Wow. Initially, I picked this book for its cover and because, as a History lover, I was curious. I didn't expect anything specifically and I am simply amazed. Sometimes, it's difficult to admit that you love a story that is so hard, which is treating such difficult topics, but in the case of The Wolf Den, the story has been so masterfully depicted that I can truly say that I am in awe.

Set in the Lupanar of Pompeii, we follow the story of Amara, a Greek of birth and daughter of a doctor whose life took a change for the worst and ended up being sold into prostitution. But it's not only her story. Dido, Beronice, Victoria, and Cressa are women who are also sharing the cells at The Wolf Den, the town's brothel owned by Felix, their heartless pimp. Across the pages, we learn about their story, their hopes, their everyday lives, and their fight for a better future. We get a glimpse of the life that a slave could expect in ancient Rome no matter if it is a whore or not.

Forget obscene sex depictions of the idea of an erotic atmosphere, it's not what you'll find in this book. It was hard sometimes to imagine how they could feel, what it was like, or even acknowledge all the horrors they had to go through. The characters are so complex, so well depicted, and painfully human. Pompeii is so well portrayed, you can really feel that the author did her research thoroughly. Not that it feels like a history class at all, but enough to allow you to immerse yourself in another time. The writing is spotless and makes you want to continue reading without a break, which for me is always a sign that I actually really enjoy a book.

So if you're into historical fiction, I would just say go for it but be aware that it might be a difficult read, with heartbreaking moments that can be hard to go through. Honestly, one of the best books I've read this year so far.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing me this ARC in exchange of my honest review. I am posting this review in my Goodreads account such as on Amazon and will be posting later on a review in French and English on my private blog.

Amara grew up in Greece the beloved daughter of a doctor. His death and debts start a chain of events that lead to her being sold into slavery. The Wolf Den of the title is the Pompeian brothel in which she now finds herself. At times in the early chapters I regretted choosing this book. While the women are the central characters and the story is told from Amara’s perspective, there’s no getting away from their being enslaved people, forced to sell sex. Even at a remove of 2000 years, that’s grim. Thankfully, there’s little detail of the work but it does hang over everything.
It’s not a life anyone would choose: it's pretty bleak, tempered only by Amara's friendships with the other women and the hope of attracting the attention of a wealthy man who might set her up as his concubine or even one day grant her freedom. It’s a precarious existence.
I enjoyed spending time in Pompeii at street level. As Amara moves through the town, she remarks on the decorations inside and outside buildings, references to real mosaics and paintings that have been recovered from the ruins. I got a real sense of the bustle of the busy port. I thought the tension was built well through the later part of the book: will Amara find love or security, both or neither?

A realistic story about women in pompeii. I think that sometimes it was missing more info about the worldbuilding.
I just think it would be nice to have another point of view in this story. Maybe of another of the she-wolves.
The main character is my favourite so far, she can be passionate, humble but so intelligent!!

The Wolf Den tells the story of Amara, a slave owned by the brothel keeper in Pompeii. Born the daughter of a doctor in Greece, she is highly educated, beautiful and determined to fight her way back to freedom. The book follows her and her fellow prostitutes as they navigate life in the brothel with being part of society and their personal lives. It is captivating and compelling, at times heartbreaking.

Bodily autonomy is not something these women have readily available, and the story touches on that in a variety of ways. There is the older woman who has aged out of the brothel and now depends on the generosity of her fellow slaves, the woman who gets pregnant after having had her first child sold as a baby and has to figure out how to deal with the situation. Being groped and abused is daily life for them. But despite their situation, these women are not without agency. They fight to improve their daily lives with kindness, determination and banding together.

All of that is not enough for Amara. Over the course of the story, she inserts herself into the business aspect of her master – apart from owning the city’s brothel he is also a money lender. She manages to grow the business in a variety of ways, not least of all through using her skills to impress Pliny. The prostitutes are referred to as She-Wolves, and the name is apt. This is a group of women fiercely protective of their own.

