Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for Babylonia by Costanza Casati! This is exactly what I needed to read this week.

Semiramis and Nisat are the powerful female characters everyone always wants to read about. Semiramis's mind, ambition, and character development are ummatched. She literally tamed a leopard and kept it as a pet to intimidate people! Both her and Nisat have to use their skills to move through a court designed against them and be the real guidance behind the decisions made by the kings. They are manipulative and cruel in a world where they have to be to survive. But, they are also fiercely protective of their partners, children, and allies.

The other characters were also well-written, complex, and incredibly flawed. The shifting power dynamics felt so real and this had the weirdest (but best) love (?) triangle I've read in a while. Every single character had hidden intentions. Almost all of the characters showed characteristics of PTSD to some extent. Although, I think we see it most clearly with Onnes. I did notice the author wrote in the acknowledgement that Ribat's character was originally unplanned and I'm so glad Casati chose to include him! I loved Ribat's character and his ending and I think he added another dimension to the book. My least favorite character was obviously Marduk and I'm glad he got what he deserved.

I think a lot of writers would struggle to cover this kind of dense, historically based plot and make it this approachable. It reminds me of the writing of Vaishnavi Patel (an author I love). I also loved Clytemnestra, so I'm immediately adding Casati to my list of must-buy author. Overall, 4 Stars!

Ancient civilizations rise and fall.

Too often, we fool ourselves believing that the cruelty of people and the machinations of politics is confined to the present day. Then you read a novel like this. And you are reminded that it’s not so new after all.

This book blew me away. Fast paced action from the start and the seamless execution of a woman’s story I knew nothing about. Initially, I was worried about the whole host of characters to remember. In this author’s hands, alternating POVs are told making the FMC’s story richer. This is a book that will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.

This is my first read by this historical fiction novelist author. It was so good that I plan to read her prior novel, “Clytemnestra”.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark,via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Costanza Casati has sealed a new fan...again! I read Clytemnestra when it came out and LOVED it. Babylonia is the same fierce, fighting women, but a different background. This is a Greek myth with Assyrian roots. I loved the relationship between the three main characters. The love and grief is something felt deep within the beautiful prose that Casati uses. I have so many highlights in this book because the author can make you weep with one sentence.

Of course, I also love the strong women she writes about. Semiramis' story comes to life through the retelling by Casati. If you loved Clytemnestra, and let's be honest, who didn't? Then you will love Babylonia.

I will be anxiously awaiting my pre-order of this book to add to my collection and revisit whenever I want.

This is a fictional re-telling of the rise to power of Semiramis or Shammuramat, a legendary woman who was a queen of ancient Assyria (and later became to be mythologized to be born of a goddess).

Firstly, I love the setting of this book. While ancient Rome gets a lot of love with historical fiction, the ancient Middle East gets very little. I loved the multiple callbacks to the epic of Gilgamesh, and how that story reflected a lot in this story.

Semiramis is a captivating character. She's flawed, she's ambitious, and she claws her way up through this world both out of necessity and a need for power. The character of Onnes, and his relationship with Ninus, is mesmerizing. I also really loved the viewpoint of the slave Ribat and the context he provided.

That being said, the beginning does feel like a lot of information, and can feel a bit slow, but give it time and you'll be drawn in. These are not characters you'll always feel rooting for, but I personally enjoy that. The way to the top is not always pretty.

The book itself is written really well, I particularly loved the descriptions of all the sculptures and bas-reliefs. It makes the ancient world come alive.

As for negatives, I did feel like the last section was a bit rushed and there were some moments towards the end that I felt didn't quite have the gut punch I think the author thought they would. The epilogue I did not like at all (and I swear, epilogues rarely land with me) and the whole premise was unbelievable in my opinion.

Overall, a really solid read in an era not often portrayed.

The utterly Amazing story of the only woman to rule the Assyrian Empire and her rise from peasant to Queen. I want more!

Book review 📖

📜Babylonia
✍️Costanza Casati
📠Sourcebooks Landmark
📚Historical/Fantasy Fiction
🗓️Pub date: January 14, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @bookmarked for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨Semiramis, an orphaned common woman, grows up on the outskirts of ancient Assyria. In an empire built of bloodshed and brutality, kings must kill in order to rule. Or to Semiramis, prophecy will hold her title as Queen.

