Review 42: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Rating a 2.5 stars, more thoughts soon on why this one didn't work well for me.

This book started out strong and unique. Or at least unique for me. I haven't read a book about the seven or maybe eight deaths of someone. The tone was whimsical, and seemed like the book would be a real treat.

While it quickly dropped the whimsy, the story was still interesting. It foretold several of the almost deaths of Stella Fortuna, then went back to the beginning; the days of when her mother was young and met her future husband, in rural Italy. This part of before Stella, and even up through some of her childhood was an interesting story. The place and time was solid and you were right there with this poor family and feeling for them and their plight, especially when we started having the near deaths of Stella.

Then as the family grew and Stella got older, perhaps somewhere when they immigrated to America, the story just sort of lost it's way. It got bogged down and belabored over the fact that Stella did not want to marry, she wanted to keep her virginity. Of course she also didn't want to go to a convent, that also would be too stifling for her independence. Yet her overbearing, strict and uncaring father had insisted and kept insisting.

It is here the story takes a very long time, and where it fell. The story gave too much time over Stella's fear of losing her virginity that it overpowered the story. Perhaps this is what the author intended to write, how a woman in the early 20th Century didn't have a choice in her own life, that her father ruled her until her husband did. Perhaps, but it felt like the setup for was for something else.

There were certain aspects which became the central focus that was more than uncomfortable. The beginning about her almost deaths was interesting. This foray into the fear of the sexual act is not. And her fear wasn't based upon the very real possibility that childbirth could mean death.

I can see how some people may enjoy this book more than myself, with some historical aspects and there is the generational aspect, with immigrant experience. I wavered between giving it 2 or 3 stars, and I had to lean on the lesser aspect because all of the positive experience I had with the book was taken away.

Book rating: 2.5 stars


Thanks to Ecco/HarperCollins and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. Although I had access to an early review copy I listened to the audiobook from my public library. The narrator did an excellent job. My disappointment in the book was all about the story line and writing.