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readiac1999's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I almost passed this book over given the other reviews but I'm so glad I didn't! I can understand the frustration with the writing given that it was at times a bit vague but based on the approach that the book is trying to take of creating a plausible narrative for an uncovered artifact it's remarkably told. Her acknowledgements show she was clearly wedded to telling an approximately accurate story. The vagueness, I think is Stott not wanting to veer too far away from the little that is known about this period. A remarkable work of critical fabulation about a period that I would not have otherwise cared to read about!
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
golem's review
5.0
So intense and so good. Wonderful as an audiobook--thrilling and tense and satisfying. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much had I not listened to it. I very much appreciate the low-key queer (f/f) and even lower-key m/f romances and the possibly non-binary soothsayer, as well as the Black representation and many mentions of African heritage in Roman/post-Roman Britain.
I found the ending too abrupt--what happened to all of Vort's other men??--and also I wasn't keen on the didactic zoom-out relating the book to all of women's history in Britain. I didn't like this book because I think that British women are unmemorialized or neglected by scholarship, an authorial point of view that will annoy many of us whose ancestors did not colonize the whole world, steal its tombs and papers, and teach it British history. As a book about a very particular historical mystery--how did that Saxon brooch get into the Roman ruins of Londinium? How did misfits, migrants, and queer people survive in post-Roman Britain?--it is magnificent. It is also a fantastic story about trauma, ghosts, and love and survival in ruins.
I found the ending too abrupt--what happened to all of Vort's other men??--and also I wasn't keen on the didactic zoom-out relating the book to all of women's history in Britain. I didn't like this book because I think that British women are unmemorialized or neglected by scholarship, an authorial point of view that will annoy many of us whose ancestors did not colonize the whole world, steal its tombs and papers, and teach it British history. As a book about a very particular historical mystery--how did that Saxon brooch get into the Roman ruins of Londinium? How did misfits, migrants, and queer people survive in post-Roman Britain?--it is magnificent. It is also a fantastic story about trauma, ghosts, and love and survival in ruins.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual violence
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