Review: Pompeii by T.L. Higley |

Title: Pompeii: City on Fire
Author: T.L. Higley
Released: June 1, 2011
Publisher: B&H Books
Pages/Format: 368 (ARC)
Genre: Historical Christian Fiction
Source: Publisher

Pompeii, a city that’s many things to many people. For Cato, it’s the perfect escape from a failed political career in Rome. A place to start again, become a winemaker. But when a corrupt politician wrongfully jails Cato’s sister, he must oust the man from power to save her.

For Ariella, Pompeii is a means to an end. As a young Jew, she escaped the fall of Jerusalem only to endure slavery to a cruel Roman general. She ends up in Pompeii, disguised as a young man and sold into a gladiator troupe. Her anger fuels her to fight well, hoping to win the arena crowds and reveal her gender at the perfect time. Perhaps then she will win true freedom.

But evil creeps through the streets of Pompeii. Political corruption, religious persecution, and family peril threaten to destroy Ariella and Cato, who are thrown together in the battle to survive. As Vesuvius churns with deadly intent, the two must bridge their differences to save the lives of those they love, before the fiery ash buries Pompeii, leaving the city lost to the world.

One Sentence Review: Pompeii is a gripping and subtly educational story with a strong female protagonist and an abundance of historical detail.

In-Depth Review

¡Warning! This review contains spoilers. They are clearly marked in bold caps so that you can easily avoid them if you wish.

The Ruins of Pompeii

Pompeii begins with a gripping account of the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD from the perspective of Ariella, a sixteen-year-old Jewish girl who is captured and sold on the Roman slave market. After nine years under the thumb of an evil general, she escapes, ditches her long locks, and joins a gladiator troupe headed to the seaside vacation town of Pompeii. Pretty soon we meet Cato, a Roman politician-turned-winemaker who moves to Pompeii with his mother and sister to start a new business and escape the reminders of his failed political career in Rome. Throw in a corrupt politician with eyes for Cato’s sister, an evil cult, and a volcano waiting to swallow Pompeii in ash, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a plot.

What first caught my attention about this book was the fact that it’s about a female gladiator. My inner feminist (and let’s face it, we all have one) was screaming “girl power!” and dying to read about a tough young woman who trains hard, defies the odds, and wins fight after fight against opponents twice her size. (Think Rocky for women.) *Ahem* Higley takes the more realistic route and {SPOILER} instead of reading about Ariella’s amazing colosseum conquests, we see her struggle to keep up with the boys and ultimately have to be rescued from certain death by Cato. {END SPOILER} Despite being a little disappointing to the feminist ego, this is much more believable than Ariella SuperGladiatrix.

Another example of the realism I so appreciate in this book is the way it frankly looks at the less-than-savory aspects of Roman society, namely the use of slaves in grotesque sexual rituals performed to honor pagan gods. Not a pleasant topic in the least, but one that Higley handles exceptionally well. She is never graphic, but enough is implied to instill an appropriate sense of horror in the reader. Including this element in the story also adds a lot of depth to Ariella’s character. I understood her anger at God and Cato better in light of what she went through at the hands of her master.

The gospel is clearly presented within the story in a totally non-preachy way. I love how Higley shows readers the emotional process that Ariella went through on her journey to faith and the intellectual process that Cato underwent. Readers will also enjoy a glimpse of life in the early Christian church which was interestingly considered a cult in the first century Roman Empire.

The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius - J.M.W. Turner

I have only two complaints about the book. Every few chapters, Higley inserts a short monologue from the perspective of Mount Vesuvius. I wish these attempts at foreshadowing had been left out. I think they disrupted the flow of the text and didn’t really add anything to the story. I also had a hard time liking Cato, Ariella’s co-protagonist. He is a well-developed character and I think his personality complemented Ariella’s, but I found it difficult to like him on a personal level.

This is the first book I’ve read by Tracey Higley and it won’t be my last. She has a gift for bringing ancient cultures to life, and I think I learned more about the history of Pompeii from this novel than I did when studying it in grade school, all while being swept along in a suspenseful tale.

Other Reviews: Quiverfull Family | Title Trakk

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About T.L. Higley:

Tracey Higley earned a B.A. in English Literature at Rowan University before writing drama presentations for church ministry for ten years. A lifelong interest in history and mythology led Tracy to extensive research into ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, and now she travels the world and brings these ancient cultures to life in her trademark No Passport Required novels.