A review by mrswhiteinthelibrary
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

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

5.0

Elodie Harper crafts an incredible story about women forgotten by history, specifically prostitutes in Pompeii in the years before the fateful eruption of Mt Vesuvius. While that historical detail looms over the story, it is quick to put it aside the way the unsuspecting characters would surely, caught up in the drama and trials of surviving, always chasing the carrot, or pipe dream, of their freedom. Harper gives us an incredible heroine in Amara, at once hardened and slyly intelligent and optimistic and determined, never able to settle for what horrors life has brought her. She forms a deep friendship with her fellow prostitutes, all of whom are trapped and tragic as she is. Their bonds of sisterhood form the beating heart of the story, and Harper's writing brings the skills she has as a journalist to this ancient setting to make it feel as urgent and timely as a headline. While it lacks the poetry of someone like Madeline Miller or beauty of Maggie O'Farrell's, Harper's rough around the edges style perfectly suits her subject, and her focus on humanizing the long dehumanized, making the historical real and present is as admirable as any of her peers.