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The Last Girls of Pompeii
In Pompeii, in the summer of A.D. 79, Julia and Sura appear to lead opposite lives. Julia is the daughter of a wealthy ship-builder; Sura is an orphan. Julia bears the Curse of Venus—a withered arm; Sura’s beauty turns heads. Julia is free; Sura is her slave. Then Julia learns that her parents are planning to put her in the service of the Temple of Damia, the center of a cultish new religion, and Sura will be sold to an awful man who plans to make her his concubine. But when Mt. Vesuvius erupts, Julia’s and Sura’s fates are forever altered, forcing them both to face the true meaning of freedom.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published May 17, 2007
6 people are currently reading
786 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Lasky
266 books2,279 followersKathryn Lasky, also known as Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann, is an award-winning American author of over one hundred books for children and adults. Best known for the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, her work has been translated into 19 languages and includes historical fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
October 4, 2015
A quick read - not quite as good as some of Lasky's others. I would put this in young adult rather than children's fiction as the themes are a bit mature (lecherous advances, marriage concerns, adultery). The Pompeii and eruption in this book are not quite as exciting and descriptive as in Caroline Lawrence's juvenile book Pirates of Pompeii nor is this city as 'real' as the Pompeii of Falco's pre-eruption visit in Lindsey Davis's Shadows in Bronze. Still a good story about the two girls coming to terms with what life has dealt them with good descriptions of the society of the period.
April 11, 2017
I've always had a fascination with Pompeii, and usually when I know a book is about something, that's all I can focus on until it happens. Pompeii. A volcano erupts and lots of people are killed. 25 hours and a city is completely buried in the remnants of a volcanic explosion. That's kind of a big deal! And yet, I found myself completely forgetting about this imminent doom as I was reading. I would see the word "Pompeii" and think, "Oh, yeah!" I was so lost in the story of Julia and her slave Sura that I wasn't hyper focused on the main event.
This was a great little book!
This was a great little book!
May 31, 2020
I love history and stories about Pompeii, so I was excited to read this, but I could not make it through. The storyline was tolerable but there were so many grammatical errors (“you’re” instead of “your,” “than” instead of “then,” etc.) that I had to stop. Plus, for this to be geared towards younger teens (the protagonist is 12), I found there to be too many references to sex and inappropriate humor. Though I suppose perhaps that is historically accurate for Romans. Either way, this was not interesting enough to continue to the end and the grammatical errors were a definite turnoff.
May 20, 2013
I LOVED this book! It was just for me. One of the reasons I liked it was because it was set in Pompeii and about the eruption! I'm learning latin right now and I love to study it. I'm so glad I picked this book.
August 7, 2021
Like The Monster of Florence, this one had been sitting on my shelf for years. The title is overdramatic--Areg and I saw a documentary by the British Museum in which two experts (one of them Mary Beard) that said an estimated 90% of the populations of Pompeii and Herculaneum had escaped--but I'm not going to ping Lasky for that given that I didn't know better, myself.
12-year-old Julia is the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder, but since one of her arms is small and withered her options in life will be limited. Sura is Julia's personal salve, a 16-year-old who was captured in Thrace when she was 6, whose options in life are, of course, basically nonexistent. Julia's two older sisters are getting married within a month of each other and she's sick to death of wedding prep. Meanwhile, her parents are trying to decide the best future for their youngest daughter, whose arm will prevent her from marrying, and with Sura once they've figured out what to do with Julia. Sura's not happy with what she knows of their plans but unfortunately her brother, a successful gladiator, is unlikely to earn enough money to buy her freedom before she's sold off. And in the background there are signs that something much bigger is wrong: tremors in the earth, cracks in buildings and aqueducts, sulfurous smells in the water, changing tides, and a whole lot of augurs, seers, and sibyls confused about the signs they're getting.
