I’m a fan of Classical texts and the resurgence of classical civilisation stories from a female perspective is fantastic! Here is another well written and engaging story using the Old Religion and mythos for new readers. The Oracle is funny and keeps you entertained throughout, I’d definitely recommend this for readers who grew up with the Percy Jackson series too!

Wonderfully original, with a unique sense of time and place brought to life on the page. I loved everything about this book and have recommended it many times to many different people!

A very entertaining read combines many different elements.Well written humorous with the bite of satire .A truly unique read.#netgalley#secondstorypress

This is a book that is entirely its own book, and I loved that about it. I've never read anything like it. It took me a while to get into it, but I was glad I persisted.

In the central Italian city of Casteldurante in the late 19th century, a 99-year-old woman, Mariuccia Umbellino, summons a priest so she can unburden herself of a long-held secret. What she reveals isn’t your standard multi-generational saga fare; instead, Hardy’s short novel is a tongue-in-cheek romp through Italian folklore, mythology, and religious tradition. The tale Mariuccia unfolds takes her back to her youth in the tiny village of Montemonaco, where her family tended olive groves and goats and guarded the shrine of the Lady Sibylla, the Oracle of Cumae.

Sibylla is the self-same prophetess from Virgil and Ovid. As Mariuccia and her mother discover, when they arrive to rescue her before a traveling priest and stuffy prior destroy the pagan cave where she lives, there’s nothing left of Sibylla but her voice – and she’s quite the talker. As if her presence doesn’t cause enough trouble – she gets to move around while tucked away in a jug – she stirs up plenty on her own. What happens next involves love spells (both failed and successful), ghosts, a marriage or two, and a tinker with the evil eye. If the plot feels a little thin in places, Sibylla has some terrific wisecracking lines (she hates to be left out of the action). The novel’s a fun diversion on historical fiction’s lighter side, featuring two smart heroines who won’t be silenced.

From the Historical Novels Review, November 2019.

Very enjoyable story, although I'm not quite sure why it is classed on NetGalley under "humor" and "fiction" as it would be better categorized between "fiction" and "SciFi & Fantasy." It's a short and relatively simple story, one that I found to be something of a story of two parts (half in a more entertaining rural environment, half in an urban environment that despite the addition of many more characters did not seem plot rich). The author's style and MC voice are what make it particularly appealing.

Title: The Oracle of Cumae
Author: Melissa Hardy
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5

Mariuccia Umbellino is 99 years old when a miracle occurs, and she asks to see a priest. While her family thinks she wants to confess, Mariuccia just wants to tell someone the story of what happened years ago when she was a child in the Italian countryside. Mariuccia’s family had always been guardians of the Oracle, but one year, that guardianship entailed a lot more work than others.

When a priest and a wealthy man arrive at the family home en route to destroy the Oracle’s cave, Mariuccia and her mother sneak away to rescue the Oracle, bringing her home with them where it’s safe. Soon there are love spells with unforeseen results, strange mummies, and disembodied voices all around. It will take years for things to be set right with Mariuccia’s family.

That wasn’t a very good summary, but…I’m still not sure what the actual point (or plot) of the book was. I would have enjoyed more stories from Mariuccia’s life, instead of focusing on this one. I loved the Oracle’s sass, but really, what was the point of this book?

Melissa hardy’s first novel was published when she was 17. The Oracle of Cumae is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Second Story Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

This book is a fun, witty, little romp through early modern Italy. The details and the humor of this novel are what really makes it enjoyable. It's not an especially fast paced novel and not a lot happens in particular. This is mostly a comedy of errors that borderlines on a black comedy at times, but it's worth the read if you're into meandering and humorous novels.

This book was different than I expected! In both a good and bad way. The BEST thing about the book is the authors writing. It is incredible and beautiful and its what kept me coming back. But overall, especially at the end, I felt like the plot was rushed. There was so much more to draw from it but it just ended so fast. Wish the story had followed through a bit more for a more cohesive book.

An interesting story about the life of an oracle and the people connected to it. A different kind of fiction, easy to read and very entertaining

Melissa Hardy’s hilarious novel, The Oracle of Cumae, is set up as a story, within a story, within a story, and sometimes within yet another story. It begins with a very old woman sending for a priest. She doesn’t want to confess. Mariuccia Umbellino is very clear about that. She just wants to tell her story before she passes away. Her story is later transcribed, a generation or so later, by a woman who tells us she doesn’t believe a word of it.

