Status Updates From Locusta (The Poisoned Empir...

The political & conspiracy sections of the novel are its best parts, but the gaps between them are too large. It doesn't help that Locusta hasn't been involved in any of it since she arrived in Rome & decided to poison her first owner. All agency disappeared after that, and at nearly 80% she still doesn't seem to have any apart from hiding & having sexcapades. If this is meant to be feminist, it missed the mark.

If you can't write a good sex scene (or one that stays in the established setting), just fade to black. This felt like an emotionless play-by-play of a generic porno. We have "so damn sexy" co-existing with "gods" (to keep it Roman), incorrect info about female lubrication, & the eternal misogynistic assumption that all women need thrusting penetration to climax. It felt so out of place against the rest of the book.

I think it's been long enough since I read Greco-Roman historical literature and the combination of writing and audiobook narration quality that I'm actually having a good time with this. Hannah Curtis is truly embodying the character.

I ship the girls, but their reasons for loving each other ring very false. Livia has been sheltered her entire life, due to her elderly cousin's (justified) fears. Lo says all this nice stuff about how Livia is too good for the world, she lives life as it's meant to be lived, and I'm just ??? When? Where? She lives in constant fear & oppression, under a false mask to get by. Where is this capital-L "Life" Lo admires?