Reading this, it was hard to believe that this is a debut. It is well-written and deeply researched. It is full of historical detail about the city so famous for its destruction. It is sprinkled with just enough detail to make the setting come to life, without overpowering the story and characters at the heart of The Wolf Den. Although this is a purely historical novel, not a speculative fiction one, this will appeal to readers of books like Circe or Sistersong, straddling that fine line between genre fiction and broader literature. Amara’s story is one that is still relevant to the present day, where so many women remain in positions where they have to fight for bodily autonomy, and they are immediately perceived as lesser due to their bodies. Amara’s determination and ambition are a model to look up to. A truly modern book telling an ancient story.

The Wolf Den is a stunning tale of brutality, survival and hope, set in the infamous Wolf Den brothel in Pompeii. Like all the best historical fiction, it manages to transport the reader somewhere new while shining a light on the common humanity that binds the characters from that time to our own lives.

In every page, the research from this period was felt - from the routines of the prostitutes, the festivals, the customs of the wealthy - and yet it was Amara's story that took centre stage. The unflinching, often brutal portrayal of the lives of the women in the Wolf Den, highlighted Amara's strength in holding on to who she is when most of society view her as disposable.

Not only is The Wolf Den a fascinating read that gives back the identities of the men and women who lived under Mt Vesuvius' shadow, it is a often touching story about the power of female friendship and the determination to keep hope alive. I loved it and can't wait for the next book!

This is a fresh original idea for a story based around the women enslaved in the brothel in Pompeii. It’s language is very modern and that helps us to relate to the group of women as if we know them. Their jokes and fun together as well as their pain and heartbreaks. Having visited Pompeii I could well imagine these women living their lives there.
The women are well drawn as characters and the pace of the story is excellent. I would have liked to feel more of the atmosphere of Pompeii and had more description of life going on around these women but overall it’s a very enjoyable read.

The Wolf Den documents the story of Amara, a young woman sold by her mother into prostitution at the Wolf Den. The story explores Amara and the other women's life in slavery and pursuit for freedom and survival.

When I hear that this story was set in the ancient location of Pompeii, I was so excited to read it as someone who has always enjoyed learning about Roman history. Unfortunately, I felt, personally, that the book lacked atmosphere. I was eager for the book to provide more atmospheric descriptions of Pompeii to really make the setting feel alive, but unfortunately I felt that this area was lacking. It would have been nice to have some more descriptive elements about the setting. This book also felt like it had a slow start and I personally found it really hard to connect with the characters, despite this being a book and premise that depends on you feeling connected to the characters and their story. It was a bit difficult to finish this year - HOWEVER, the author has clearly done their research and I am sure that a lot of readers will adore and connect to this book more. This was just unfortunately a novel that didn't complete resonate for me despite really wishing I could enjoy the book more. One element of the book that I enjoyed was that each chapter starts with a relevant quote or piece of graffiti from the walls of Pompeii, I felt that this helped to set the scene for the proceeding chapter and I did look forward to seeing what would be included at the start of each chapter. This was a really nice touch.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Wolf Den is a difficult book to review, because it’s hard to say you can enjoy it. To be clear, this book is brilliant and I will talk about this more, but it can be uncomfortable to read at times due to the subject matter, and the fate of Pompeii that hangs over the story like a shadow. The primary character is Amara, a young woman sold into slavery at the Wolf Den, there, alongside other women, with different stories and tragedies, she is forced to pleasure men, while fighting to hold onto herself and find freedom once more.

The voice of women in history is largely silenced, or at least talked over, that women were so often beaten, used as currency, it’s a brutal truth but a truth nonetheless and while this is fiction, these women and many more existed and they deserve to be heard. Amara is a survivor, this doesn’t always lead her to behave kindly but you understand her and you want her that freedom, just as you want that for her friends in the brothel, and the love and self love they cling to. These women are beautiful and glorious. You would think possibly a book about a brothel and slavery may be gratuitous possibly and yet it’s done very tastefully, enough for you to know and recoil on these women’s behalf but not enough for the writer to take advantage of them herself. And yes, personally I could feel a woman wrote this for the respect and grace she gave these women during their pain and humiliation.