✨ Semiramis, becoming the desired mark of the king’s and governor’s eye, she is caught in a battle of lust, power, desire, love, and betrayal. To the woman who will go on to rule, this will be a deadly game.

✨Babylonia is the embodiment of lust and power, which rules ancient history and empires in vicious politics between gods and men.

✨This is such a breathtaking book! I never realized how much I loved historical fiction until I read Costanza Casati’s debut, Clytemnestra, last year. However, I think Casati’s voice and her pen to the page has quite a bit of sway.
This book weaves fact and fiction into a powerful and beautiful dance, and I couldn’t put it down. A favorite and must-read!

✨Favorite quotes: “The hammer shatters glass but forges steel.”

“Remember that glory and danger often taste the same. All they leave behind is bitterness.”

#netgalley #babylonia #costanzacasati #sourcebookslandmark #historicalfiction #fantasyfiction #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagrammer #winterreleases #readthisnow #breathtaking

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Wow, I loved this book. I didn't realize this was a retelling of a Mesopotamian legend, so it was interesting to learn about the myth through Casati's latest work before researching the legend afterwards.

Personally, I think Babylonia was beautifully done. The original myth and legend is there, but Costanza Casati put her own spin on it and turned it into something almost lyrical.

I'm super excited that a special edition hardcover will be releasing in the US this January. I can't wait to add it to my collection!

I was disappointed by this book. After absolutely loving Clytemnestra, I had high hopes for Babylonia, but it just didn’t measure up.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters, especially Semiramis, the protagonist. She started out as a complex and intriguing figure, but as the story progressed, she seemed to lose her depth and became, for lack of a better term, a “Mary Sue.” She could do no wrong, easily outmaneuvered her political rivals (mostly other women), and even the male characters—one of whom might be aro/ace—fall hopelessly in love with her without much effort. It was frustrating to see such a promising character lose her complexity.

The standout for me was Onnes, the king’s stoic governor, brother, and possibly lover. Unlike the other characters, Onnes was refreshingly complex and mysterious. Forget "morally gray"—he was borderline sociopathic. However, of course, Semiramis comes along and melts his cold, dark heart. I won’t spoil anything, but the conclusion to his arc felt unfulfilling, even though it’s myth-accurate. I always find it disappointing when characters with trauma are reduced to mere plot devices.

On a more positive note, I really enjoyed the love triangle in the book, mostly because it was an actual triangle! The queer representation was a welcome surprise, and I found that dynamic to be the most engaging part of the story. However, I do wish Casati had explored the relationship between Onnes and Ninus more deeply—what we got felt like crumbs, but I’ll take what I can get.

That said, I did enjoy Babylonia (at least the first half). I learned a lot about mythology and really appreciated the historical context Casati provided at the end. You can tell she’s passionate about these subjects and cares about portraying them accurately. I’ll definitely be reading whatever she writes next, but I don’t think I’ll be revisiting Babylonia anytime soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC!

Personally, I think this book was very slow-paced (in a negative way), dragged on, the synopsis was inaccurate to the story, and bland leaving me feeling mostly detached from the novel. This was a very good overview of who Semiramis was, and the beginning had a lot of potential for it to be a thrilling and powerful retelling but it fell flat in a few different ways. I was expecting to read about a powerful, bloodthirsty woman who clawed her way to power, relentless in her pursuit of the crown and Assyrian Empire. But that’s not what I got. Semiramis came from “nothing” (even though her foster father was a governor or something like that), and married her way to power. She wasn’t destined to take the power but instead, the crown happened to land in her lap. There wasn’t much of any court intrigue, and it was filled mostly with Semiramis seducing and falling for men, becoming their wives, and then moving on to the next husband. While I can understand that a woman of that age and period couldn’t do much, this story just wasn’t what I was expecting. It was good and kind of informative, but I felt detached from everything going on. Semiramis at the beginning of the novel was my favorite, but her character kind of died out. The ending was anti-climactic, and there was a lot of “foreshadowing” that made everything seem so obvious and plain. There were a few moments and scenes that I enjoyed, however, the majority of the book was kind of disappointing. Again, it was a good novel but mostly for the sake of taking in the information.