Before Mariuccia became the 99-year-old matriarch of the Bacigalupo clan and business, she was a young girl from the mountains of central Italy. Her family raised goats and harvested olives. They had a good life, considering they never really left their mountain. Part of their good luck came from the fact that the ancient Oracle of Cumae (yep, still alive) fled to their mountain caves over a millennia ago. The Cumaean Sibyl dispenses advice and wisdom to the women of the mountain, though it doesn’t always work out the way it should.

Mariuccia’s comedy of errors begins when a cranky priest and a pompous merchant show up at their farm, with orders from the pope to dynamite the Sybil’s cave and exorcise the elderly oracle. Of course, the family and the villagers can’t allow this…but Mariuccia’s mother also sees the arrival of outsiders to marry off her eldest daughter, Mariuccia’s sister. And that’s where things start to go sideways. Terribly and hilariously sideways.

The Oracle of Cumae is one of the funniest, most unexpected book I’ve read in a long time. If you’re looking for a bit of goofiness with a wonderfuly down-to-earth protagonist, I strongly recommend this book. I read it yesterday afternoon and I’m still grinning.

The Oracle of Cumae is a humorous book that takes you on twists and turns. There is a sarcastic wit written in that pokes fun at the beliefs, traditions, and "unknowns" during the time period. A lot of dated catholic terminology is thrown in that makes great use of Kindle's wikipedia and dictionary tools. Overall, a funny read. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

★★★✰✰ 3 stars

“I listened as Sibylla told me for the third or fourth or fifth time, about something that happened to her a thousand years ago and that might have been funny then, but, clearly, you had to have been there.”


The Oracle of Cumae is a humours tale that might appeal to readers who enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Stardust or Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown series. While I enjoyed how witty and playful the narrative could be I was also aware of the various mistakes punctuating the novel.

“Actually, I'm rather hoping for Purgatory.”
“Impossible. Suicides go to Hell. Everyone knows that!”
“I'm hoping to negotiate my position.”


The story is a fun romp that has plenty of comical moments and diverting scenarios. The title character is portrayed in a refreshing way and I think that the narrative should have focused more on her rather than the people from Mariuccia Umbellino's youth. There are amusing running gags which create a sense of familiarity between the readers and the story, such as when Mariuccia or her family explain to outsiders that their local pastor is blind, illiterate, and can't speak Latin:
“He can't read?” the Prior exclaimed. “How can he say Mass?”
“He acts it out,” said Papa.
“It's very entertaining,” Mama added. “The children love it.”


The humour is the biggest strength of the story. There are some brilliant back and forths which really complemented the setting and emphasised the characters' various eccentricities. At times the humour could be quite silly and light:
“Look!” Cesare cried. “He smiled! His very first smile!”
“Actually I am told that babies don't really smile until about the age of two months,” said Pellicola drily. “It's probably just gas.”


And in other occasions it could become closer to that of a black comedy:
“Don't ask me. You know full well that I was an only child. ”
“As was I,” reflected Dr. Pellicola a little dreamily. “No, wait. There was a sister, but she ate something in the garden and died. Belladonna, I believe it was. I think I put her up to it, but, as I was only four at the time, I was forgiven. Even then I was fascinated by medicinal herbs!”


I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this zestful narrative style. There was a vivacious energy underlining each of the various characters' interactions which made the story all the more engaging. It was fun to see how Melissa Hardy applies a modern humour to a historical setting.

“I tell you what. Go commit your sin. Come back next Wednesday at this time. Confess, and I'll absolve you. That's the way the system works. Now, if you are quite through…?”


Hardy also makes interesting references to a lot of historical anecdotes and places, implementing certain events into her tale. (such as the mummies of the Chiesa dei Morti).
The story itself wouldn't hold up without this abundance of humour as it is what brings the characters into focus. The storyline could have had been more clear-cut and with a more satisfactory inclusion of the oracle. I would have preferred following Mariuccia during her a larger chunk of her life rather than having the narrative focusing on a year or two when she was a teenager. More could have been made of the story as it had a lot of potentially interesting elements, it seems however that much of the narrative stems from a not fully sketched out idea.