I have very strong mixed feelings: on the one hand, Lasky did a good job of making early AD Rome come to life. The historical detail was rich, with a mostly decent balance of explanation (though there were a few infodumps) and plot. And the plot itself surprised me, for a book with a note that it's for ages 11 and up, with its many side plots and supporting characters' stories that still cohered in only 175 pages. Only two major supporting characters in a big family felt one-dimensional. It's easy to remember why I enjoyed Lasky's historical fiction when I was in middle school.
On the other hand, I was kind of shocked at how mature some of the themes were in a book billed for ages 11 and up, and I say that as someone who generally thinks that kids can handle more than we give them credit for: there were lecherous men, coerced kisses and threats of rape, implied slaves-for-sex, a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old "in love" and planning to elope, married and pregnant teenagers, extramarital affairs, freakin' penis jokes--it's frankly amusing that Pompeii's famous brothels don't get a mention. All of it is perfectly expected for the time period, but it seems like 13 should be the recommended minimum age here.
The writing was also a bit clunky. There were unannounced perspective switches between Julia and Sura in a few places, a couple info dump-y paragraphs, and Sura had much less space in the text than Julia did even though I wanted more about her life. At one point, the actual full sentence "He was a Jew" was followed mere sentences later by a much smoother introduction of this fact when a character playful asks (paraphrased), "How can a Jewish restauranteur serve such delicious shellfish?" And the Epilogue was written in a style that suggested these characters were based on real people whose bodies/casts had been found, which was a major tonal shift from the rest of the book, seriously muddied the waters about what Lasky based on reality and what she invented, and (in more of a personal preference) gave a much too neat-and-tidy ending in contrast to the delightfully messy human lives that came before.
Those messy lives, which made up the bulk of the book, were what I enjoyed the most: I loved having a physically imperfect protagonist whose character isn't totally defined by their difference; seeing the vast contrast between Julia and Sura's lives and experiences; watching loving parents grapple with politics, finances, and wanting the best possible future for a daughter with limited options; watching other adults have complicated emotional and social lives; and at the same time seeing siblings--children--with smaller, pettier concerns and resentments and oversimplified views of the world. It's complicated in a realistic way that you don't often see in stories for this audience. Lasky was blunt and honest about the prevalence and likely emotional complications of Roman slavery, and even if Julia and Sura's relationship was more modern than it would have been, the social divide wasn't downplayed: when Julia suggests running away with Sura, even her progressive best friend points out that it would be considered theft.
Overall, I enjoyed this middle school book a great deal more than I expected, but that unexpected enjoyment made the literary lapses and odd moments of modern thought (fear of snakes, which were sacred; Julia declaring that she and Sura are both slaves; ; Julia and Sura declaring that they are sisters at heart) all the more of a let down.
Still, on balance my final impression of The Last Girls of Pompeii is more favorable than not; I know I would have loved this book when I was its target audience.
12-year-old Julia is the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder, but since one of her arms is small and withered her options in life will be limited. Sura is Julia's personal salve, a 16-year-old who was captured in Thrace when she was 6, whose options in life are, of course, basically nonexistent. Julia's two older sisters are getting married within a month of each other and she's sick to death of wedding prep. Meanwhile, her parents are trying to decide the best future for their youngest daughter, whose arm will prevent her from marrying, and with Sura once they've figured out what to do with Julia. Sura's not happy with what she knows of their plans but unfortunately her brother, a successful gladiator, is unlikely to earn enough money to buy her freedom before she's sold off. And in the background there are signs that something much bigger is wrong: tremors in the earth, cracks in buildings and aqueducts, sulfurous smells in the water, changing tides, and a whole lot of augurs, seers, and sibyls confused about the signs they're getting.
I have very strong mixed feelings: on the one hand, Lasky did a good job of making early AD Rome come to life. The historical detail was rich, with a mostly decent balance of explanation (though there were a few infodumps) and plot. And the plot itself surprised me, for a book with a note that it's for ages 11 and up, with its many side plots and supporting characters' stories that still cohered in only 175 pages. Only two major supporting characters in a big family felt one-dimensional. It's easy to remember why I enjoyed Lasky's historical fiction when I was in middle school.
On the other hand, I was kind of shocked at how mature some of the themes were in a book billed for ages 11 and up, and I say that as someone who generally thinks that kids can handle more than we give them credit for: there were lecherous men, coerced kisses and threats of rape, implied slaves-for-sex, a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old "in love" and planning to elope, married and pregnant teenagers, extramarital affairs, freakin' penis jokes--it's frankly amusing that Pompeii's famous brothels don't get a mention. All of it is perfectly expected for the time period, but it seems like 13 should be the recommended minimum age here.
The writing was also a bit clunky. There were unannounced perspective switches between Julia and Sura in a few places, a couple info dump-y paragraphs, and Sura had much less space in the text than Julia did even though I wanted more about her life. At one point, the actual full sentence "He was a Jew" was followed mere sentences later by a much smoother introduction of this fact when a character playful asks (paraphrased), "How can a Jewish restauranteur serve such delicious shellfish?" And the Epilogue was written in a style that suggested these characters were based on real people whose bodies/casts had been found, which was a major tonal shift from the rest of the book, seriously muddied the waters about what Lasky based on reality and what she invented, and (in more of a personal preference) gave a much too neat-and-tidy ending in contrast to the delightfully messy human lives that came before.
Those messy lives, which made up the bulk of the book, were what I enjoyed the most: I loved having a physically imperfect protagonist whose character isn't totally defined by their difference; seeing the vast contrast between Julia and Sura's lives and experiences; watching loving parents grapple with politics, finances, and wanting the best possible future for a daughter with limited options; watching other adults have complicated emotional and social lives; and at the same time seeing siblings--children--with smaller, pettier concerns and resentments and oversimplified views of the world. It's complicated in a realistic way that you don't often see in stories for this audience. Lasky was blunt and honest about the prevalence and likely emotional complications of Roman slavery, and even if Julia and Sura's relationship was more modern than it would have been, the social divide wasn't downplayed: when Julia suggests running away with Sura, even her progressive best friend points out that it would be considered theft.
Overall, I enjoyed this middle school book a great deal more than I expected, but that unexpected enjoyment made the literary lapses and odd moments of modern thought (fear of snakes, which were sacred; Julia declaring that she and Sura are both slaves; ; Julia and Sura declaring that they are sisters at heart) all the more of a let down.
Still, on balance my final impression of The Last Girls of Pompeii is more favorable than not; I know I would have loved this book when I was its target audience.
November 12, 2021
Over a decade ago is when I first stumbled upon this book at the library, probably soon after it was first published. It stuck with me for years and I would always randomly remember the prophecy "when it snows in the summer...". I couldn't remember the name of the book or even that it was about Pompeii, although I remembered it being about a volcanic eruption. Finally, last week, I was talking with my librarian sister-in-law and she found the book for me! I immediately bought it off eBay for less than $5.
That said, it was even more interesting to me now as a 24-year-old woman than a 12-year-old girl. Especially the author's note and historical note. Definitely keeping this one around for my kids when they're a bit older.
That said, it was even more interesting to me now as a 24-year-old woman than a 12-year-old girl. Especially the author's note and historical note. Definitely keeping this one around for my kids when they're a bit older.
July 11, 2008
I've always been fascinated by Pompeii. A city covered by ash, lost and forgotten to be unearthed thousands of years later, frozen in time. This is a book about two girls, living in Pompeii at the time of Vesuvius's eruption. Julia is the daughter of a wealthy and important man. Sura is her slave. They're more like sisters than that power differential implies, though; Julia has no other friends, her oldest sister is cruel to her because of the small, useless arm Julia was born with, and Sura is the closest person to her.
Julia and Sura have noticed strange things going on in Pompeii--a rotten egg smell, fountains that stop running in the night, but they have more important concerns. Julia's parents have been treating her strangely, Sura believes that she's soon to be sold, and then there's the seer in the cave who tells Julia that, when the snow falls in the summer, she has to leave.