I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

It is reassuring to know that strong women have existed in a man’s world for centuries. This novel begins with a baby left on a rock by a river while her mother drowns herself. She is found and raised by a cruel stepfather. There begins the story of survival and the quest for security, love, and power. Semiramis has learned that to belong in a male-dominated society, she has to think and fight like a man.

The author has done a great deal of research and based this story on as much fact as she could. That a woman could be accepted as a ruler in ancient Assyria and achieve what no woman before her had makes a great read. The descriptions are vivid and characters memorable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC to read and review.

Graphic battles, deadly power struggles, unhappy love triangles, a pet leopard. Babylonia.

This was a thrilling look at the legendary queen Sammuramat of the Assyrian empire and her rise to power. I'd classify this as more of a historical romance. I wasn't expecting almost 80% of this book to be a love triangle between Semiramus, her husband, and his half-brother (maybe?? parentage in question, incest debatable). I was looking forward to more of her as conquering queen and less of her in a twisty sibling romance, but she only became ruler at 92% through the book. Prior to reading, I assumed the climax here would be Semiramis's failed fake-elephant gambit in India, but the book ends before that part of her reign begins. It's more like a prequel.

I loved how a lot of this read like a meditation on death: how our parents die, how we die, how we're remembered. The main characters all react to this in distinct (and usually troubling) ways.

The characters were all well developed and flipped between unlikable and sympathetic throughout the book. But when, exactly, did the king Ninus fall in love with Semiramus, after pining over his own brother for his entire life? I did love the Gilgamesh-Enkidu parallels between the two men, but I thought the fresh take here would be a polyamorous relationship between the three of them, and no, that was not it.

I'm also going to make a HORRIBLY uncharitable and not completely accurate comparison... and say that Semiramus here reminded me of a little of Dagney Taggart from Atlas Shrugged. She's super smart and competent, and several important men in the book are hot for her in some way. Never thought I'd willingly bring up Atlas Shrugged in anything ever (particularly in a review of an exceptionally well-written Semiramis retelling), but here we are. Tastes bad.

I cannot in good conscience end a review with Atlas Shrugged, so I will reiterate that this was very entertaining and felt like a 200 page read with how fast I tore through it. It wasn't a happy book and I leave it feeling unsettled, but it was a dazzling and brutal take on a legendary figure. One of the better historical fictions I've read.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for this ARC. I’m so excited to read Babylonia, I adore historical fiction and this looks absolutely up my alley. Will update with a full review promptly.

One of my favorite reads last year was the debut novel by Constanza Casati, Clytemnestra. So, when I heard she was writing another feminist femme fatale retelling, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

And she did not disappoint.

𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘴, 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘺 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘢, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥, 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘦.

One of the things I love about Casati’s work is her ability to blend meticulous research with her exceptional writing skills, creating a world that fully immerses the reader. This book feels like a journey through time, offering deep insights into a a complicated culture that is equal parts cruelty and beauty.

What truly makes this book stand out, though, is the characters. Told from multiple points of view, each character is richly developed, adding layers of complexity to the story.

I especially admired Casati’s portrayal of Semiramis. She is morally grey, caught between survival and her conscience. Though she won’t hesitate to hurt those who wrong her, she is not cruel by nature. Instead, she is a person forced into impossible situations, doing whatever she must to survive.

Another highlight of the novel is its sensitive treatment of mental health. In her afterward, Casati explains that historical accounts often described kings returning from war changed. Recognizing this as signs of PTSD, she wrote this into her story, including the emotional toll war takes with empathy and care. It was so well done and powerful, several times it almost brought me to tears.

This book has cemented Casati as an “if she writes it I’ll read it” author. I am so impressed with her storytelling ability and cannot wait to see which wronged woman from history she gives a voice to next. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub Date: January 14, 2024

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Babylonia covers the rise and fall of individuals in the Assyrian empire: a commoner, a slave, a governor, and a king. The main character, Semiranis, knows that power is the difference between life and death in her world, and she makes it her life’s work to reach a level of power to protect herself. Based on historical events of real people in the 9th century BC, this was a fascinating historical lesson.

