Status Updates From A Fatal Thing Happened on t...

really neat

"For some reason, Marcus Aurelius personally held a tribunal about these deaths. Possibly because the idea that two young women had been 'hit by lightning' while asleep indoors in the care of a man who had been accused of at least two murders in the past is utterly absurd."

I'm one chapter in and this book was written specifically for me. Roman history, murder, and *exactly* my sense of humor (she describes the Romans as "Fighty bastards" in the intro, for example). LOVE this.

“it’s almost as bad as YA reviewers on goodreads”😭😭

entertaining and explained so well

fire book so far

Halfway through and it just keeps getting better, which, given the fact that it started out ridiculously brilliant, is huge.

"It is a murder law which is very clearly and specifically aimed at the elite ranks of Roman society who were, in the aftermath of a brutal decade of war, using the civil courts and armed gangs to harass each other and rid themselves of people who pissed them off. Sulla needed it to stop, because he wanted to be the only person using the legal system to kill people."

“Rome was an unusually murder-y place.”

Ahhh have to hurry up and finish this!

Brilliant so far! Such a good laugh!

Not a lot of progress today haha. But it’s a funny and informative read! Perhaps more tomorrow.

"[Cicero] wrote and delivered an entire speech ripping Vatinius to shreads as a person....It is almost 10,000 words of character assassination. It's almost as bad as YA reviewers on Goodreads"

This shit is hilarious.

I get so nervous when authors try to be "funny" with history because very few get the tone and pacing right. Very happy to report, that this is one of the good books. I chuckled so much in the first few pages at the most inappropriate time, loving it. (can't keep a follow of the latin names to save my life tho)

“-Gaius was an absolute riot, said to be the first person in Roman history to pull his cloak open and expose his shoulder while speaking, which is both pointless and a bit sexy.”

did james acaster write this book?!

Gladiators man… crazy

Men… 🤦‍♀️

The lady ch is giving large wtf energy

I only have 2 hrs left but do I still care lol

Caesar would be really good on grand designs

Damn…

entertaining

entertaining

I don't dislike the author's style entirely, though I definitely think it fits a podcast better than a non-fiction book. Sometimes it feels like I'm reading a Twitter feed.
Do we have to be told every other sentence how horrific everything was? I think I'd arrive on that position w/o that Twitter outrage style of writing prodding me.

“Murder had been introduced as a solution to Roman political arguments and it could never be taken back.”

“To make Tiberius into a deranged traitor to the republic it’s pretty clear that what they mean is class traitor. He tried to undermine the controlling power of the rich and force some equality on them. They hated it. They hated it so much that they were willing to kill him.”

Screaming at this ch

Trying too hard to be relatable. “Roman politics are boring and tedious, so let’s just say they weren’t allies and skip to the murder.” I’m paraphrasing (though only just). While it IS about murder, not politics, it’s about murder IN ANCIENT ROME. And I’m reading it! So clearly, I’m interested in Rome. Now stop shit talking my Romans just because you’re scared people will think you’re boring.

Ms Southon, I can’t believe you just got me to Google images of sea lamprey, I am deeply upset 😭

Early favourite for Book of the year for me

So far I'm really enjoying this. I'd describe the writers style as 'sassy funny'