By: Jamie Steinberg
If you’ve read any of my previous book reviews, you would know that I pride myself on giving a great summary of the book’s events and then offering an opinion on what I read. With Vesuvius, I honestly don’t know where to begin. Boy meets boy. Boys realize their lives are somehow intertwined. Can they uncover the why before Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys everything? I can only say to read this tale if you are a fan of stories based on true events but be prepared to finish with a head foggy of it all making sense.
Felix prides himself on being a great thief so when he sees Mercury’s helmet sitting in front of an unguarded temple in Pompeii, he is eager to snatch it up. What he doesn’t know is this helmet has gone centuries without being able to be touched, so how is it possible that he has the ability to hold it without being unscathed? And why when he touches it does it reveal a past that he has no memory of? The theft doesn’t go unnoticed by an aristocrat who is eager to wield the power of the helmet and dispatches his men to bring Felix and the item to him. Not wanting to be captured and have his hand cut off for stealing, Felix runs into a temple dedicated to Isis where he encounters a local attendant named Loren. Loren has been having dreams – visions – for years about Pompeii’s destruction, which included images of Felix. So, what is it that has finally brought these two together? With earthquakes plaguing the city, Loren believes there are only days left to uncover Felix’s hidden background and how it plays into the city’s downfall before the world as they know it crumbles around them.
This is where things get difficult to connect for me in a way that both explains the events in the book and the relationship between Felix and Loren. Loren has political ambitions that lead him to make poor decisions. Felix can’t remember his life before arriving in Pompeii. Romantic feelings develop in the midst of it all as the city is rocked by some serious earthquakes as Mount Vesuvius is ready to erupt. I’m still confused though about how that plays in any way into Felix possessing the helmet. Is author Cass Biehn saying that if Felix put it back the city could have been saved? I also have issues with the ending, but I can’t go into that so as not to spoil the events. Also, ironically, I happened to be watching the series “Pompeii: Out of Time” with Tom Hiddleston while reading this so maybe the realistic events of Pompeii may have clouded my opinion of Vesuvius as I saw what Pompeii residents truly experienced during the eruption. I just found the stories too muddled and piecing Felix and Loren’s fate very confusing. It all made for a tale I found too hard to invest in.
Was Mount Vesuvius eruption a consequence of Felix and Loren’s actions? Was it fated to always happen, and Loren had hope of stopping it all once the guy from his dreams appeared? Did the hidden pasts of Loren and Felix make them star-crossed lovers united in trying to protect Pompeii? I was simply left uncertain about so many of the events in Vesuvius to find this an enjoyable read and one that I would recommend.