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A review by willwork4airfare
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
4.0
3.5!
Cleopatra's Daughter is a work of historical fiction that takes place in Rome after the capture of Egypt by Octavian in 30 BC. I've been searching for a good novel on Rome for a while and this was the first one that appealed to me and it didn't disappoint. Keep in mind that I knew close to nothing about the history of Rome going into this so everything was new to me.
While it wasn't the greatest novel ever written, pretty much every bad thing I wanted to say about this book was accounted for in the author's notes at the end.
The biggest flaw is that the characters all start out around eleven years old and they're incredibly precocious-- aware of everything that goes on in the kingdom and speaking in stilted dialogue. Moran touches on this first in her notes however, saying that as children of Cleopatra they would've been treated like adults from a very young age and expected to behave as one as well.
Other little things I noticed that didn't seem to add up, like libraries full of "books", she admits to in the notes, so the flaws were actual deliberate choices.
As for the story itself, it kept me interested. The romantic subplot seemed simply forced in at the end. Any foreshadowing went over my head, but I liked the idea of the two of them together so it wasn't a complete disappointment.
For the most part, if you have any interest in YA and ancient Egypt or Rome, this book is for you. For anyone else, it's a cute story but it isn't a piece of literary genius.
Cleopatra's Daughter is a work of historical fiction that takes place in Rome after the capture of Egypt by Octavian in 30 BC. I've been searching for a good novel on Rome for a while and this was the first one that appealed to me and it didn't disappoint. Keep in mind that I knew close to nothing about the history of Rome going into this so everything was new to me.
While it wasn't the greatest novel ever written, pretty much every bad thing I wanted to say about this book was accounted for in the author's notes at the end.
The biggest flaw is that the characters all start out around eleven years old and they're incredibly precocious-- aware of everything that goes on in the kingdom and speaking in stilted dialogue. Moran touches on this first in her notes however, saying that as children of Cleopatra they would've been treated like adults from a very young age and expected to behave as one as well.
Other little things I noticed that didn't seem to add up, like libraries full of "books", she admits to in the notes, so the flaws were actual deliberate choices.
As for the story itself, it kept me interested. The romantic subplot seemed simply forced in at the end. Any foreshadowing went over my head, but I liked the idea of the two of them together so it wasn't a complete disappointment.
For the most part, if you have any interest in YA and ancient Egypt or Rome, this book is for you. For anyone else, it's a cute story but it isn't a piece of literary genius.