The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner: A 5-Star Magical Realism Review

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio | ⏱ Duration: 10 hours
📢 Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Carlotta Brentan, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Eric Yang
Genre: Magical realism | 📅 Published: 29 April 2025
🏷️ Publisher: Park Row Books

Book Blurb:

Nautical archaeologist Haven Ambrose arrives in Positano to investigate shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast, secretly hoping to find the treasure her late father spotted before his death. But strange storms and misfortunes begin plaguing the town, and Haven soon uncovers a centuries-old tale of sorcery: a woman who once used stregheria, the ancient magic of harnessing the ocean, to save her lover and her village. As Haven searches for her father’s sunken gems, she must untangle whether history’s curse is repeating itself, and whether the magic that shaped the coast’s past is now shaping its present. Set against the shimmering Amalfi Coast, this novel blends mystery, romance, and untamed sea magic.

Let’s talk about the book:

I borrowed this book from the library because of its Goodreads Choice Award nomination for Best Fantasy & Magical Realism, and the blurb had me mildly intrigued too. But when I started reading, around the 5% mark, I wasn’t feeling it. I do have a rule, though: as long as a book isn’t unbearably boring, I give it 50 pages or 20%, whichever is more, before I call it quits. So I carried on, and the next thing I knew, the book was over and I was completely mesmerized by Amalfi and Italy. Mari and Haven took over my life.

Told from multiple POVs spanning two eras, Mari and Haven rule the book, with Holmes and Enzo as a quieter but strong presence alongside them. The story traces the lengths some women go to protect their land and waters from those who’d misuse them, and whether it’s the 1800s or the 21st century, that struggle stays the same, echoed in what Mari faced and what Haven faces to keep her father’s dream alive.

The book is soaked in water, quite literally (underwater exploration and water-based magic run through almost every page). The relationships are strong enough that you find yourself rooting for all of them. After a slightly slow start, the story never lets up; there’s so much to learn about diving and ruins exploration, and it’s endlessly intriguing. Even set against the beauty of the Amalfi Coast and Naples, the story itself, and the relationships between Mari and Holmes, and Haven and Enzo, end up outshining the scenery.

All this to say: it’s a slow start, but once you’re in, you’ll be swept into the underwater currents of the Amalfi Coast and struggle to surface from how brilliant this book is. It’s a book that earns every award it’s gotten.

Would I recommend it?

Would I recommend The Amalfi Curse? Absolutely, and I’d tell you to clear your weekend first. This one starts slow, don’t let that fool you, because by the halfway mark you’re diving right alongside Haven and drowning in Mari’s story from a century before. Sarah Penner built something genuinely magic here, the water, the ruins, the curse itself all feel real. Did I finish this book and immediately want to book a flight to Positano? ABSOLUTELY. Five stars, no notes, go add this to your TBR right now.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Continue the Momentum with these books

• The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner — If The Amalfi Curse hooked you, go back to where Penner started: a dual-timeline mystery about a hidden 18th-century apothecary shop in London and the secrets it kept for women who needed them.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See — For more women bound to the ocean across generations, this one follows real-life haenyeo divers off Korea’s coast through decades of friendship and history.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar — Another sea-soaked historical with a touch of the uncanny, set in 18th-century London around a merchant and a mysterious mermaid.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Circe by Madeline Miller — For the water magic and the fierce, misunderstood woman at the center of it all, Circe gives you an entire mythic ocean’s worth of that same energy.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab — If it was the curse-across-centuries thread that got you, this one trades the Amalfi Coast for Paris and gives you a woman cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

Ready to Get Swept Away?

Have you read The Amalfi Curse yet, or is it sitting on your TBR? Tell me in the comments whether you’re Team Mari or Team Haven, and if you’ve read anything else by Sarah Penner.

Book Links

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
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