The Wolf Den

Written By Linda Malek

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Reviewed by Mimi
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Thank you to @headofzeus for this copy!🧡

The Wolf Den is a brothel in pre-Vesuvius Pompeii. A time of togas, Latin and slaves. Amara was the daughter of a Doctor but when her Father died, her family fell on hard times and she was sold into slavery, ending up as a prostitute in a brothel run by Felix, a manipulative and unkind master who knows the politics of the underworld of Pompeii like the back of his hand.

This isn't a story of Amara fighting Felix at every opportunity with outward aggression. She is much smarter than that and looks at everything that happens to her as an opportunity to plot and scheme for her freedom. Whether it's performing her part for an older patron or feigning deep affection for a young boy wanting to be a man, she knows the game she has to to play to get where she wants. It's impressive.

Amara as a protagonist is magnetic, I was really invested in the story but it wasn't because lots was happening. It was her approach that was so interesting. Her thought process was so logical and I was intrigued all the way through. The dynamic she has with the other prostitutes and the relationship she has with Felix just make for a really enjoyable read.
A lovely bit of escapism!

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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