57 pages • 1-hour read
The Amalfi Curse
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Haven, Tuesday”
Enzo’s mother, Savina, lives in a villa that was built in the mid-1700s and needs extensive repairs. She warmly welcomes Haven to her home, and Haven marvels at the breathtaking view of the Amalfi Coast from the terrace. Savina shares that her husband died years ago, and she bluntly voices her hope that the yacht’s sinking will deter tourism to the area before “its charm will be altogether lost” (148).
Savina asks Enzo to repair a broken lock and gives Haven a tour of the villa’s olive grove. She tells Haven that Enzo’s twin sister, Bria, died last year. Savina’s hopes of having grandchildren have been all but extinguished because Enzo is 39 and hasn’t dated in years. She’s disappointed to learn that her son and Haven only met that morning, and she’s horrified when she discovers that they went diving around Li Galli. She tells her son that the archipelago is too dangerous. Haven feels awkward and is relieved when she and Enzo leave for dinner soon afterward.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Mari, Monday, April 23, 1821”
The narrative moves back into the past. The village of Positano grieves for Leo’s death and the missing girls and women. Mari hides in Ami and Dante’s home. The man weeps and says, “I wish there was […] [s]ome way to protect these waters forever” (154). This reminds Mari of the vortice centuriaria spell. She’s ashamed of herself for bringing misery and danger to the village she is trusted to protect and feels wracked with guilt over her plan to fake her death and run away with Holmes.
While Dante is in Naples, he learns that Matteo is holding the captives on Ischia and has ordered his men to kill anyone who approaches the island. Dante also learns that Matteo is sailing to Positano even now. He believes that the villagers should flee, but Ami and Mari are determined to stay.
That evening, the 10 remaining sea witches gather. Some of them have seen a “slight and slender” stranger rooting through their garbage (158), and they fear this is another threat. Mari proposes that they sink Matteo’s ship when it passes through Li Galli, and all the sea witches vote in favor of her plan.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Haven, Tuesday”
The narrative moves forward to the present day. The restaurant that Enzo chooses is unusually quiet, and Positano has far fewer tourists than usual that evening. Over dinner, Enzo opens up about how his family lived in poverty after his father’s death. This experience has led him to prioritize his business over his love life. He’s grateful to Haven for giving him a reason to dive because he hasn’t had time to do so in months. He also shares that his sister died suddenly while running the London Marathon. Savina feels as if she is cursed, which reminds the couple of the fact that people are blaming the yacht’s wreck on the Amalfi Curse. Haven grows anxious when Enzo encourages her to have an evacuation plan in case Vesuvius erupts. He calms her down, kisses her, and observes, “All we’re promised is now” (167).
Haven wakes up the next morning with a hangover and a text from Enzo saying that he can meet her for their second dive that afternoon. She reluctantly agrees to meet with Conrad and give him the documents for Project Relic, but she retains the private notes that she spent months preparing. When she demands to know why he took her off the project, he shows her concerning data about local hydrothermal vent activity and says, “Losing your dad has been tough on me, Haven [….] Imagine how I’d feel if something happened to you, too” (170). Haven tells him that she’ll be staying in Positano a little longer but doesn’t mention that she still intends to explore Li Galli.
During their second dive, Haven and Enzo go to the center of Li Galli. They discover a few wrecked ships, which the archaeologist carefully photographs. Shortly after they surface, Conrad approaches them in his dive boat. He informs Haven that he has renamed the dive, Project Delfino, and she bristles when he says that some of his equipment is designed to find small objects, all but confirming that he knows about the treasure her father found. She asks him if the technology is from HPI. Conrad alludes to the fact that he saved her life, implying that she owes him. Haven is furious with him and upset with herself for potentially leading him to the gems’ location.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Holmes, Monday, April 23, 1821, Bay of Naples”
The narrative moves back in time. While his officers and fellow sailors are busy elsewhere, Holmes frays some of the ropes attached to the flying jib, a sail that plays a vital role in “keeping a ship sound in turbulent weather” (181). He also pours a bucket of tar over the ship’s supply of clean canvas for repairing sails.
Later that day, the ship is struck by a violent storm, and the flying jib is torn to tatters by the wind. Quinto orders Holmes’s friend, Nico, to unfurl the mainmast, and Nico falls, shattering his pelvis. The injury will likely prove fatal. Holmes is bitten with remorse, but he hopes that he’s bought enough time for his letter to reach Mari.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Haven, Wednesday”
The narrative moves forward in time. Haven is bitterly frustrated by her interaction with Conrad, and she tells Enzo that she wants to be alone. He kisses her gently and encourages her to take all the time she needs. Back at her rented villa, Haven sorts through the photos she took that day and notices bright orange lichen clinging to the letters ‘AQU’ on part of a wreck. She finds matching lichen in an image her father took. This time the letters are ‘ILA.’ Haven realizes that the Aquila could be the very ship that contains the treasure her father found, and she resolves to conduct research at Naples’s Archivio Marittimo, which contains “more than two million documents, including shipping logs, sailors’ voyage diaries, vessel blueprints, and the like” (192).
Chapter 21 Summary: “Holmes, Tuesday, April 24, 1821, Bay of Naples”
The story moves back in time. The captain and the first mate prove that Holmes sabotaged the flying jib by comparing his knife to the cut rigging. Quinto throttles the sailor and tells him, “You haven’t any idea what else is on this brig, you fool. If I let it sink, why, they would never forgive me” (194). Holmes refuses to reveal the reason for his actions, and Quinto confines him in the cargo hold near Nico’s corpse. Holmes has his diary with him, and he writes about his slowly dawning realization that he will “never lay eyes on [his] Mari again” (195).
Chapter 22 Summary: “Haven, Thursday”
The narrative moves forward in time. Haven cancels her Thursday afternoon dive with Enzo and goes to the Archivio Marittimo di Napoli to research the Aquila. The archive has information on 14 different vessels by that name, and she hurries to find the information she needs before the building closes for the week. She discovers Holmes Foster’s voyage journal and reads an entry about the Mazza brothers’ deplorable business practices. She also finds an Italian newspaper from 1821 that says the ship sank for unknown reasons, killing 25 men, and that Holmes Foster had been imprisoned in the brig for causing an incident that killed a fellow crew member. The article specifies that the ship sank in Li Galli, leading Haven to feel “confident—albeit not positive—” that this is the Aquila she and her father found (201). With only a few minutes left until the archive closes, she records a video of herself paging through Holmes’s diary so that she can consult it in more detail later. Haven asks a woman working at the archive about the Mazza brothers, and she explains, “They were bad men—ran around with thieves, corsairs. Always packing their ships with stolen goods. They were swindlers, too, known for pulling tricks and planting decoys” (203). This deepens Haven’s hope that she is on the right track to find the sunken treasure.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Mari, Tuesday, April 24, 1821”
The narrative moves back in time. Corso learns that Mari is hiding at Ami and Dante’s home, and he proposes to her with a gold ring adorned with amethysts. Knowing of the danger facing the village, he asks Mari to come to Rome with him. His offer reminds her of her plans to run away with Holmes and the “easy, childlike promises” they made to spend their lives together (206). She rejects Corso’s proposal.
Positano’s witches take turns watching the sea from a cave. Days pass without a sign of Matteo’s approach, and Mari infers that his vessel has been delayed by a storm.
Chapters 16-23 Analysis
In the novel’s third section, Penner uses structural techniques to increase the archaeological thriller’s suspense. These chapters are shorter, allowing for quicker movements between the perspectives of Haven, Mari, and Holmes and their respective struggles. The author weaves the two timelines progressively closer through shared narrative threads, such as Haven’s research, Holmes’s diary, and Savina’s villa, where Mari once lived. The Amalfi Curse incorporates key tropes of several genres whose plots are defined by escalating suspense. For example, Chapter 19 presents a fierce sea storm, a common feature of maritime adventure stories: “Now the Aquila pitched and tossed amid the heavy swells. It was near impossible for Holmes to hear the shouts of his officers over the screeching wind and the clamor of wet canvas catching the squalls above him” (180). During Haven’s visit to Naples’s maritime archives, Penner creates tension through the archaeologist’s race against the clock and through revelations about Holmes’s and Mari’s timeline, such as the 1821 newspaper article that claims he died when the Aquila sank. The growing connections between the two protagonists’ lives reinforce the novel’s narrative tension.
In these chapters, both Haven and Mari actively engage in The Intergenerational Struggle for Women’s Independence. In Chapter 18, Haven stands up for herself by refusing to give Conrad her notes on Project Relic, asserting that she’s “under no obligation to give him months’ worth of [her] analysis” (169). This decision reflects her determination to continue pursuing her goals despite the greedy treasure hunter’s efforts to claim her father’s discovery for himself. In Chapter 23, Mari, who begins the novel prioritizing her family’s financial status over her own happiness, asserts her independence by rejecting Corso’s proposal, highlighting her personal evolution. In addition, her refusal to flee to the safety of Rome evidences the ways that her experiences have increased her sense of duty to Positano. Similarly, Haven turns down Corso at a time when she is certain that she’ll never see Holmes again, which roots her decision in her independence as a woman rather than her feelings for another man.
Haven’s research at the Archivio Marittimo di Napoli underscores the theme of Reckoning With History and Heritage. Her father taught her that “[s]ometimes the answers aren’t in the water, but out of it” (197), and applying this lesson helps her to move closer to uncovering the sunken treasure and the Aquila’s history. Following in her late father’s footsteps through her archaeological investigation pushes her toward self-discovery and growth. The experience helps her process her grief and uncover the truth about Mari and Holmes’s lives, which has increasing relevance for her own story as the novel continues.
The Power of Love and Sacrifice has a transformative impact on Holmes’s characterization in this section. Penner presents self-sacrifice as the most powerful form of love, emphasizing Holmes’s willingness to risk his own life to protect his beloved even though he believes that he will “never lay eyes on [his] Mari again” (195). The author adds nuance to the theme and depth to the characters by showing the dire lengths that people will go for love. Holmes’s sabotage of the ship represents an act of self-sacrifice because it requires him to compromise his strong sense of ethics: “Always, Holmes used his knife for good: protection, or repair, or sustenance. Until now” (182). Holmes’s plan is courageous, but it’s also morally ambiguous because it results in the death of Nico, “a father, a husband, and an innocent man” (187). Penner adds suspense to the plot and demonstrates the power of love as a motivating force by placing the morally upright Holmes in a situation that forces him to make a difficult, morally questionable choice. Similarly, Mari must grapple with a dilemma between her love and duty in the novel’s next section.
Penner builds up the story’s intrigue by foreshadowing future plot twists with key clues about Savina, Imelda, and Corso. In Chapter 16, Savina’s alarm about Enzo diving in Li Galli and her statement that she “desperately hope[s] for grandchildren” provide hints that she is a sea witch using her power to wreak havoc in the area and that she fears the end of her magical lineage (150). In Chapter 17, the sea witches observe a “slight and slender” figure spying on them (158), which provides another clue that Corso is the traitor who told the Mazza brothers about their powers. Holmes’s chapters offer hints that Mari’s mother is on board the Aquila, such as when Quinto tells the sailor that Matteo would “never forgive” him if he let the ship sink (194). These clues pave the way for Imelda’s appearance in the next section and her key role in the climax.
Unlock all 57 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs