Beyond the Wall

by Tanya Landman

From Tanya Landman, author of the 2015 Carnegie Medal winner Buffalo Soldier, comes a heart-stopping tale of love, corruption and the power of choice. Blood on her lips. Blood on her tongue. Blood that is not her own. Cassia does not fear to die, but for her – for a slave who has maimed her master – there are worse things than death. Yet the mighty Roman Empire has its limits. Beyond her master’s estate, beyond the river, far to the north stands Hadrian’s Wall. And beyond the wall? Freedom. With dogs on her trail and a bounty on her head the journey seems impossible. But then Cassia meets Marcus – slick, slippery, silver-tongued – a true and perfect son of Rome. And her only hope.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Teen, Friendship

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2017

About the author

Carnegie Medal winning Tanya Landman is the author of more than thirty books for children and young adults.

Born and brought up in Kent, Tanya had no intention of becoming a writer until the idea for Waking Merlin popped into her head. "It came from nowhere. It was completely out of the blue."

Tanya now lives and works in Bideford and the nearby coastline was the inspiration for her Flotsam & Jetsam series.

Tanya's first books were "adventure stories with a sprinkling of magic and spoonful of humour." But then Tanya turned to crime, writing Mondays are Murder (winner of a Red House Book Award) - the first in a series of ten "Agatha-Christie-for-kids" featuring child sleuth Poppy Fields and her friend Graham. Her new highly illustrated books for younger children feature Sam Swann, an accident-prone boy sleuth and his faithful canine sidekick Watson.

Although she writes across a broad age range, Tanya is probably best known for her historical novels for young adults. 
Apache - set in 19th century America - was shortlisted for several UK awards including the Teenage Book Trust and the Carnegie Medal (where it was voted the Shadowing Groups favourite). The US edition won a Borders Original Voices prize and a Spur award from the Western Writers of America. 
The Goldsmith's Daughter - set in the Aztec empire during the Spanish invasion - was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. Buffalo Soldier
 won the 2015 Carnegie Medal. Hell and High Water - a swashbuckling thriller set in 18th century Devon - was shortlisted for the 2016 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her latest book Beyond the Wall is set in Roman Britain. Passing for White comes out later this year.

Reviews

[Ashleigh (a frolic through fiction) · Rating 1 out of 5]

*This book was sent to me by the publishers in exchange for an honest review

DNF'ed at page 154

I'm not really sure how to go about this. Because from what I read, it's not exactly a bad book. It's just...not one for me.

I didn't get along with the writing style. One of the first things I picked up on was the excess amount of exclamation marks used. Which fair enough, can show more emotion. But...it just made the main character sound like she was being melodramatic. I couldn't really take her seriously, she sounded somewhat childish. And I thought to myself "well, she is a teenage girl. Maybe that's how the author sees us all." Which wouldn't have made it any better, really. But then we switched to an old man's side of the story, and the exclamation marks were still there, and so...maybe not.

It didn't really help that the story moved so quickly. While it might be good for some - don't we all love getting through a book really quickly? - to me it just felt like every event was based off a lot of handy conveniences, when in reality nothing like that would have happened. Wow, this girl is lucky.

And while the story was going ok for me, something about the writing grated on me. I'm not saying it's an awful book - not at all - it's just really not for me. If someone else I know wants to read this book, then I'm happy to give it to them and hope they enjoy it more. It's just a shame I didn't like it myself, I had high hopes.

One final thing I feel I ought to mention: there's one particular sentence that lodged itself into my mind, because it just seemed...wrong. I would say racist, but it's a bit of a rocky situation, and I don't feel it's my place to say with certainty. I'll explain.

So, there's a scene where the main character is disguising herself so she can escape the city. Bare in mind this is set in the Roman Empire. So, the main character has these marks around her wrists and ankles where her mother had pricked pigment into her skin as a baby. As you would expect, these could be used to identify her. And so during the process of her disguise, this sentence says...

"Her arms and legs, her face and hands were darkened with walnut juice from the same source until the marks on ankles and wrists were almost obliterated and she looked like what she was pretending to be - the boy slave of a traveling trader."

Now for the many thoughts on this. First of all, I don't know how strong walnut juice works as a stain but just hang on - why does she need to be "darkened" to look like a slave? She was a slave right from the beginning of this book, with tanned skin from working outdoors and ginger hair. And it's mentioned countless times how pretty she is at that point. She was "chosen" for her master's son, of course she must be pretty. And yet, to LOOK like a slave she has to be..."darkened"? That just seems like racist prejudice to me. Would it not have been better to find a substance that closely matched her skin tone and just cover the marks? Or would that mean she doesn't look like a slave, if she keeps her natural skin tone? You see what I'm getting at here?

Of course, I may be wrong. I'm a teen blogger still learning every day about diversity and what phrases are a no-no, but the fact that that one sentence jumped out of the page at me screaming NO... Well, that says enough for me to at least mention it. I could be wrong. I could be making a fuss over nothing. It could be an unfortunate mess of phrasing. I will say that nothing else in the book seemed racist, though I can't vouch for the second half since I marked it DNF. It was just that one sentence, but I thought I'd mention it anyway because to me, it's just wrong.

Anyway, this "mini-review" is a not-so-mini review after all that explaining. But I hope I got my points across clearly. I just didn't want to continue this book and come out of it with a review full of hate, after forcing myself to finish it. So here we are today. This is just my experience of the book. No book is for everyone.

[Sarah ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wowowowowowowowow read this book if only for the last two pages, the narrator gets revealed and the story is left with so many questions but it feels like it's been pulled together beautifully and just wow this was great. and honestly, finding out who the narrator was? and seeing how the character's had grown up? it was AMAZING.

This novel is set in Rome, when the slave age was still large and our main character is a slave who has maimed her captor and escaped. She goes on a journey of self discovery and finally learns who she is meant to be and I honestly loved all the main characters. This book has really strong characters and an intriguing plot.

If you're a fan of historical fiction or books set in Rome, pick this up!

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of Beyond the Wall from Walker Books Australia to review.

I’ve never read a historical fiction book set in the Roman Empire. I don’t think I’ve read any books set in the Roman Empire actually… But when I heard about this on Booktube I thought it sounded really interesting and like a good way to see what this time in history was like.

I really liked Cassia. I thought she was really brave for standing up for herself. I’m not sure how often something like that would have happened back then, if ever, but I could not stand her master and what he expected her to do. All the entitlement from him and all the other Romans and how they felt like they were somehow better than others drove me crazy. Like I said, I don’t know anything about this time in history. I probably should have looked it up before I wrote this review but it’s too late now.

I wasn’t sure what to think of Marcus. He seemed way too nice and kept going out of his way to help Cassia for no reason that I could tell. Which made me instantly suspicious of him and figured that there must be more going on than what Marcus was telling Cassia. But I never came close to figuring it out.

I actually enjoyed Beyond the Wall. I think because I’ve never really read a book set during this time in history and it was all new to me. Obviously I can’t say how accurate this story is. But I thought this was a good first book for me to get into this time.

This was also the first book I’ve read by Tanya Landman. At the end of this there were a few of her other books being advertised (is that the right word?) and I thought some of them sounded pretty good. So I might try to find some of them one day.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who hasn’t read anything set in the Roman Empire, like me, but also to anyone who likes strong female characters. Cassia was the best part of the book for me.

[Monica Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tugged at my heart strings as I rooted for Cassia and her struggle to be free. I love ancient history but I think we forget just how miserable slavery was for people who lived in ancient times. This novel did a great job giving that perspective and how difficult it would have been to improve your life. I also liked the message that the book had about inspiring others. This book is classified as young adult but really didn't read like that. I would also caution younger teens from reading it as the subject matter could be tough to read.

[Teyla Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I planned to gave a three to this book until the last pages but I'm so disappointed with this open end... So many unanswered questions...

[✦ ✧ tay ✧ ✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this thoroughly, but it was also sort of confusing. When did Marcus change his mind? Was Cassia a Queen? Sort of left unanswered. But still rather good

[Kirin171 · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are good book, bad books and dumb books. This one was dumb. Double dumb if you are fan of history like me.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoyed Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff or Storm Sisters - The Sinking World by Mintie Das, I might recommend this book, a historical novel with YA content (due to the ever present violence of men towards women and girls), to you. It made me think of Sutcliffe's Eagle of the Ninth, but for older readers. Whilst it kept me reading to the end, one of the lead characters wasn't believable in terms of his motivation for his behaviour (in the end it turns out there is a reason for this, but for 2/3 of the book I was just left wondering why on earth he was behaving like he did, and this lack of believability reduced my enjoyment of the book). I personally was also uncomfortable with the omnipresent male (threat of) violence to women; perhaps this is historically accurate, but it made for an uncomfortable read for me, and one that left me wondering if it will only make young women feel less secure in the world, rather then more enabled, even though at the heart of this book there is a "strong" female lead, who defies convention and exhibits great bravery.

[Rianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't really know where to begin...

The story follows our two main characters Cassia and Marcus in the Roman empire. Cassia being a run-away slave and Marcus being a true son of Rome.

This book really picks up about half way through, that's when I started to enjoy it. In the beginning there are some interesting things that happen but after that the story kind of falls flat for a while.
Basically our characters are just traveling around alot. The story covers so much time and in a weird way it feels both rushed and extremely slow at the same time.

Cassia is not a very interesting person, sometimes she's very strong (well that's what the storyteller keeps telling us) but overall she has nothing much going for her.
Marcus is wayyy more intriguing. His character development was great and I truly enjoyed it.
The relationship between these two characters was not for me at all; just based on desire and a constant reminder from the author that they respected one another. Now this not really something I will ever ship/ see working out in the real world but that's just my opinion ofcourse...

Like already mentioned, half way through the book I started to enjoy the story. Still the writing seems very passive and there aren't that many interesting incidents that keep the plot going.

A two star rating from me, because I still liked the historical aspect of the story.

[Isobel Ramsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Roman Britain at the time when Rome's power was starting to crumble, this is both a thrilling adventure story and a study in corruption and abuse of power. It tells of a girl born into slavery who rebels against the fate her debauched and cruel master plans for her. She is aided by a Roman - Marcus Aquila (surely a nod to Rosemary Sutcliffe's Marcus Aquila in 'The Eagle of the Ninth') - whose agenda in helping her she constantly questions. Having recently read Sutcliffe's 'The Eagle of the Ninth' and Yourcenar's 'Memoirs of Hadrian', I couldn't help but have in mind these earlier books with their similar themes of the might of the Roman empire clashing with 'barbarian' tribes. So this review will focus on the similarities and differences between these three books, hopefully in a way that will offer an interesting perspective on all three.

Landman expands on Sutcliffe's critique of slavery and makes her own slave character, Cassia, a central protagonist. Indeed half the book is narrated from Cassia's point of view (by a storyteller whose identity is cleverly revealed at the end). This is effective in creating empathy for Cassia. Whilst enslaved Cassia and various other characters in the book are forced into sex work and treated worse than animals. I liked the fact that Landman chose to highlight the experience of female slaves, which I hadn't been so aware of before. Sutcliffe's slave character, Esca, on the other hand is a young man captured and condemned to gladiatorial combat who is rescued by a sympathetic Roman, Marcus. Esca then becomes Marcus's loyal sidekick. Again, Landman's Cassia contrasts with Sutcliffe's Esca in being much more questioning of her Roman 'saviour'.

There is little acknowledgement of the so-called civilising influence of Rome in Landman's book - the roads, bath-houses, trade and opportunities for provincials to become Roman citizens that the Romans offered in exchange for occupation. However, this is perhaps a necessary corrective to the many books focusing on the Romans' side of the story as opposed to that of the peoples they conquered. In Yourcenar's 'Memoirs of Hadrian' we hear about the achievements of one of Rome's 'good' emperors, whose legacy included improving the administration of the provinces and building the wall that separated Roman Britannia from the tribes beyond. This wall is an important symbol in Landman's book, marking the threshold which Cassia must cross to be free but also the fact that Rome's power is limited. Landman's book gains some of its tension from the potential that the tribes represent for overthrowing an empire that is overextended and governed by a corrupt elite.

In Sutcliffe's book there is an ominousness to what lies north of the wall. The mystery of what happened to the 9th legion, who were sent to quell troublesome tribes in Caledonia and never returned, hangs heavy over the tale. And the association of light and dark with the Romans and their enemies respectively suggests Sutcliffe's belief in the superiority of Roman civilisation. However in Landman's book, the Roman portrayal of the northern tribes as savages is completely reversed. Indeed it is the Romans themselves who come out of this tale as the savages, capable only of decadence and cruelty. Again this is a welcome corrective to the narrative that has dominated until now. However I would have liked to see a slightly more nuanced portrayal of the Romans. Arguably the book could have been longer to accommodate for this. It's brilliantly pacy - I read it in days - so a few more chapters wouldn't have detracted from the adventure.

All in all this is a gripping and thought-provoking read that I would recommend thoroughly. If you haven't read the Sutcliffe or Yourcenar yet these books are also excellent in their own way. Let's hope that many more excellent novelists are drawn to write about the Roman empire and neighbouring peoples...

[Anneka · Rating 5 out of 5]

“They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger... They ravage, they slaughter, they seize ... and all of this they hail as the construction of an empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.”
-Tacitus

Personally I loved this book. Sometimes I think (and this applies to me personally) we are too quick to forget how cruel the Roman Empire actually could be to the conquered. The Roman Empire was glorious and its easier for me not to think too much about the dark side of it, but this is a bad way to look at history. This book is mostly from the point of view of a British slave, and so we get a perspective you don’t often get in history. I loved Cassia, she was a good character, she was brave and willing to do what was right.
Marcus was also a good character and from him (especially later in the story), you see it all from a Eoman point of view and you see opinions changing, and how it isn’t a simple instant knowledge of what is right, it takes time. Marcus was a good character, and excepting about two chapters I really liked him.
In this story you also get to see the experience of salves (specifically female ones). I find I am often told that slavery was different in the Roman Empire than what our modern view is, and though if you had a kind master this was certainly true, slaves who were freed could become very wealthy, and their old masters were expected to assist them. If your master wasn’t kind though, things could be horrible, especially if you were an uneducated slave from a group of people the Romans saw as barbaric. The treatment of almost all the female slaves in this book was appalling, and though this was a book about escape, you did still understand how trapped they were, and how little choice that had in the matter.
This was a brilliant book I would recommend to anyone, it had good characters, a decent romance, s good story and looked at a side to the Roman Empire I find myself often trying to ignore.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, but I wasn't a fan of the open ending.

* Cassia, like her mother before her is a slave. Cassia has been being saved for the master's son, but when he dies, the master decides that she will be his concubine instead.
* When the master tries to kiss her, Cassia bites art od his ear off, and runs away.
* She ends up in a city with a little bit of help. She works for an apothecary until she is recognised and has to run again.
* A man called Marcus who got her the job as an apothecary helps her again, and they even go back to her master's house to take her brother, and 2 other slaves who tag along.
* After a long journey in which her brother has to pretend to be dead, they find themselves past the wall, and find a tribe which Cassia's mother originally belonged to.
* Marcus, who mistakenly believed that Cassia was a spy for the tribe, realises he was wrong and goes off on his own. He realises that he is in love with Cassia and goes back to ask her to help him free his sister.
* Phoebe is 2 years older than Marcus, and the daughter of his father's concubine. At the age of 12 their father sold his concubine and took his daughter Phoebe to be his new concubine.
* Marcus finds Phoebe who is heavily pregnant and also has a young daughter. They narrowly escape and head back for Britain.
* One arriving back on British soil Phoebe and her children get off the boat but Marcus and Cassia are swept out again and end up on the wrong side of the wall. The book ends thus, without us knowing if they all made it to safety.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style reminded me of books from my childhood -- it had a kind of timeless quality to it -- but was similarly lacking in plot and direction... Everything was very coincidental, falling into the characters' laps without any real effort or struggle on their part. They just think about a problem and figure out how to solve it.

Marcus was such a tool sldfkjdskl I lost my shit when he returns to his father's villa in Rome to rescue his half-sister, Phoebe, and comes across another slave girl.

She had obviously been put here to pleasure his father when the guests had left. Or perhaps she would be brought out earlier than that, for their entertainment.

He could do nothing for her. He had to force himself to go back out, to shut the door. The image of that helpless girl seared itself to the backs of his eyes. He had to forget it. He couldn’t help them all!

That fucking exclamation mark slays me. He couldn't help ALL the slaves, okay!!!!!! He certainly couldn't save this one girl from being raped!!!!! LOOK he's already helping Phoebe after abandoning her when she was twelve!!!! UGH what do you expect from him, hashtag not all men!!!!!!!

[Gaia Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a reading log I did on this:
Beyond the Wall
by Tanya Landman
Novel


‘Beyond the Wall’ by Tanya Landman is a novel about Cassia, born as a slave, ran away after maiming her master, far north to the wall, to freedom. With Marcus’s ‘a true and perfect son of Rome’ help, they free slaves, her friends and family so that they can all be free from Rome's empire. “Can one slave destroy an empire?” This book, I feel had inspiring themes/ideas about hope, freedom and how slaves, especially women and children, were treated.

It makes me angry that Cassia’s only role in life is to be a slave, ‘And so it was that on the very first morning of her life Cassia was marked by her master as a concubine. A mistress. A whore.’ [storyteller]. Only being alive to be a slave/whore is bleak, there isn’t really any point to life if it is to be degraded and used for the reward of the smallest amount of food a person can subsist on. Being told that you are an object or property rather than being a human is very degrading and makes you feel inhuman. The hierarchy and situation described in this book is horrible and the thing makes me sad is the fact that it is occurring in dark corners of society today and not fictional acts as in the book.

Having to be born into the right family is a really cruel trick of fate. In Cassia’s case, she was born into the world as a slave, so she was only seen as as slave, savage, an object. In the era that the book is set, there is a lot of sexism for example in the book; if you are a male you are higher up and superior to females. “Women! Who were only set on earth to be used by men.” [Marcus] When in reality they also are people who just want to be free and equal to men. After reading the book it made me think that in our western society we still haven’t truly stopped being and thinking this way that our society has done for thousands of years. Females are still paid less than men for the same job, migrants and less educated are earning less money than what they need to live comfortably and may be paid less than the minimum wage or be forced to work long hours. However, we are still a lot better than the situation in the book - women have more rights and aren't treated as objects that are only alive for pleasure and reproduction. For example, in New Zealand if a case of an exploited worker comes to light, then the government may prosecute the company and try to get the worker paid their due.

I believe once Cassia escaped she became, in the slave's eyes, a symbol of hope and freedom, her legend became greater when she freed Rufus, Flavia and Silvio. “Can one slave destroy an empire?” [storyteller] in a way Cassia did, because at the end when Cassia and Marcus are escaping they get chased by a mob of city people and Cassia said “Britons! Slaves! Cut your bonds. Seize your chance. You are your own masters now.” I feel along with what the storyteller said ‘Cassia, on the wall, rousing Britannia from her sleep. My sister was the spark that lit the fire. Slaves rose against their masters. Britons joined with Saxons to contest the might of Rome… On and on it went. It has taken most of the years of my life, but Rome has fallen. The Empire is dead. Some said that Cassia was the beginning of the end. She and the Roman Eagle she had bewitched.’ [storyteller] Cassia even changed Marcus’ perspective on slavery, hierarchy and life, you can see this because he went behind his father's back and decided to free his half sister Phoebe, her child and her newborn. In the end his perspective was changed so much that he joined Cassia’s wolf tribe and fought alongside them. I feel in everyday life we always have someone we look up to, like a family member, a teacher, sportsman, or something else, like an idea. I for example look up to my father, Darrell, he was told all his youth that he wasn’t going to do well and that he would end up as a gardener, and that he should tend the school garden instead of learning english and maths, he got bullied by his appearance and the fact he is dyslexic. But if you meet him now, because of all his hard work, he is now working on his 5th varsity degree, follows his creative passions, has his dream car, a loving family and is doing things he enjoys in life.

One thing I absolutely hate is how Tanya Landman (the storyteller) ended the book. The main characters, Cassia and Marcus, have just done all this great stuff, they freed Phoebe and her children, they survived a night on a boat, Cassia killed her master, Titus Cornelius Festus and they made their escape over the wall ‘Yet there were other soldiers on the wall. Two, three, more - coming from either side. They would reach Cassia and Marcus long before the warriors of her tribe could save them. The two of them stared down into the darkness on the other side. They regarded each other. Smiled. “We might die.” “We might live.” “We do it together.” Hand in hand, they jumped.’ However, the storyteller tells us ‘And so the story ends. With a birth or a death. Sometimes both. Sometimes neither.’ She then continues ‘There is neither beauty nor poetry in battle. To hear that tale, you must find a different teller. Or you must dream it for yourself.’ When Tanya Landman does this she is leaving the rest of the story to our imagination, which I hate because I just want to know what happens. ‘But how did they do it? What was their fate? Did they survive that Jump from the wall? What of Phoebe? Did she find her way to Cassia’s people? Her children - did they grow up free? Did they, in turn, fight Rome?’ [storyteller]. I just want to know but I can’t because of Tanya. I felt as if she didn’t know how to finish the book or if she somehow rushed the end.

I really enjoyed ‘Beyond the Wall’ and couldn't stop thinking about it, the characters and the ideas/themes around it. How Cassia was only allowed to live to be a slave, a whore, not a person but a savage which can be very degrading. But once she escaped she became a symbol of hope and freedom, especially for the slaves, she even changed Marcus’ rigid perspective on life, and mine too.

[Sarah Portlock · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this story is about a runaway slave (like that hasn't been done before). I know that many things in the book are a bit controversial. The book deals with mostly the dehumanization of women and how they're basically just a bit of pleasure. Personally, this is one of the reasons I knocked the book down to 4 stars. It seemed as if almost every chapter was going on about brutality placed on women. I know that this book was set in the Roman era but it just felt a bit too much. I think there were many chapters where I thought that it could've done without.
The second reason that I knocked this book down to 4 stars was basically the swapping in and out of first and third person. At the end of the novel, we find out who is the true narrator of the story but still, I believe it would've been better if it were told strictly through the third person.
However, the good thing about the novel that there was a lot of action. I think this was the main USP of the book because it was the only thing that kept me entertained. Without it, I would've DNFed it.
Overall I gave this book 4/5 stars. I disliked the dehumanization of women but enjoyed the action.

[Eileen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. From the Sant Cugat used bookstore's tiny English section, packed hastily before vacation. I regret that my 10yos read it before I did. We did discuss it, but I wish I hadn't bought it. This book has an historical premise but doesn't strive for historical accuracy. The most consistent throughline of the book is female slaves under threat of rape, some of it incestuous rape, fearing retribution from the men who kept them captive as well as basically any other man who felt like violating them. Frustratingly the MC, who was assigned a life as a concubine to a Roman son born the same day, ultimately partners voluntarily with the token good Roman who helps her under false pretenses after escaping her captor. The ending hits the wall, literally, and ends abruptly with a feeling of 'welp, that's my page count, book over' with some mumbo jumbo about the rest being the work of another storyteller or for you to dream yourself.

[Cathygillespie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story as I love anything about Roman Britain and its relationships with the native tribes and followed its breathless rush through the story hoping that the hero and heroine would prove victorious and meet up successfully with the other runaway slaves in their party only to be literally let down by the ending. I appreciate that the author is in the background telling the story but when they are revealed at the ending stating that it’s up to the reader to determine what happened next it becomes infuriating beyond belief, like the ending to “Atonement”. If you have enjoyed the story you want it brought to a denouement of some sort, not left quite literally hanging in the air. It has put me off reading anything else by Tanya Landman if this is how she treats her readers.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I was really comfortable with the style of writing which seemed to target a younger audience than some of the content would suggest, having said that I believe that people need to recognise the true price of slavery and Tanya Landman has at least made some inroads into this issue.
I was unsure about the story to begin with but it did become quite captivating if one managed to suspend belief regarding probability and accept this as a story rather than an accurate historical narrative.

[aisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book besides the first part, the wolf, it was quite underwhelming but over time the development of Cassia was pretty cool. I think my favorite part has to be part 2, the eagle, because I enjoyed reading about Marcus' story as it was really interesting and explored his character nicely so like its my favorite especially for how mysterious he seemed to be in the first part of the book. The end is kinda typical but that doesn't mean its bad so i enjoyed it. 3/5 was good

[I Read, Therefore I Blog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tanya Landman's latest YA historical novel revisits the themes of slavery, prejudice and oppression that are common in many of her books to powerful effect but the story here didn't grip me as much as in her other novels, in part because of the change in character perspective half way through, which created distance, but also because the plot just didn't catch fire for me - certainly not enough to believe it could inspire a wider revolution.

[Erika Lax · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hooked from the beginning and found myself rooting for Cassia and Marcus all the way through. The narrators voice was mildly irritating at first but it didn't intrude as much as I feared from the opening chapter. One or two minor inconsistencies were notable - Cassia's hair, cut as her disguise, grew back miraculously fast for her to be able to tie back her locks within days. I loved the sense of tension.

[Diana Mcmahon-Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Cassia a native Briton and slave who rebels against her master and has to flee for her life. She decides to head North to try to cross Hadrian's Wall as the tribes across the wall are still free. She is helped by Marcus a Roman who is not all he seems. Marcus has his own motives for helping Cassia which are revealed as their journey progresses. A good adventure story with a strong and capable heroine.

[AvaKatterwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this! I don't think I've read about Roman Britain, but it was a great setting (the entitlement of people is absurd tho)
Cassia is a great fmc, and i did like marcus too.
lost a star because the entitlement of some of the men was really overbearing; apparently you were a kind decent guy if you didn't go after every girl you saw. i mean idk if thats how it was back then, but clearly a toxic environment!
Loved the plot, setting and characters overall. 4 stars :)

[Jovita Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indeed she's a brilliant story teller. There are certain parts that could have been improved such as the chemistry between cassia and Marcus and of course a deeper and more detailed ending would be appreciated but nonetheless the book had be hooked. Perfect length, very interesting improvisations and wonderful storytelling.

[Alice Bolland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I thought it was really well-paced, with lovely characters and location descriptions. One of my favourite classical novels for younger audiences - a good level of historical detail and accuracy but not to the point of being pernickety or dull. Recommended to me by a student of mine and I can't wait to tell her how much I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Chris Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This will say I started it recently but in truth this books been on the go for months. In truth, I got bored. It’s a very slow read and by page 169 I was done, read the ending and was glad I had. It’s not terrible and perhaps if I was younger I’d prefer it still hence 2 stars instead of 1. First 100 pages was the best bit easily

[Catriona Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can only think of one word to describe this book: Wow. It is a great book with a beautiful idea and it has all come together wonderfully. I loved how they didn’t reveal the narrator till the end and how they left questions unanswered as the book finished for you to think answers for yourself. It’s a great book, definitely recommend

[Ell · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

I read this book when I was about 11 or 12 and loved it, so decided to reread it. While some bits don't quite hold up, like the ending, I still really enjoyed rereading it. It doesn't shy away from exploring the darker sides of Roman Britain or exploring themes of slavery, empire or rape, but handles these complex topics well.

[Adaire Pendragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been five stars if not for the open ending. I really enjoyed it, especially the character development of Marcus, who went from a closed minded Roman who sees only in black and white and thinks the only people who are people are other well-off Roman men to a generous man who is willing to risk his life to rescue those who he wouldn't even have spared an end slice of bread to before.