Take a photo of a barcode or cover
cydork 's review for:
The Wolf Den
by Elodie Harper
I have a lot of thoughts about this book.
Most of the story was very gripping. I started it before I went to bed one night, and kept reading until I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open. I do want to know what happens next and have started the second book already. However, I think it could've been more tightly written. Establishing a character's routine is all well and good, but I don't think we should be one third through the book before that routine is shaken up. And after that, we have to meet every person who will be a player in Amara's freedom, even if that role is to just connect her to somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who will actually be important.
Which leads to the other issue this book has of having way too many characters, and introducing them far too quickly, without much to distinguish them physically or personality-wise. Even the main character gets this treatment; I know she has curly hair, "sexy lips" (according to one of her clients), and that she waxes her legs but not her vulva. That's about it. Ironically, most of those descriptions come from men, reflecting their desire of her.
Returning to the positives, I learnt things from the book, which is always a plus! It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between Ancient Roman sexism and modern Western sexism, how slavery worked in Rome, that Venus was the patron goddess of Pompeii, and that Pompeii overall seemed to be a city known for sex before being destroyed by Vesuvius, which is all I knew it for. It's funny seeing commenters bemoan the lack of volcano mentions, when Vesuvius is in fact
mentioned several times, and... well, the people at that time clearly didn't know what was going to happen. I honestly welcomed the fact that the narrative didn't draw much attention to it, as it makes more sense to remember the city for what it actually was than what destroyed it.
I also think the author did a good job at showing the conflict of emotions and philosophies that come from being a prostitute, particularly Amara’s relationships with Felix and Sallius, and Paris’s mindset in general. I had already known that gay sex wasn't inherently stigmatised in Ancient Rome, but being the receiving partner was, and it is on full display here. Paris feels he has been forced to take on a woman's role, perhaps even made into a woman, something both the men and women in his life enforce and mock him for. It's fascinating and awful, and I wish we'd seen more of that.
"Seen" is the key word here. Because the biggest issue I had with this book was how obsessively it told us the emotions and minutiae of the situations. What's most frustrating is how often, the author already did a good job of showing things more subtly, but then has to ram it home with an explicit comment, and then do so again multiple times in quick succession. It feels like she's hovering behind me going “Did you get it? Did you see what I did there?” as if I’m not smart enough to parse the subtext myself. Here’s an example (emphasis mine):
The last two sentences are so unnecessary! It's already clear they have no space and privacy from the half-drawn curtains and the intrusion of a fellow prostitute's voice. Yet the entire book is like this! At times, it almost feels like a parody of itself.
And despite how often the book tells us outright that the situation is terrible, I actually found it too sanitised, and in some ways near idealised. I don't want pages of graphic rape, but I think skimming over everything related to the sex, the main issue with their predicament, is a massive disservice. For example, the characters have sex constantly, even into the early hours of the morning, yet nobody seems to suffer from STDs or even simple soreness. They're just tired from staying up late. Their clients are violent, but all they get are small bruises. This quote really sums it up:
The worst a woman can look is... when she doesn't do her hair and makeup. And honestly, even that could've worked. What if, instead of the state of her body hair being relayed by a man, we see Amara have to go through the pain of waxing, of ingrown hairs and rashes, all for the sake of seducing men she doesn't even like? It feels like the author doesn't want to risk anything other than unerring sympathy for the characters. We don't see the nitty gritty of their routine, or the disfiguring effects of some STDs, because that would be gross. Readers would surely feel a twinge of disgust, and we can't have that.
Amara's personality is inconsistent for what I think is a similar reason - to reduce the risk of being unlikeable. Pretty early on, she tries to "increase her value" to the pimp (who is a loan shark on the side) by finding clients who need loans herself. She lies about how shady her master really is, uses money like a carrot on a stick so they accept the exorbitant interest rate, threatens the first client in a manner she admits is similar to her master... and then suddenly she's extremely guilty and never acts like that again, paying off people's loans if they're overdue out of pocket. This really threw me. I loved her ruthlessness, and I loved that she and her master had more in common than appeared, But suddenly, that disappeared. I don't mind her feeling guilt and veering off this path, but it happens almost instantaneously. And she doesn't stay that way! Elsewhere in the book, there's frequent talks of how her coldness scares people, how she'd rip people apart if she could, and she gives a performance at the end of the book that I found genuinely painful to read. Again, it feels like the author is afraid to make Amara too unsympathetic, too much of a bad person (even though it would make sense given her circumstances), and so doesn't fully commit to this character trait.
I know I've gone on for a while, but despite all these criticisms, I really don't think this is a bad book. It's decent. It's interesting and easy to read, and I would say I enjoyed it more than not. But man, it could've been great.
Most of the story was very gripping. I started it before I went to bed one night, and kept reading until I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open. I do want to know what happens next and have started the second book already. However, I think it could've been more tightly written. Establishing a character's routine is all well and good, but I don't think we should be one third through the book before that routine is shaken up. And after that, we have to meet every person who will be a player in Amara's freedom, even if that role is to just connect her to somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who will actually be important.
