Vesuvius | YA Queer Book Review

Title: Vesuvius

Author: Cass Biehn

Genre: YA, LGBT, Historical Fiction & Fantasy

Ages: Teen+

Publisher: Peachtree Publishing

Release: June 10th, 2025

This thrilling historical fantasy set days before Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii is a meet cute with an explosive fallout.

An exploration of ambition and class, autonomy and religion, survival and love, Vesuvius combines the romantic angst of They Both Die at the End and the blended magic and history of The Song of Achilles to show readers that it is never too late to change your fate—or change the world.

Clever thief Felix slips from city to city to survive the present and escape a past he can’t remember. When Felix steals a divine artifact—Mercury’s helmet—from a temple in Pompeii, pieces of his forgotten past begin to surface.

Loren, an ambitious temple attendant, has seen Felix in his apocalyptic nightmares for years. The last thing Loren expects is for his dream to stumble headfirst through his temple doors, moments after an earthquake rocks the city.

When Felix shows Loren the helmet, Loren sees the world coming to an end. He knows they have mere days to uncover Felix’s ties to the relic and to Loren’s visions if they have any hope of saving the city. But Ancient Rome is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, and now that Loren and Felix are intertwined, their lives aren’t all they risk losing. When all has turned to ash and rubble, the boys will have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city alive.

“Meet cute” but it’s Loren whacking Felix over the head knocking him unconscious. lol

I didn’t hate this by any means, the writing is solid and the story is interesting, it just didn’t completely grab me. I love volcanoes. I love queer lit. I even took extra unneeded archaeology classes in college. I should love this book… but I ended up just liking it. And that’s okay.

I think this one fell victim to too much hyped built up by myself haha.

Ok,,, that said, this is a good book! I really enjoyed the dynamic between Loren and Felix—it had some genuinely funny moments, and their relationship was engaging in a way that kept me reading.

I also really liked the atmosphere of the book. The fact it’s set in Pompeii, with all the temples and the subtle fantasy elements. It’s incredibly immersive and does a great job with the world building.

I’ve seen other reviews mention the use of “modern” language given the setting, and I agree. Normally, that sort of thing pulls me out of a story, but here? It weirdly worked? It straddles the line between historical fiction and fantasy, and the prose, modern touches and all, just seemed to somehow fit the tone.

Honestly, I’m still tempted to get a physical copy because I think this would be so much fun to annotate and fill with nerdy Pompeii facts.

Also… I just learned this is the author’s debut novel?! It reads like someone who’s already published multiple books. Super impressive. I will definitely be on the look out for anything else written by this author.

side note: “Virgin in a brothel” deserves to be a trope. hahaha

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