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A review by croscot
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
If I could rate The Wolf Den based on my enjoyment of it alone, I would give it 2.5 stars - the main character sets a goal for herself very late and achieves it remarkably fast, the death in the end feels completely unnecessary (I get it, the second book needs a reason to exist, but *read in over-exaggerated tone of a person voicing the trailer for some cheesy action film* "Amara the Relentless comes back... WITH REVENGE!!!" could be easily avoided or replaced by a different plot device. You don't have to kill a woman to move another woman's story forward), and I particularly didn't enjoy the narrator's (Antonia Beamish) choice for male voices. She had only 2 settings when it came to male characters: good men sound good, bad men sound bad. And it was quite frustrating! I would like to form my own opinion about the characters, thank you very much! Instead I could already guess the characters' motives just from the way they were voiced. Idk, wasn't a fan of that particular decision.
HOWEVER!! The main characters - the protagonist, the main antagonist, "the supporting cast" - were all quite full-fledged, I appreciated how each woman in the brothel made sense (I mean, every one of them was... a person, with their hopes and dreams, own tragedies and means of survival, they felt real). The atmosphere of Pompeii was quite vibrant, too! Admittedly, I know very little of the ancient city apart from the reason it stopped existing, but this book honestly made me want to do some research on it, the descriptions were quite intriguing!
Overall, I'm having a rather unusual experience with giving 4 stars to a book that I didn't enjoy all that much. Will I be reading the sequel?........... BEGRUDGINGLY, but... yes, probably.
HOWEVER!! The main characters - the protagonist, the main antagonist, "the supporting cast" - were all quite full-fledged, I appreciated how each woman in the brothel made sense (I mean, every one of them was... a person, with their hopes and dreams, own tragedies and means of survival, they felt real). The atmosphere of Pompeii was quite vibrant, too! Admittedly, I know very little of the ancient city apart from the reason it stopped existing, but this book honestly made me want to do some research on it, the descriptions were quite intriguing!
Overall, I'm having a rather unusual experience with giving 4 stars to a book that I didn't enjoy all that much. Will I be reading the sequel?........... BEGRUDGINGLY, but... yes, probably.