The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper | Book Review

【 THE WOLF DEN 】

This is going in my all time top ten.

Genre: Historical fiction
Author: Elodie Harper
Published: May 2021
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Pages: 464 (hardback)

I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I finished reading it (which was months ago and I’m very late on writing this review). This is seriously awesome.

My main motivation for reading this was the fact that ‘Pompeii’ appears in the blurb, and how pretty the cover was. But omg, this is so much more than just a pretty face.

The Wolf Den is a story that sucks you in and shows you the lives of these women who have been stolen and sold off as slaves. They’re in a brothel and forced to repay their debt to their owner, and of course they stand no chance of that ever happening.

It’s a story of friendship, of love, of self-respect and learning where your boundaries are. It explores how far the women are willing to go to improve their lives and where they must draw the line between survival and morality. It’s a powerful story and it has me so excited about what else the author will write next (aside from the sequels which I’m rushing off to read ASAP).

This book demonstrates some of the most complex character development I think I’ve seen in a book for a long time. It’s really impressive and it’s a great read for people from all different genres – whether your about romance, historical fiction, general fiction or feminism, it’s all there and it’s very readable.

Not to mention the drama of setting this in (pre-apocalyptic) Pompeii just adds something else. Imagining these people and the society that was living there feels like a glimpse into the past, even though this is fiction (but I guess it’s not hard to imagine this would’ve been real in some respects).

1000% obsessed.