A review by connorscottgardner
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

5.0

When you cannot make your own choices, what good is wanting anything, or anyone?

This was a beautifully written and deeply disturbing story, imagining what it would be like to be one of the women forced to work in the brothels of Pompeii.

Amara used to be a doctor's daughter. She had a family and a life. That was before her father died and there was no money left. Sold into slavery she is bought by the owner of the Wolf Den in Pompeii, forced to give up her body night after night and endure endless cruelty.

It's impossible not to like Amara and all of the other women who are so important to her. They all have such distinctive personalities. From proud, beautiful Victoria to kind Cressa and deeply sad Dido, they look out for one another because nobody else will. They walk the streets of the city, knowing that the few moments of freedom they have are nothing. They will never truly be free, because even though slaves can buy their freedom, they will never earn enough to do so. And yet they manage to laugh, to convince one another to survive each day.

Some of the girls never had a life before, but Amara and Dido both mourn the lives they left behind and the people they used to be.

“You try to keep it inside, don’t you, all the different parts of yourself, but they don’t exist anymore.”

The author confronts the violence directly and it is laid out in sharp detail. Women are beaten, raped and emotionally abused, and there is little they can do to stop it. Even though it hurt to read, I am glad it wasn't glossed over. Acknowledging that this was what women had to endure is a part of our history. I do think that readers need to be in the right place to read this though.

You know this book isn't going to have a happy ending. How can it. I often felt sick with dread while reading it because I had no idea how it would end, and I wished there was something I could do to protect all of the characters.

For all I enjoyed the book, there was a moment where it was mentioned that two characters were speaking Spanish, and I was really pulled out of the story. It didn't make sense to me, as Spanish developed from when Latin was brought to the country. So surely at the same time as the book takes place, Spanish as a language would not have existed? For all I speak it, I know embarrassingly little about its history, so I could be wrong. But this small detail really distracted me from the story.

Overall, this was extremely well written. I don't know that I can say I enjoyed it, given the subject. But I cared so much about the characters, and it will stay with me for a long time.

Trigger warnings (which contain possible spoilers): Rape, physical and emotional abuse, slavery, suicide, abortion, unwanted pregnancy, murder.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, and am leaving this review voluntarily.