Author: Elodie Harper
Begun: Feb 15th 2025
Finished: Feb 17th 2025
Type: ebook
Rating: 9.5/10
Holy cow.
Some books are just.....they're a cut above.
This book ripped the beating heart out of my chest and squeezed it.
Starkly brutal depiction of life as a brothel slave in Pompeii. It helps you understand exactly what it's like - the fear, pain, heartache, disgust, the panic at being so trapped and powerless. Absolutely appalling.
When I would drag myself out of the book and look around, coming back to awareness of who I am, where I live, my life, and how different it is from Amara's, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. How thankful I am to live at this point in history, in this country, to have a home of my own, clean water, enough food, to be free.
A warning for those sensitive to it: this book has more f-bombs than any other I have read, I think. But even though it's an astounding amount, it totally fits the setting and doesn't feel egregious.
Given the book's setting it won't surprise you to learn that there is slavery, rape, violence, murder, and cruelty both intensely personal and unthinkingly impersonal.
Highly HIGHLY recommend. I haven't lost myself like that in a book for many many years. Utterly astonishing.
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