I’m glad I read this book, I thought about it long after I finished it and thought of these women and what they had to endure and the men who never truly ‘saw’ them. The research and the world building is wonderful, the writing very easy to follow and yet beautifully done so, this book really speaks to you, the women speak to you. And it haunted me like it should.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy to review

It can’t be an easy thing to write from the perspective of a woman sold into prostitution through slavery in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, but through Amara’s life, her worries and desperation, her hopes and dreams and calculations, this all comes into vivid picture in Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den. It’s a masterful portrayal of human emotion with the deluge of degradations, danger and trials Amara is put through, all in pursuit of the only thing that matters: trying to earn her freedom, along with that of her friend Dido’s, and possibly with as much humanity left in tact as she can manage. Amara is everything that can be hoped for in a protagonist, and she’s brave but it’s possible to sense her fragility just under the surface, and how close she is to constant breaking point. With every step of the way through this plot we feel with Amara as she suffers, hopes, and witnesses the kind of life a slave could expect in ancient Roman times; with appearances by occasional historical characters such as Pliny the Elder and quite a bit of real graffiti from Pompeii to garnish, this is a fantastic piece of historical fiction.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Head of Zeus for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Pompeii, Amara is sold by her mother to a loan shark and brothel owner. This is the tale of her survival.

Harper doesn't allow her research to eclipse her storytelling.

The quotes from Pompeiian graffiti, Pliny the Elder, Herodotus and others of the time used as chapter headings are a nice touch.

I was hoping for more about Pompeiian life in general.

Lacks atmosphere and fails to give real insight into life of the period.

My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC.

“May men fall to me as this offering falls to you, Greatest Aphrodite. May I know love’s power, if never its sweetness.” Amara drops her mangled garland on the ever-growing pile of heaped offerings from the desperate whores of Pompeii”
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Every so often you read a book that just makes you want to wiggle your toes with pleasure because it’s just so good. The Wolf Den is the perfect combination of meticulous research and a flair for storytelling that transported me straight to Pompeii in AD74

Set in the Lupanar of Pompeii, the town brothel known as The Wolf Den, this is the story of a group of women sold into slavery from across the Roman Empire. Amara is Greek by birth and the daughter of a doctor. She was sold first into domestic servitude and then into prostitution. Dido is from Carthage, Beronice is from Egypt and Victoria was rescued from the town dump as a baby and has known no other life. Stripped of everything, including their real names, the women all long for a way out of The Wolf Den whether through love, death or a series of calculated gambles


Each chapter starts with a contemporary quote or piece of graffiti from the walls of Pompeii, a device that sets the scene beautifully as you walk the streets with the girls as they go “fishing,” calling into The Sparrow for hot wine or parading through the painted colonnades in the forum. Although the scenes of female friendship lend some levity, fear, sweat, dirt, desperation and powerlessness pervade the story


A beautifully penned story, set in the Ancient world, from a female perspective in a place that has always fascinated me, I absolutely loved it.
Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for my ARC. The Wolf Den is out in May 2021 and watch out because I’ll be reminding you of it nearer the time!!

I absolutely adored this gripping, atmospheric romp through the drinking dens, villas and the brothel of ancient Pompeii. Harper is a deeply talented writer drawing you immediately into the sights and smells of ancient times.

With little autonomy, women in the ancient world struggled to have any kind of life outside of drudgery and the repetition of child bearing - or worse. When Amara, an educated greek woman, is sold into slavery and then into whoredom, she is determined to secure her freedom - but at what cost.

Introducing us to a fabulous cast of characters from her fellow whores - Victoria, Cressa, Berenice and Britainnica, to love interests and legendary historical figures, this well-researched novel had me rooting for all the women to the end of the book.

