Paula Morris

Like the main character, Rebecca, I knew very little about New Orleans before Katrina. What I did know came from sources like movies, novels, comic books and random historical facts that stuck in my head from American history classes. Pop culture painted a surrealistic view of the city--populated by a people who have lived and thrived on traditions for centuries and Mardi Gras, was the talk of the world. I was intrigued and terrified by the thought of going to the city.

And then Hurricane Katrina hit and suddenly the world knew about New Orleans and it was all you heard about for weeks, months and even years later. One of America's oldest cities, so much culture and history swept away by nature. But Morris doesn't hide the fact that New Orleans has a dark underside--not just in its past, but its present as well--entangled with all the glitz and glamorous parties.

I found myself fascinated by what Lisette, the ghost, told us about New Orleans and what Rebecca learned on through her independent study. An entire culture of people and lifestyles I never imagined was discussed. I enjoyed those parts moreso then the rest of it honestly. The curse and troubles of the present day were slow to really pick up speed. For a good half of the book there's barely any mention of the curse at all and other then some rather suspicious behavior and statements made by Rebecca's 'aunt' Claudia and father, there wasn't much to tie in with Rebecca.

Character motivations were murky at best, shifting and tangling with other secrets revealed a little too late in the game and making many of the characters seem inconsistent and feckless. I liked Anton until Christmas Break, but then he became just as secretive as every other 'old family'. His explanations at the end seemed off center and even a little cowardly. Tradition dictates, but he had spent the better part of the first half of the book proving that he was more than tradition demanded.

The end itself was poetic justice in a way. How the curse ends that is. It made me wonder just how much of the curse was true 'supernatural' intervention and how much of it was really coincidence and self-fulfilling prophecy. The first two 'deaths' of the curse could be mere coincidence and given the time period entirely understandable. It was after those that the family began to actively try and circumvent it, so who's to say that didn't bring it about ten times worse?
… (més)

Two things stopped me from enjoying this book as much as I wanted to:

1) I did not like Laura, or her friends. Not a single one of them.
2) This book has atmosphere aplenty and that's about it.

There is no common sense to be heard of from these kids. None. Not a single iota. A volcano erupts and instead of staying inside they run around Rome (sometimes with a teacher, most of the time not). Weird shit constantly (and I do mean constantly) happens around our main character Laura and she just sort of freaks out silently, but tells no one.

An entire hostel worth of people are getting deathly ill so Laura and her friends decide to run off into Rome.

Morris describes Rome in wonderful detail (at least insofar as I can see, it sounds like what I see of Rome in pictures and videos) and she sets the mood for this epic war of the Gods...but at the end of the day its all teenage hormones all the time. Laura spent just as much time worrying if Dan (a classmate she sort of finds cute) found her cute as she did about the birds dive bombing her head.

Part of the problem is that I've read so many stories at this point which feature teens/young adults who find out they are an important piece of an age old battle between ancient Gods/Goddesses. I'm not entirely sure what was important about Laura beyond her nifty stone from her grandfather who apparently picked it up after World War II.

Compare her against Percy Jackson or Ashline Wilde or Gwen Frost or ANY of the recent Medusa-related books I've read and quite frankly Laura is lacklustre. She was ineffectual. I thought Maia was more useful and reliable, but she didn't have main character charisma/personality.

Unlike with [b:Ruined|14547552|Ruined|Paula Morris|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358741423s/14547552.jpg|6444288], THE ETERNAL CITY doesn't offer me enough to find interesting in the characters as well as the city itself. And that's a damn shame because I had high hopes for this.



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