ARC Review: Babylonia by Costanza Casati
"But happiness is a liar, for it makes us believe it will last forever, when it never does." (pg. 16)
Publication date: January 14, 2025
Format: e-book (arc)
Pages: 401
Rating: 4.75/5 stars
Genre: historical fiction
Tropes/Themes: love triangle, secret lovers/forbidden romance, rags to riches, marriage of convenience, “not like other girls”, the effects of war, multiple perspectives
Warnings: suicide, war violence, gore, physical abuse by a parent, death, addiction (drug usage)
Quick thoughts…
Holy shit. This book was an emotional rollercoaster, but in the best ways possible. The fact that I read over 220 pages in one reading session goes to show how much I liked this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the emotional damage Costanza Casati caused me. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because I felt like I couldn’t let my guard down. There were so many twists and shocking moments that I was constantly being surprised. My heart was smashed several times. I raged along side the characters. I honestly couldn’t get enough. Also the fact that Babylonia is written in the style and format of a Greek tragedy just makes me so giddy, even though I could tell early on that this story wasn’t going to have a happy ending… or at least not the happy ending that most people would expect. It’s still an incredible book and I highly recommend it.
Author Description
From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history, painting the brutal and captivating empire of gods and men, and the one queen destined to rule them all.
A common woman. The governor she married. The king who loved them both.
Babylonia across the centuries has become the embodiment of lust, excess, and dissolute power that ruled Ancient Assyria. In this world you had to kill to be king. Or, in the case of Semiramis, an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire:
Queen.
Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy. But when she meets a young representative of the new Assyrian king, a prophecy unfolds before her, one that puts her in the center of a brutal world and in the hearts of two men - one who happens to be king.
Now a risen lady in a court of vipers, Semiramis becomes caught in the politics and viciousness of ancient Assyria. Instead of bartering with fate, Semiramis trains in war and diplomacy. And with each move, she rises in rank, embroiled in a game of power, desire, love, and betrayal, until she can ascend to the only position that will ever keep her safe.
In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis, the only female ruler of the Assyrian Empire, a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her.1
Review
Summary:
Babylonia is the story of Semiramis, a woman who hates the cards the world dealt her and is willing to do anything to shuffle the deck. Orphaned as an infant and adopted by a well-respected shepherd of the village, Semiramis learned at a young age how to fight for herself. She gets to put that into practice when the new governor of her village comes to introduce himself and spends a few days there. Onnes, the governor, takes an early interest in Semiramis. There’s just some special about her that he can’t quite figure out. One evening, as Onnes is getting ready to sleep, Semiramis shows up at his tent bloody and beaten. She of course doesn’t share what exactly happened, but Onnes has a pretty good idea. After a demonstration of consequences in front of the whole village, Onnes says he’s going to take Semiramis back to his home and they are going to be married, to which she agrees. Soon after arriving, Semiramis meets Ninus, the Assyrian king, who just happens to be Onnes’s best friend. Ninus doesn’t trust Semiramis at all and can’t understand why his friend would get married to this woman. That distrust fades as Ninus and Onnes go out to fight in the war for Babylon and Semiramis appears in their military tent one day to singlehandedly create their winning battle strategy. After that, Ninus views her differently… very differently. Onnes, however, is unmoved by what Semiramis did, and is instead left with PTSD symptoms from the battle. Both men begin to spiral into different forms of madness with Semiramis being in the middle of it. This madness eventually leads to their downfall, which paves the way for Semiramis to ascend to the highest seat of power and where no woman had ever been before: queen.
“Lonely should rarely find each other, but when they do, they aren’t meant to part.” (pg.68)
Thoughts:
First of all, if you didn’t know, Semiramis was a real person. So were many of the characters in Babylonia. I was shocked when I read that in the author’s notes at the end of the book. I am not a religious person, nor did I study Greek history much in school, so I had never heard of her or her many other names before. I love when authors take historical figures and put their on spin on their stories. The retelling of Semiramis’s story is no different. After reading the research that Costanza Casati did for this book, I truly loved the story more.
Something that I really enjoyed was that Babylonia is written like a Greek tragedy. Now, I’m a theatre kid, and I love me some Greek tragedies, so I really liked the format. I haven’t read Costanza’s other book (I want to now though…) so I’m not sure if this is something she’s done before, but there were line numbers every so often and it made me feel like I was reading a Greek play. There’s even a list of characters at the beginning of the book. While it may not have been written like a play, the conventions of a Greek tragedy were there which I appreciated.
Another thing I enjoyed was that this book has multiple perspectives. Each chapter is basically from the viewpoint of a different person and I LOVE when authors do that. I wish that more authors did this. I loved getting to see the world through the eyes of more than one person, especially since the characters span the whole socioeconomic class spectrum. Literally, from slave to king, you get a glimpse of the different viewpoints of the world and I think it tremendously helped the story.
A critical part to Babylonia is the love story and it was one I wasn’t expecting. I literally gasped when the first moment of it happened. I don’t want to give anything away, but I think you’ll be shocked too if you read this book. The relationships Costanza has written are so complex and multilayered which makes everything else so heartbreaking. There’s a moment where everything kind of comes to a head and things happen and my heart just crumbled. I would just like to remind you all that this is a retelling of a Greek story, so if there are certain things that bother you about specific romances and relationships, this book isn’t for you. *hint hint*
“You are unconquerable,” he says after a while, and that makes her smile.
“You have your walls, and I have mine.” (pg. 94)
My favorite character is Onnes. He is just so tragically broken and I seem to always favor characters like him. It’s why I love Chaol from the Throne of Glass series and Nesta from ACOTAR. These characters are the most misunderstood, and that’s because they’re the most real. People despise Chaol and Nesta for how they act and for their personalities, but in reality, readers just don’t like to see the dark side of humanity. Depression exists. Addiction exists. PTSD exists. All of those things are real and affect people differently. For Onnes, he is haunted by the death of his mother and by the many deaths he has caused in battle. His brain has been rewired by depression and PTSD to the point where he has to medicate in order to have any moment of silence. His character is written to slowly crack your heart and then shatter it in one final blow. I think I’ll remember him for a really long time.
With all of the love I’ve give this book, I did dock my star rating by .25 because the beginning was kind of slow, however. I struggled to stay engaged for much of the first section of the book because of the amount of exposition that is given. I understand that with historical fiction, especially with a retelling of story, you want to include as much backstory as you possibly can. I liked reading it and appreciated that the details were included. It just felt a little dense and my ADHD brain struggled to stay in it. There’s a certain point where the book picks up and from then until the end, I couldn’t put it down. The beginning being slow is truly the only “negative” thing I have to say about this book.
So, if you love historical fiction, Greek tragedies, and a good “rags to riches” story, this book is for you. I did list a few warnings for Babylonia that I felt were important to mention, so please take a look and consider your own wellbeing before reading this one. I would be more than happy to discuss in more detail why I mentioned those warnings if you’re unsure if Babylonia is right for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and SourceBooks for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely be adding this to my “to buy” list.
Reading stats provided by Bookly
Dates read: January 4 - January 13, 2025
Total time spent reading: 8 hours, 22 minutes
Reading speed: 47.9 pages per hour
Most pages read in a day: 183
Most time spent reading in a day: 3 hours, 46 minutes