Our Eternal Curse I by Simon Rumney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Our Eternal Curse is a book that is based on the plot of revenge. This is a story of an innocent girl, Julia. A victim of bad parenting, Julia is made to believe that she is an ugly and useless girl. The mental abuse of her parents results in a very low self-esteem. Although she is very beautiful, in her heart and mind, she considers herself a very ugly girl. She thinks that nobody would ever like to be with her. Imagine yourself in her shoes. Now picture that a handsome man shows interest in you, and asks you to accompany him on his journey. I believe most of us would accept this proposal. Julia, too, accepts such an invitation from one of Rome’s greatest general, Sulla. Much to her surprise, he drops her off at a house full of slaves and housemaids, and he leaves. On his arrival after a few days, Julia finds herself very excited and nervous.However, Sulla has only evil intentions towards her. He rapes her and leaves her in the state of shock and detest. Along with breaking her trust, he develops a new feeling in her heart — the feeling of vengeance. She believes that hurting the man, who shattered her trust, is the sole purpose of her existence. She makes a plan that includes the father of Rome, Gaius Marius, his son, and several others.

This is magical to read how an insecure, innocent girl transforms into a conniving and heartless conspirator. I, particularly, enjoyed the parts, where she takes the support of wine to get rid of the guilt she felt. The author’s excellent delivery of dialogues and selection of words to describe the feelings, appearance, and actions of the characters is worth an applause. The progression of the story varies from being too eventful to a little slow. However, the plot of this historical fiction is amazing.

The tragic events in the life of Julia are so powerful that I could not help me from being sympathetic towards her, irrespective of her actions. Although the author kept mentioning her actions as evil through the dialogues or thoughts of others, I did not find her actions as evil. I wanted her to get her revenge. In the last few chapters, the author writes about Julia’s rebirth as another human being, and I thought that now I’ll lose interest. However, the events that followed her rebirth turn out to be interesting.

This book comprises of many famous historical figures, like Julius Caesar, Gaius Marius, etc. The fight of the gladiators in the famous Circus Maximus is heartwrenching. I cannot comment on the accuracy of the historical facts; however, I enjoyed the author’s creativity and imagination to the tragic tale of Julia. The author has delivered the aptest description of Julia’s character through the dialogue of a man named Bromidus,

You have the appearance of an angel but the heart of a lion. You are not a killer but you are capable of causing the death of many men.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I would recommend it to every reader, who enjoys reading about an author’s version of history. If you like reading about a revengeful plot and wish to read about Rome, you would enjoy this book.

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