Thsi book has so much potential, and while it's definitely an enjoyable and intruiging read, it doesn't quite live up to it. There's a strange twist at the end that isn't fleshed out, a romantic relationship that falls short of heart-hammering, and deaths that just...aren't mournable, because you don't know the characters well enough.
Julia and Sura have noticed strange things going on in Pompeii--a rotten egg smell, fountains that stop running in the night, but they have more important concerns. Julia's parents have been treating her strangely, Sura believes that she's soon to be sold, and then there's the seer in the cave who tells Julia that, when the snow falls in the summer, she has to leave.
Thsi book has so much potential, and while it's definitely an enjoyable and intruiging read, it doesn't quite live up to it. There's a strange twist at the end that isn't fleshed out, a romantic relationship that falls short of heart-hammering, and deaths that just...aren't mournable, because you don't know the characters well enough.
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August 10, 2010THIS IS A HORRIBLE BOOK!!!!! THERE IS HARSH LANGUAGE, RUDE BEHAVIOR, AND A TRAUMATIZING.... *decides not to continue* And to top it all off, they gave all of the corpses, the REAL actual corpses found in pompei, names in the ending. Lasky described which characters they were, what they had been doing when they got caught in the volcano, and who had been discovered or not. That had gave me shivers that lasted for three days. It's educantional and a good idea to do, but frightening to some readers. (Like m'ua) HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE!! You can trust me when I say I am never going to pick this book up again. >:(
Okay, Kathryn Lasky is a good writer. Good, as in GREAT. I'm a great fan of Guardians of Ga'Hoole (great as in addicted), so it's not enough for me to start ignoring her books. I read this three years ago, so it would have probably been better for me to read it now then it would have then. *sighs* Oh well. I (probably) still would have disliked it.
Okay, Kathryn Lasky is a good writer. Good, as in GREAT. I'm a great fan of Guardians of Ga'Hoole (great as in addicted), so it's not enough for me to start ignoring her books. I read this three years ago, so it would have probably been better for me to read it now then it would have then. *sighs* Oh well. I (probably) still would have disliked it.
June 5, 2013
Well anything about Pompeii is fun to explore. This young adult novel has been well researched by Lasky. I feel this book is basically geared for young women aged around 13 and up. There are some slight references to sex that might either be lost on the younger set or be too mature. There is lots of imagery as well as great descriptive writing how the characters dressed and what they ate, as well as the jewelry they wore and their hairstyles. This is another reason I feel this book will appeal to females as opposed to most young adult males. So for the teenage girl with a passion for history, I would highly recommend this book. It flows well; I did not put it down until I completed the entire novel--and learned some things along the way. For example, there were no tomatoes or pasta discovered from this era of Italy...which I found very interesting. Pre-tomato/pasta Italy. So there is much to be learned in this tale.
March 11, 2008
My local library catalogued this as J, but I think it's young adult. I couldn't put this one down--life in Pompeii was so vividly drawn. Made me want to read more novels set in Roman times. I wasn't entirely happy with the ending, however. Lasky described the sea as drawing back, which should have meant a tsunami, and when Cara and Sura went into the sibyl's cave, they should have been drowned. Instead the sibyl tells them to walk toward the sea, and you get the impression that they caught a ship out there and escaped. No, I think they should have been swept away by a tsunami. It spoiled what was up until that point an excellent story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2014
It’s a solid middle school level presentation of Pompeii’s last days and hours, but the writing style is one of trying to cram in as many facts as possible in a short amount of space.
There’s a lot of “as you know Bob” to the book as characters chatter to each other about the art, architecture, custom and culture of the 1st century as Vesuvius sends out ignored warning signs that it’s about to blow its top.
The main character and her family are very relatable as the parents worry about money and politics and the sisters squabble about everything and anything - after all: times change, people don't.
August 13, 2007
In the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Julia is a wealthy crippled girl and Sura is her beautiful slave. While they lead totally opposite lives, they are best friends. During a couple of eventful weeks, the girls' world completely changes as they are forced to grow-up and see where their paths will split and what the future will hold. Looming over all of these events is the volcanic Mt. Vesuvius and the earthquakes that are becoming more and more frequent. What does Fate have in store for these two girls?