There were also a lot of mistakes and inaccuracies which detracted from my overall enjoyment of this book.
➜ The story opens in Italy during the late 19th century (1896 to be precise) and Mariuccia Umbellino, who has just turned ninety nine, calls a priest in order to confess some of her secrets. Although she says that she worked for Bacigalupo & Sons for fifty years (“The business that I preserved and built upon for fifty years”) implying that she must have started working for this company before the 1850s, the narrative later states that Bacigalupo & Sons was founded in the “early nineteen hundreds”, a period of time that is often used to refer to the early 1900s as opposed to the early 1800s.
➜While I don't have a problem with writers outside of Italy writing about Italy or setting their book in Italy I do get frustrated by the lack of research that some of these authors pay to the Italian language. Google is quite a handy tool and it isn't difficult to double check the Italian equivalent to certain English terms. Often English-speaking authors will throw untranslated Italian words into their narratives as a way of making their story more believable and quaint. Time and again these authors will use Mama and Papa when referring to Italian characters' mothers and fathers. Yet, Mama and Papa have no place in the Italian dictionary. They belong to British shows like Downton Abbey. Italians use Mamma and Papà. In Italian Papa means Pope. Not the same as Papà. I actually looked up online a historical dictionary ( http://www.bdcrusca.it/scaffale.asp ) to double-check the period's terms for Dad and Mum and it turns out that Mariuccia would have used Mamma for Mum and Babbo or Padre for her father.
➜There other Italian words that are misspelled such as 'schiffo' instead of 'schifo'; 'respetto' instead of 'rispetto'; and 'fritti mistos' should have been 'fritti misti'.

When writing about a different culture to your own writers and their editors should ensure that they are at least using the correct words (if they insist on implementing untranslated terms) and names (many of the names in this story seemed odd but given that this is 'historical' I was willing to look past them).

In spite of these irritating mistakes, I was entertained by this novel and I'm looking forward to read more by this author.

A light, funny book. Fun characters and interesting locations and a good plot. A very good mix of elements that make for a well written novel. Recommended.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!

A very original, extremely funny, and sometimes a bit irreverent book! It is almost a series of interconnected vignettes. I loved the settings, and descriptions of old Italian buildings and towns. It is evident that Hardy did quite a bit of research. The dialogue and actions between the characters was hysterical-especially involving Antonella. The side by side happenings between ancient pagan beliefs, Christianity,, and passage of time (thousands of years) is interesting no matter what one believes. There are many different layers to this book. In one way almost, a commentary of the commonalities between people of different beliefs. That being said there is humor is on every page!

What a fun and lighthearted read. On her 99th birthday, Mariuccia Umbellino confesses her life story to a priest, divulging it only because a priest bears the weight of confidentiality.

Her story continues for the entirety of the book and undermines religious tradition and rites with unabashed humor.

Full of wit and sass, Mariuccia is a female character that is a welcome escape from more serious novels. Her relationship with herself and the world is refreshing and I promise you won’t find another character like her.

I finished this book in a day, completely swept up in Hardy’s writing. My only wish is that the ending wasn’t so rushed. After 200+ pages of characters and plot, the last three or four wrapped up the book.

Mariuccia Umbellino has never had much use for priests, but on her 99th birthday, she has her great-great-nephew bring a priest to her room to hear her confession. But she doesn't want to confess any sins. She wants to tell an amazing story to someone who is obligated to keep a secret.

In the early 1800s, a priest and some men with dynamite were sent to 15-year-old Mariuccia's remote mountain village to close the opening to a cave that was said to contain the ancient Oracle of Cumae. The Pope didn't like competition, and he learned that people in and around the village had been going to this oracle for centuries. Mariuccia's family was charged with guarding Lady Sibylla, the oracle. She and her mother rescued her before the men with the dynamite could do her any harm. Thus began an adventure that would change the lives of Mariuccia and everyone who came in contact with her.

Melissa Hardy's novel is full of fantastical elements and more ordinary secrets. Mariuccia is prickly and not much interested in men or convention, and Lady Sibylla has gained both wisdom and impatience with foolishness in her advanced age. An oracle is a difficult being to monitor, but young Mariuccia does the best she can. No character or element is wasted. Hardy clearly believes in the Chekhov's Gun principle, and paying attention to her metaphorical pistols will pay off for the reader.

For the reader, It definitely helps to have some knowledge of and sympathy for classical Greco-Roman mythology and/or folk magick. The novel is not anti-Catholic, per se, but it does make some Catholic priests look foolish. But this is primarily a story of beliefs and practices that endure under the noses of authority figures. The best humor undercuts pompous authority. The Oracle of Cumae is absolutely hilarious.