Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The Wolf Den

Vivid and unflinching, this is the truest and most visceral depiction of ancient Pompeii that I have ever read. And it has nothing to do with Vesuvius! The characters are unique and intentional, the setting is perfectly described, and the villains are terrifying most of all for their believability. A fabulous book. I finished this book in the wee hours of the morning and immediately ordered the next two in the trilogy.

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mollymadworld's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

Heartbreaking, strong woman fighting to survive in a world not built for them

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garciaga's review against another edition

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dark sad 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

I'm so disappointed by this book, I really hoped I would like it. The plot is just a list of horrible things happening to women. The main character is supposed to be smart, and willing to do anything to regain her freedom, and yet, she has barely any agency. You could argue that it is more character driven then, which I would be fine with, but all of them feel so surface level and one dimensional.

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secunda's review against another edition

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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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starbird3's review against another edition

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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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