Saeculum - Ursula Poznanski

(I'm not sure if this book is available in English, so sorry. It is available in Dutch, German, Russian, Swedish (?) and Spanish, however)

Five days spent deep inside a forest, far away from the nearest village, to live the way people did during the Middle Ages, with no electricity, no mobiles, and not even matches – normally, this would not be Bastian’s scene. His life revolves around his medical studies, but now he has fallen for Sandra, and she wants him to take part in this live role-play. When they find out about the location, one of the participants, Doro, claims that the place where they intend to gather is cursed. According to a legend, a Count once lived there. He had two sons, a legitimate one and a bastard, who was thrown out of the castle and forced to live a life of poverty, far away. When the Count died, the rejected son pleaded to be allowed to visit his father’s grave. The rightful heir was afraid that his brother was seeking to secure their father’s property, and gave orders for the bastard and his followers to be horribly massacred inside the family crypt. Just before he died, the illegitimate brother cursed his relations, the castle and the ground on which they stood. No one who enters this forest, Doro told them, will ever return. Of course, nobody takes her seriously. But then strange things happen and it is impossible to leave the forest. Did they make a mistake in not taking the curse seriously? 

Cover

I think that this cover is very appropriate and beautiful. I love the title, but the blurb was so small! Anyways, I don't have anything bad to say about the cover.

Bastian

I feel like Bastian was the only reasonable character in this book. Okay, yes, there were times where I'd just want him to shut up already, but the others were so much worse. Bastian was a nice main character, but his life didn't really interest me. I was way more interested in the other characters. Iris was way more interesting than Bastian. Now that I think about it, he literally joined a 5-day-long LARP just to be with his crush, who turned out to be a bitch one day in, okay man. 

In the end, however, I did start to feel for him again, but the ending was just so fucked up, I don't even want to think about it.

Iris

Ah, yes, Iris. I liked her. I liked her secret, at least. The only thing that I didn't like, though, was how fast Bastian's and Iris's relationship suddenly escalated. One chapter she stares at him, but another chapter they're kissing. Okay man, fine. 

Iris's secret was interesting, but it wasn't really necessary? In my opinion, it didn't really add much suspense to the book, other than another someone being another option for 'kidnapper'.

Paul

Okay, the last character I'm going to discuss broadly, but also the craziest one. I honestly can't say much about him without spoilering everything, so I'm not going to, but just... no? He's so creepy and just.. crazy. I'm gonna stop it here, spoilers...

Every other character that wasn't reasonable at all

Now, discussing all the weird side characters.

Lisbeth was interesting, basically still a bit reasonable, I liked her secret and the hinting at an abusive relationship between her and George.

George was just an asshole. Doro was interesting at first but then she was just plain annoying and I wanted to rip her head off. Other characters were just not important.

The writing style and the ending

I absolutely love Poznanski's reading style. I have just finished her other book, Erebos (which was way better than Saeculum, just saying), and if you're really in the story, you'll practically fly through it. 

Towards the ending, this book got more and more fucked up, as I said in the beginning. Secrets were revealed, choices were made, sides were picked. It was just too unrealistic. How could all of them believe in this so-called 'curse'? I guess it's because it's a book, and you have to make it at least a bit suspenseful.

Anyways, I don't know what to write anymore. I just got out of my reading slump and read Erebos in 2 days. I wouldn't recommend Saeculum. As new and different it is, it is also very boring and wordy. 3/5 stars.

Oh, and no, this review isn't an April Fools joke.

Dominique