’s a Character I have spent a whole book getting to know.  Very well done in that respect.
  Overall:  I enjoyed reading the first part of this book and will return to Sade what the big reveal is.  The beginning is top notch and was easy and enjoyable to read.
• Junimo45Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  A tad confusing at first, which I think is intended. The story picks up and keeps going strong. I enjoyed the portrayal of different aspects of the psyche through the lens of farming and horror.
  My only small complaint, is the final act seemed a bit rushed. Still a great story and an enjoyable read.
• MrlemonyRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This story has great character growth, angst, cleaning, horror, and cozy. Good story length and pacing. I’m not the greatest fan of cozy games but thoroughly enjoyed this work. The first draft is finished so there’s a whole lot of scrumptious words to binge. I don’t know what else to say except that you should definitely read it.
• Mukund_Vishwa95Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I'll go through each section one by one:
  Overall:
  It was pretty new concept to me, never knew cleaning could be this intriguing as I'm pretty lazy myself, but I enjoyed throughout the chapters it was a greatly depicted story from my point of view.
  Style :
  I found style of writer very amazing I'm not a fan of very big and complicated English words I've always hated them, and in this story the words were pretty easy to get and that's why I was able to feal the story, the pace and transition are well written.
  Story :
  As mentioned previously it was a new concept to me, the texture of LitRPG combining the farming simulation and horror game resulted into a quite nice of story line. I found this idea very very interesting and was amazed even in the first chapter, story is well thought by the author and I'm not getting tired of parsing such a creative story.
  Character :
  Till ch 6 I this whole story have been roaming around only main character and other than her only one other character was introduced.
  So this story have less characters to work with.
  The main character doesn't remembering anything at all does give it a good point of start and it does add humorous tone too.
  But if try introducing more characters this could have been better because sometimes following through thought of a single character having no other type of interaction in the story sometimes bored me.
  Grammar:
  Simply put grammar was flawless I'm not a good person to judge for grammar anyway so just, FULL POINTS.
• Noon MartiniRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I had doubts. I’ve seen this many times and have always skipped over it. Never clicked on it.
  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what this was.
  I’m so glad I sank my Sunday into this. Thanks, author. This was a beautiful, touching, funny story (even if people get puked on— more than once, even).
  Good show.
• HippyhappyhoppyRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  This author writes a damn interesting story. I believe this will be a novel to keep an eye out for. I will be tuning in to see how the mc will manage all their task without slowly slipping into madness.
  Style Score: The story is pretty straightforward and stylistically very easy to follow. There are no crazy page-long stat pages, which I can appreciate. This is just plain good writing. The stats that are present are very easy to manage. The story feels like a cozy sweater knit by some eldritch horror
  Story Score: I like that the story is a slow burn to help build up the suspense as well as not letting the mc to speed run through the plot. The story itself develops pretty naturally. The horror aspect does add to the layered feeling of the story.
  Grammar Score: The grammar is on point, and this person edits. There are some very minor things. Honestly, as long as it's not like web novels, I'm okay with it.
  Character Score: I like the main characters. Not too arrogant, but not a bumbling idiot. The progression from what I have seen in the chapters I have read also shows some character growth.
• R.MagnusRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  A Cursed Cleaning is a horror-ish story infused with LitRPG elements in which the atmosphere and mystery shine bright and keep you hooked and intrigued, giving a new meaning to the term "cleaning".
  Style: The writing style stands out, creating the tense and nerve-wracking atmosphere I mentioned earlier. The only reason I docked 0.5 points is that, at times, the descriptions of places and actions were too heavy on detail, slightly disrupting the tension being built.
  Story: The story definitely leaves you intrigued. Not much has been revealed as of chapter 6 (where I post the review), but the number of questions and plot points raised so far is enough to keep readers curious and eager for more.
  Grammar: The grammar is great - no egregious errors that I noticed. The writing is very clean (Get it? Get it? Clean? I'll show myself out...)
  Character: The MC is very relatable. You really feel for her and the predicament she is in. With more questions than answers (only questions, really), she is forced to push through each day or risk facing the wrath of a mysterious threat. You can't help but root for her to escape this dire situation.
  Overall: An awesome story that I would definitely recommend giving a try!