Which leads to the other issue this book has of having way too many characters, and introducing them far too quickly, without much to distinguish them physically or personality-wise. Even the main character gets this treatment; I know she has curly hair, "sexy lips" (according to one of her clients), and that she waxes her legs but not her vulva. That's about it. Ironically, most of those descriptions come from men, reflecting their desire of her.
Returning to the positives, I learnt things from the book, which is always a plus! It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between Ancient Roman sexism and modern Western sexism, how slavery worked in Rome, that Venus was the patron goddess of Pompeii, and that Pompeii overall seemed to be a city known for sex before being destroyed by Vesuvius, which is all I knew it for. It's funny seeing commenters bemoan the lack of volcano mentions, when Vesuvius is in fact
mentioned several times, and... well, the people at that time clearly didn't know what was going to happen. I honestly welcomed the fact that the narrative didn't draw much attention to it, as it makes more sense to remember the city for what it actually was than what destroyed it.
I also think the author did a good job at showing the conflict of emotions and philosophies that come from being a prostitute, particularly Amara’s relationships with Felix and Sallius, and Paris’s mindset in general. I had already known that gay sex wasn't inherently stigmatised in Ancient Rome, but being the receiving partner was, and it is on full display here. Paris feels he has been forced to take on a woman's role, perhaps even made into a woman, something both the men and women in his life enforce and mock him for. It's fascinating and awful, and I wish we'd seen more of that.
"Seen" is the key word here. Because the biggest issue I had with this book was how obsessively it told us the emotions and minutiae of the situations. What's most frustrating is how often, the author already did a good job of showing things more subtly, but then has to ram it home with an explicit comment, and then do so again multiple times in quick succession. It feels like she's hovering behind me going “Did you get it? Did you see what I did there?” as if I’m not smart enough to parse the subtext myself. Here’s an example (emphasis mine):
Amara holds Dido as she cries. They sit huddled together on Dido’s narrow bed. Over her friend’s heaving shoulder, she can read the Thrust SLOWLY! command she carved into the wall. She cannot imagine now why it ever seemed funny. Beside it, the curtain is half-drawn to give them a little privacy. She doesn’t dare pull it across completely. Victoria’s voice is loud in the corridor, praising some man to get him in the mood. At any moment, they will be interrupted by a customer. The women have no time for themselves at night, not even for grief.
The last two sentences are so unnecessary! It's already clear they have no space and privacy from the half-drawn curtains and the intrusion of a fellow prostitute's voice. Yet the entire book is like this! At times, it almost feels like a parody of itself.
Another message catches her eye, its letters large and jagged. I FUCKED. She stares at it. The words look like an act of physical aggression, a reminder of her own powerlessness. She opens her father’s bag, searching for the broken stylus she once picked up in the street. It has already come in useful. She used it to draw a bird in her own cell the other day, a small act of defiance against the endless fucking and sucking that hems her in.
And despite how often the book tells us outright that the situation is terrible, I actually found it too sanitised, and in some ways near idealised. I don't want pages of graphic rape, but I think skimming over everything related to the sex, the main issue with their predicament, is a massive disservice. For example, the characters have sex constantly, even into the early hours of the morning, yet nobody seems to suffer from STDs or even simple soreness. They're just tired from staying up late. Their clients are violent, but all they get are small bruises.
Spoiler
We of course get an unwanted pregnancy, but rather than see the havoc this wreaks on the character's body or the brutality of birth in a place like The Wolf Den, the character kills herself in the tidiest possible way - tying herself to a container and disappearing into the sea.The walk to the harbor is slow and labored. It is hard to believe Cressa once made the same effort with her appearance as the rest of them. Now, she is grubby and disheveled, her hair unkempt. Whores age in double time, Amara thinks, and the idea chills her.
The worst a woman can look is... when she doesn't do her hair and makeup. And honestly, even that could've worked. What if, instead of the state of her body hair being relayed by a man, we see Amara have to go through the pain of waxing, of ingrown hairs and rashes, all for the sake of seducing men she doesn't even like? It feels like the author doesn't want to risk anything other than unerring sympathy for the characters. We don't see the nitty gritty of their routine, or the disfiguring effects of some STDs, because that would be gross. Readers would surely feel a twinge of disgust, and we can't have that.
Amara's personality is inconsistent for what I think is a similar reason - to reduce the risk of being unlikeable. Pretty early on, she tries to "increase her value" to the pimp (who is a loan shark on the side) by finding clients who need loans herself. She lies about how shady her master really is, uses money like a carrot on a stick so they accept the exorbitant interest rate, threatens the first client in a manner she admits is similar to her master... and then suddenly she's extremely guilty and never acts like that again, paying off people's loans if they're overdue out of pocket. This really threw me. I loved her ruthlessness, and I loved that she and her master had more in common than appeared,
Spoiler
something that's enhanced later when we find out he also used to be a slave prostitute.I know I've gone on for a while, but despite all these criticisms, I really don't think this is a bad book. It's decent. It's interesting and easy to read, and I would say I enjoyed it more than not. But man, it could've been great.