I can't wait for book 2!

The Wolf Den is set in Pompeii in 74 AD, which, if you know your history, is before Vesuvius famously blew its top and destroyed the town. I happen to know all about Pompeii and Vesuvius because it’s been one of my daughter’s homeschool topics while we have been in this latest lockdown. (Shout out to the #homeschoolwarriors)
The preservation of Pompeii under the volcanic ash has given historians a unique insight into the daily lives of its citizens and it’s clear that Elodie Harper has done her research. However, this book does NOT read like a dry and dusty archaeological text.
The book is set around The Wolf Den, one of Pompeii’s brothels, and is focused on the lives of the enslaved women, Amara, Victoria, Cressa and Dido who work there.
The main character in the book is Amara, a doctor’s daughter from Greece who was sold into slavery after her father’s death and ends up at The Wolf Den. Unlike the women born into a life of slavery and prostitution Amara knows that life can be better and strives to find a way to escape the Wolf Den and become free again. Her path takes her into the homes of some of the wealthiest men in Pompeii, including Pliny the Elder (again familiar to those of us who have homeschooled on the Vesuvius eruption). The contrast between the lives of the wealthy free citizens of Pompeii and the women of The Wolf Den vast, and for those of us who have seen the casts of the bodies from Pompeii the book really brings the townspeople to life. Death is the great leveller, but Harper does a brilliant job of reanimating the town and its people.
What I loved about the book is the female camaraderie that runs throughout. The women find comfort and friendship with one another and even make each other laugh, while living as slaves forced into prostitution. As you would expect for a book which is dealing with the lives of sex workers, there are descriptions, though not too graphic, of the work done by the women. Primarily the book focuses on the women’s feelings, hopes and fears about their lives, as they scrabble to keep the brothel keeper happy. Because while being a Pompeiian sex worker is fraught with danger, being cast out or sold on because you are too old, too ugly, too troublesome or just not making enough money would push the women lower down the social scale than they already are. The character of Cressa brings the lack of choice and freedom these women have into sharp and terrible focus. It’s really refreshing to see female characters, who happen to be sex workers, given fully rounded personalities instead of “prostitute” being their personality.
If you are a fan of the recent retellings of Greek myth by authors like Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes and Pat Barker then this may be for you.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper is an excellent historical fiction that takes place in the ancient location of the infamous Pompeii. This is a haunting and complex story of survival, finding one's inner strength, society at its best, and its worst, and a glimpse into the lives of women on the fringe of society, most through no fault of their own.

Amara is a fascinating and complex character. We see her change and, actually blossom in some degrees, with her abrupt change in circumstances. We get to take a glimpse inside the fringe of society, the brothel. The author places faces to these historic figures. Names to these nameless women. To follow along as we see her transition, the obstacles she experiences, and the rays of light that are shown upon her despite where is now is, was brilliant. She easily placed me into her corner from the very beginning.

The author creates a narrative and a window into this life. She is impressive balancing upon the line of showing the reader the hardness, the difficulties, the hurt, loss, pain, and humiliation that some feel and experience, all the while showing us the relationships and bonds formed amongst the women, the strength, the resilience, the fight present within these women's souls.

The author also clearly did her research in laying out a picture of what society was like figuratively and landscape-wise. She places us literally within the streets of town, and at times it feels as if I have actually gone back in time myself.

This novel is so unique and beyond excellent. I have to admit, this can sometimes but hard and difficult material to read, however it is displayed tastefully and balanced appropriately, and is so worth the read.

For anyone that loves historical fiction, ancient settings, and strong female characters.

5/5 stars

Thank you to NG and Head of Zeus for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately (as of 2/12/21 no BB listing has been created) and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

Engaging start and really good concept but the story is not for me unfortunately.

The language is good and the storyline is intriguing but when it comes to it, I found it really slow to get going.

I’m not invested in any of the characters or care to follow them through.