Thoughts on The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (2021)

Good morning! Hopefully spring has truly sprung in New York City! I hope you’re all going on walks today and soaking up the sun and singing with the birds or whatever. Let’s get down to business. After reading Hild and Menewood by Nicola Griffith, I wanted some more emersive historical fiction from times I was trying to familiarize myself with as a way to supplement my learning. A few searches lead me to Elodie Harper and this novel, which is about a greek slave working in a brothel in Pompeii in 74 CE.

This book is most definitely not as well researched as those by Griffith’s, or at least, the author’s familiarity with the time period does not shine through as strongly. In that way, this book was a slight disappointment, but that is a personal disappointment and not one that should be taken into consideration for the work as a whole.

Even with the dark subject matter, I kept toying with the idea that the book sounded a lot like YA. I’m still not sure why, even though I’ve been trying to pinpoint it. The writing style, for one, which was sometimes repetitive and spelled out things that were otherwise clear from subtext alone. Also something about the close third, which showed us the main character Amara’s life without ever really letting us feel the depths of the reality of it. For example, she’s a prostitute but there are no sex scenes, which just felt disingenuous to me. I get the idea of not centering her trauma etc etc, but it’s a pretty big thing to leave out. There’s also something about a plucky young woman, who is underestimated and ultimately preservers without any real mess ups that feels very girl boss feminism to me, for lack of a better way to describe it. Or at least, it is similar to the tone I remember reading YA fantasy series taking. That’s the best I can put it.

The story was engaging, although there were two diverging plot lines that did not really meld together for me. She starts to help Felix, the owner of the brothel, give out loans to women who otherwise wouldn’t be able to see him, but this only really happens towards the beginning of the novel and a few times throughout. She is trying to save enough money to buy her freedom. Then, by spontaneously playing the lyre at a public festival, she gets an invitation by a rich guy to perform at a private party. This unlocks a series of events that sets her on a whole other path, and seems to be where the main story is. The loan stuff was not really a part of this, and felt superfluous. Except that there is a sequel and I’m assuming it comes back then. However, I think there was a better way to introduce the loan stuff, even having her already working for Felix in that way when the story opens, something like that. There was just something off with the pacing and cause-effect that felt off to me.

Similarly, the climax was a bit disjointed. Two things happened at the same time with no causality that were just too random for me, and didn’t really seem necessary. There is this whole subplot with Felix having a rivalry with another brothel owner that plays out while Amara is trying to get her freedom that doesn’t really change anything in her story until this moment. (And even then, doesn’t change the outcome of her story, just her emotional state.)

Basically, I thought this was okay but not revelatory. I’ll definitely keep on reading the sequels. But I clearly didn’t care about it enough to write a more thoughtful or eloquent review, oh well. I’m also in what the kids call a ‘reading slump,’ so we’ll see what the next few weeks of this blog brings!