It took me a minute to get into this book; there is a lot of world-building, and it was generally unfamiliar to me. I’m very appreciative of the character list in the front, as I referenced it throughout. It’s easy to get bogged down in the world and the sheer number of people to keep up with, let alone their relationships to each other (which are extremely complicated to say the least). That said, the multiple-POV structure worked extremely well for this story, and my favorite POV was that of Ribat, Semiramis’ slave. Servants always know what’s really going on in royal houses, and I’m so glad the author chose to give voice to that perspective.

It was a little gorey for me, and I didn’t expect that from the outset. However, it is perfectly in line with the historical context and heightened the stakes of the book. In between battle scenes, there’s a lot of sitting around, eating dates and figs, and speculating on each other’s love lives under the guise of geopolitical strategy for a decent chunk of the book. These two paces played more in tandem than in harmony with one another.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic retelling, pieced together history of Semiramis, the only female ruler of the Assyrian empire. We follow her as she ascends from commoner to royalty through her wit, wiles, and relationships.

I knew nothing about this time period before reading this. Luckily, this is more of a character driven story with plot points pulled from history. Semiramis is written with such grit, power, cunning, and flaws. She makes for such a compelling character - morally gray but still endearing. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

I would recommend this for fans of Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes, Jennifer Saint. The writing here is incredible and honestly on par with the beauty of Miller’s writing.

4.5

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review!

damn. she did it again. this book is even better than Clytemnestra.

Casati's prose is gorgeous and really fits these whole antiquity retellings she's done so far. everything feels real, sumptuous and rich but also incredibly dangerous at once. but where this book really shines is with the characters. Semiramis, Ninus, and Onnes, plus the rest of the cast, are super flawed but also utterly fascinating. the dynamic between them was so fucked up but also I could not wait for the next turn at pretty much all times.

as one of the other reviews I saw said, Casati does a great job of not pulling punches with how difficult it was for many different groups of people in ancient times - but she also imbues her work with a lot of characters who refuse to give up in the face of such odds, and also a lot of hope. the character writing is just so damn good.

this author absolutely rules and I will be checking out anything she writes. I have been really disappointed by a lot of retellings of ancient mythology and history, but both her books were excellent. you should definitely put this on your calendars for an early 2025 read.

An enjoyable read. I liked that this was a different sort of mythology than all the other retellings that have been coming out lately. I did find the writing to be a bit juvenile, and would have liked more insight into the characters’ motivations toward the end of the book, which felt a bit rushed. Not quite as good as her previous book, but I will definitely read future ones.

Thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. I was really excited when I was approved because I loved the author's previous book: Clytemnestra. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one, I couldn't really get invested in the story or care about the characters. Maybe the timing was not right because I currently don't feel interested in heavy books due to being so busy.

I loved this book! Costanza Casati is such a gifted writer and storyteller. I loved following Semiramis’ journey from her village to a wife and then ruler. Casati does a brilliant job making Semiramis both incredibly flawed, but also so easy to love and admire. What a phenomenal character and story. Highly recommend!

If I could rate 6 stars, I would...

“Babylonia” follows the rise of Semiramis, the one and only female ruler of the ancient Assyrian empire. This book weaves emotions, culture, and history into a breathtaking story that focuses on themes of resilience, love, and ambition (with a sprinkle of mythology of course). “Babylonia” instantly pulled me in; I was fully invested before the prologue even ended! Casati’s writing style is exceptionally vivid and lyrical and flows naturally.

I knew absolutely nothing about Assyrian culture or history going into this, and everything was explained perfectly in line with the story. I really enjoyed the character list at the beginning of the book too, it was super helpful in figuring out who’s who. I found every character to be well thought out, with their own development and dilemmas. At the heart of it, “Babylonia” is just downright inspiring. I wouldn’t consider myself well-versed in historical fiction at all, but this book is going to have me coming back for more – I can’t wait to see what else Casati writes! I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing this book.