June 6, 2016
I did not get very far into the book before I quit. When the main character was at the public baths and the talk turned to male genitals, I quit reading. Seriously, did the conversation have to turn to that? We know that the public baths were a place of gossip...couldn't a book geared toward 9 to 12yo's have been gossip of a non-sex nature??? As a homeschooling mom, I have a hard time finding good historical fiction. Looks like for Pompeii, we will be reading the picture book, Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit. Sad!
June 9, 2010
Once again, Lasky has written a simple story set in Pompeii during the time of Vesuvius's volcanic eruption. Of course, that backdrop sets up the dramatic irony for the story. Everything is heightened because we know that Vesuvius is going to erupt while the citizens do not.
Lasky includes many Roman details (such as eating dormice and religious ceremonies) that bring this story to life.
Lasky includes many Roman details (such as eating dormice and religious ceremonies) that bring this story to life.
November 1, 2023
I don't usually want to give up on a book after the first two chapters, but I'm someone for whom too many mistakes is galling and feels that it makes it difficult to read.
=Chapter One=
• One sentence involves a missing apostrophe on a possessive.
• There is a syntax error when Sura thinks of her family—"brother older" rather than "older brother".
• The names seem to be nonstandard Latin. I'm no where near an expert on Roman naming conventions, but they seem off-kilter anyway.
• Unless we're supposed to believe that Julia's parents are first cousins on their fathers' side, they would not share surnames like that.
=Chapter Two=
• Cornelia getting married at the age of eighteen is very late for that era. Her parents probably would've had to offer a bigger dowry to make up for her advanced age.
• Julia would buy Sura a red cap? But it's not the cap that would free the slave (I've never heard of such a thing, actually)—drawing up manumission papers frees the slave!
• This one actually made me laugh: when they were in the chamber that contained the lararium, it said that Venus and Jupiter were married.
Wow...maybe make sure you know your deities before you write a story that mentions them? Jupiter = Zeus and Venus = Aphrodite, who aren't married! It's okay if Venus has a prominent place in the lararium because she's the family patroness, but Jupiter's wife is Juno! (Hera).
YIKES!
=1 Nov=
Homonym confusion ("insure" vs "ensure"), at least one word missing a letter, several pieces of missing punctuation...how did this ever get to press?
There doesn't seem to be any indication that Bona Dea was ever called "Damia". Furthermore, the appearance of serpents in Pompeii wasn't strictly limited to Bona Dea's shrines; they often appeared in lararia by themselves or in connection with other deities.
And finally, the pronuba mixup. When Herminia announces that Julia is going to be one of Cornelia's bridesmaids, Julia asks about Cornelia's best friend, Flavia. Herminia says that Flavia is going to be the pronuba, the all-important third bridesmaid. But when Sura runs to Marcus for help, she tells him that Julia is going to be pronuba instead. I'm guessing that Julia having the role is an idea that was leftover from an earlier draft and never fixed.
=Chapter One=
• One sentence involves a missing apostrophe on a possessive.
• There is a syntax error when Sura thinks of her family—"brother older" rather than "older brother".
• The names seem to be nonstandard Latin. I'm no where near an expert on Roman naming conventions, but they seem off-kilter anyway.
• Unless we're supposed to believe that Julia's parents are first cousins on their fathers' side, they would not share surnames like that.
=Chapter Two=
• Cornelia getting married at the age of eighteen is very late for that era. Her parents probably would've had to offer a bigger dowry to make up for her advanced age.
• Julia would buy Sura a red cap? But it's not the cap that would free the slave (I've never heard of such a thing, actually)—drawing up manumission papers frees the slave!
• This one actually made me laugh: when they were in the chamber that contained the lararium, it said that Venus and Jupiter were married.
Wow...maybe make sure you know your deities before you write a story that mentions them? Jupiter = Zeus and Venus = Aphrodite, who aren't married! It's okay if Venus has a prominent place in the lararium because she's the family patroness, but Jupiter's wife is Juno! (Hera).
