Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Le lupe di Pompei by Elodie Harper

98 reviews

secunda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is incredible! As a Classics student, I’m really put off by historical fiction with glaring  inaccuracies, but I didn’t sense any within this book. It obviously reminded me a lot of walking through Pompeii, but also of reading Ovid’s Amores as well. If you’re a fan of Pompeii, Ovid, Roman Comedy, or women in antiquity, I highly recommend giving this a read. My only critique was that the dialogue didn’t always feel like what a Roman would say, but based on interviews with the author, that seems to have been intentional.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Death, Trafficking, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Confinement, Abortion, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming

lucyl97's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion and Addiction

starbird3's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I had a feeling I was going to like this book just because I devour anything set in Pompeii and this series and Stephanie Dray's short story in A Day of Fire are the only ones I've seen that give us the viewpoint of an enslaved prostitute. This was a very thoroughly researched book, though at times the characters sounded very modern in their dialogue to me at certain points. I don't usually mind modern sounding dialogue (it's a work of fiction and so should be accessible to modern audiences is my two cents) but I feel it's worth mentioning since for some people that does matter and breaks the sense of immersion. Also, for anyone else who tends to expect their historical fiction to be written in past tense, this trilogy appears to be written in present. It has it's uses in creating a sense of going through the plot with the characters, but it also kind of threw me a little at first and it took some getting used to. 

I found this book hard to put down, and cheered for Amara to reach her goals even while side-eying some of the choices she took to achieve what she wanted. I'm interested to see where her actions lead her in the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual violence, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Body shaming, Body horror, Alcoholism, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Adult/minor relationship

lottselgar's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

never felt more attached to a group of women who work in a brothel before

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Body shaming, Death, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Grief, Abandonment, Abortion, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Death of parent, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Gaslighting, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Sexism, Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Murder

motherofbears's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Devastatingly beautiful and sad. You can tell a lot of care went into the research for this book, you get a view into what life was like for slaves in Pompeii (often terrible). I couldn’t put it down and read most of it over a couple days.

I took away a tiny bit because the ending felt a little tied up with a bow, but knowing this is book one of a trilogy makes me hopeful for more development in the future.

This is historical fiction at it’s most literary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Miscarriage, Child death, Abortion, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Death of parent

leahkarge's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Abortion, Addiction, Ableism, Excrement, Sexual content, Alcohol, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Slavery, Suicide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Death of parent, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

bookshelfmonkey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 This made me want to read more historical fiction. It felt realistic in its portrayal of the oppression of underrepresented groups without feeling graduitously traumatic and the characters all felt so real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, Murder, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

ok7a's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Abortion, Xenophobia, Grief, Blood, Body shaming, and Alcohol

simoneg's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide