What strategies does Amara use to gain agency within an exploitative system, and which of these are most effective?

How do Amara, Dido, and others use performance as a tool for self-preservation in a world that denies women authentic expression? What forms does this performance take?

How does author Elodie Harper use the physical setting of the Lupanar to represent the psychological and social hierarchies that govern the characters’ lives?

Examine the roles of the male patrons Pliny the Elder and Rufus. How do their different forms of patronage reveal the nature of power and benevolence in Roman society?

How does solidarity between the sex workers of the Lupanar serve as a source of support? Are their points at which this solidarity breaks down or proves insufficient?

How does the juxtaposition of Dido’s violent, accidental death with Amara’s manumission complicate the novel’s conclusion and frame the true meaning and cost of freedom?

Trace the importance of names and naming throughout the novel. How do Amara’s changing names and titles chart her journey of identity from erasure to reconstruction?

In what ways is Felix a product of the system he perpetuates? How does his backstory as a child born in the Wolf Den complicate a straightforward reading of him as a villain and reinforce the novel’s argument about the cyclical nature of trauma and exploitation?