YIKES!
=1 Nov=
Homonym confusion ("insure" vs "ensure"), at least one word missing a letter, several pieces of missing punctuation...how did this ever get to press?
There doesn't seem to be any indication that Bona Dea was ever called "Damia". Furthermore, the appearance of serpents in Pompeii wasn't strictly limited to Bona Dea's shrines; they often appeared in lararia by themselves or in connection with other deities.
And finally, the pronuba mixup. When Herminia announces that Julia is going to be one of Cornelia's bridesmaids, Julia asks about Cornelia's best friend, Flavia. Herminia says that Flavia is going to be the pronuba, the all-important third bridesmaid. But when Sura runs to Marcus for help, she tells him that Julia is going to be pronuba instead. I'm guessing that Julia having the role is an idea that was leftover from an earlier draft and never fixed.
May 11, 2021
I enjoyed seeing the the life of the world in Pompeii, but knowing my history (and even the title of the book), it was obvious what was coming. The characters were a little flat to an extent - I think Sura might have been the best defined. But I liked the rituals and the nod to the paying off of the seers for a favourable outcome.
The book, for as short as it is, did drag at points. I think some of it was that I thought the eruption would play more of a role, and we'd see the characters in the aftermath. Instead, the book ends on the eruption, basically. (I did like knowing where the characters ended up and their fates - though I was surprised that we don't know what became of Bryzos).
Speaking of Bryzos - I think I wanted more there. But the gladitorial games didn't serve much point to me, other than to paint them in as "this is a thing that would happen". Oh hey, look, the two gladiators we know about are fighting each other. It just lacked some of the tension I think I was supposed to feel. Sure, I sort of cared about Bryzos not dying, but overall, there weren't any stakes.
And that may have been some of problem I struggled with - there was a lack of stakes. The only stakes that seemed bad were Sura being sold, but there was little emphasis on Julia and the Temple. Sure, Julia didn't particularly want it, but we never saw the Temple as "terrible" except that she wouldn't get to live the life she had been. (Julia had already acknowledged never getting married, but that was the only future part we got.) Perhaps it was because she was supposed to be a young teen so didn't think about the future, but I found little there to be sympathetic to.
I think I was also expecting to see a little more of their (Julia and Sura) life after Pompeii rather than a neat little "and they became grape farmers". No indication that they even cared about anyone left behind or grieved for who they lost (Marcus and Bryzos, specifically).
All in all, I enjoyed the novel for its depiction of a patrician family preparing for a wedding while balancing their civic duties (father as magistrate and mother for Venus), though I was left a little unsatisfied at the end.
The book, for as short as it is, did drag at points. I think some of it was that I thought the eruption would play more of a role, and we'd see the characters in the aftermath. Instead, the book ends on the eruption, basically. (I did like knowing where the characters ended up and their fates - though I was surprised that we don't know what became of Bryzos).
Speaking of Bryzos - I think I wanted more there. But the gladitorial games didn't serve much point to me, other than to paint them in as "this is a thing that would happen". Oh hey, look, the two gladiators we know about are fighting each other. It just lacked some of the tension I think I was supposed to feel. Sure, I sort of cared about Bryzos not dying, but overall, there weren't any stakes.
And that may have been some of problem I struggled with - there was a lack of stakes. The only stakes that seemed bad were Sura being sold, but there was little emphasis on Julia and the Temple. Sure, Julia didn't particularly want it, but we never saw the Temple as "terrible" except that she wouldn't get to live the life she had been. (Julia had already acknowledged never getting married, but that was the only future part we got.) Perhaps it was because she was supposed to be a young teen so didn't think about the future, but I found little there to be sympathetic to.
I think I was also expecting to see a little more of their (Julia and Sura) life after Pompeii rather than a neat little "and they became grape farmers". No indication that they even cared about anyone left behind or grieved for who they lost (Marcus and Bryzos, specifically).
All in all, I enjoyed the novel for its depiction of a patrician family preparing for a wedding while balancing their civic duties (father as magistrate and mother for Venus), though I was left a little unsatisfied at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2022
The Last Girls of Pompeii is told by two perspectives. One from Julia who was born in the high upper-class and the other by her slave Sura. Julia was born with one shriveled arm and goes about her days trying to discover if it was a curse or a blessing from Venus. Her “perfect” sister is soon to be married and doesn't want Julia to mess anything up and to hide her arm. Thanks to Sura, Julia discovers her parents are going to give her away to a temple. She must keep it a secret while making plans to run away with the boy she has fallen in love with. But during her sister's wedding, when they planned to leave the earth trembles and the ground shakes. The volcano has erupted and chaos soon follows. Julia is separated from her family and walks towards the shore with Sura, hand in hand. This book is not only a historical fiction and includes parts of the daily lives of both the upper and lower class of the citizens in Pompeii. But also goes through the struggles of trying to fit in which makes it a great read in the classroom.
October 14, 2021
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is reminiscent of Karen Cushman's stellar novel "Catehrine, called Birdy". This is emotional story about a young girl in Pompeii named Julia and her slave Sura. As the two come to realize that their fates are set by others and they are in bondage by powerful men in their lives, one to sold to another master, and the other to a new religious cult, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius changes their destinies forever and they create a new life for themselves in relative peace and happiness.
November 3, 2019
This had potential, but it was not a good read for me. I was sadly disappointed with way the story went. The book was a just a build up to the event that lasted a few pages? Its like Lasky rushed the ending and they were happily ever after ending and that's it? I love books that have the Pompeii setting but this book did not hit the mark it was rushed and focused on details that did not add anything to the story. 1.5 stars.
May 23, 2018
Overall, I wasn't impressed. Something just seemed off with the writing and I didn't connect with the characters very well. There was some educational portions, but then some parts that I would be uncomfortable letting my niece read. So I'm confused as to what age she was trying to set this for. Maybe look through it before you buy for your child if they're under like 14?
January 11, 2019
Definitely felt more middle grade than YA. Characters and plot were very static and the plot seemed more of a chance to talk about all the research the author did than an actual story. Plot threads and elements went absolutely nowhere, and the ending wrapped up nothing. Horribly dull. At least it was only 173 pages.
January 13, 2019
This is a good book for middle grade readers who are interested in the history of Pompeii. It was very well researched and the ancient world was brought to life colorfully and interestingly. Having studied Latin I had an interest in Pompeii and I found this story compelling. I would probably use this in my classroom.
May 3, 2019
A well-written story about Roman history, culture, religion, and gladiators during the last days of Pompeii with interesting characters.
However, this book needs a glossary, and I would not recommend it to any of the YA readers I know. As an adult, the undefined use of Roman terms was very off-putting, and the context was not always clear.
However, this book needs a glossary, and I would not recommend it to any of the YA readers I know. As an adult, the undefined use of Roman terms was very off-putting, and the context was not always clear.
January 12, 2018
Such a great book! I recommend teens read this book, because there are some hard to understand words. The book really draws you in, because it is very descriptive. I think the author did a great job of setting the story in the time is was supposed to be in! Great book!
April 24, 2019
This is an interesting look at life in the last days of Pompeii. I really appreciated the authors note at the end explaining the archeological evidence used to inspire this story. The characters are well written and it’s a great quick read.
December 2, 2017
Reread an old favorite!
September 14, 2018
Oof. That was heartbreaking.
I mean, you start reading a book about Pompeii and you kind of know things aren't going to end well, but I wasn't expecting that particular ending.
I mean, you start reading a book about Pompeii and you kind of know things aren't going to end well, but I wasn't expecting that particular ending.
December 17, 2018
It’s not often you cheer for the volcano to erupt quickly....but anything to help the two heroines avoid what’s being planned for them.
September 6, 2021
I found it somewhat boring sorry
February 17, 2024
Really 3.5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews