The Inheritance of Giuliana
Vulnerable after losing part of herself in a miserable relationship, Julie feels trapped in a life she no longer knows. The passing of a family member only adds salt to the wound when Julie inherits her grandmother’s Villa Concetta in Tuscany. A character in itself, The Villa is a reminder of the past, a past Julie initially wants to let go until it calls out to her.
Giuliana—Julie’s full name as it is called out from the dark corners of The Villa Concetta—still echoes in my ear. The Villa doesn’t just call to Julie, but to the reader, drawing you in until it consumes you.
“Grief does strange things.”
The Inheritance of Giuliana is about the weight of grief. It’s a story of what the past brings up, the shadows we didn’t know were following us. Through the romantic crevasse of a wearied Tuscan villa, in its hidden rooms and mysterious hallways, the author recalls forgotten memories of past lives. Julie uncovers herself through her family’s past. Dreams don’t simply spill into reality in this dark tale; they reveal it.
“You don’t summon the dead. You invite the damned.”
Julie tries to reach out to something in her grief, that reaches back. Blinded by grief, we sometimes look for the wrong guidance, the false promise. Like Julie, we shut others out because we don’t want to hear the harder truth. When we are in pain, we turn good away, but we invite evil—because it’s easy, it’s pleasant, it tells us what we want to hear.
“Love isn’t magic. It’s a choice.”
The grief we face, those shadows will always be looming... whispering. Author Alessandra Benini reminds us we need the support of others to fight it. That when we lose someone, we cannot turn others away, those that would help us. And it serves as an inspiration through the support of Julie’s family to choose to love those we see falling in that darkness, pulling them from it.
Benini is as deceptive as the evil she writes. She wants us to be in the dream, to question reality. She hides the truth until the dark reality hits you. The setting is alive and manifests fear. Benini teaches us to face the truth of our fears, not to explain it away, because that’s how evil overwhelms you, by convincing you it’s not there. Grief is a process one goes through, not something to hide from.