Kogiopsis's Reviews > Cleopatra's Moon

Somehow, I read this title on the galley cart at the library and thought "Oooh, Cleopatra as a shapeshifter? Awesome!" and picked it up without actually reading the description.

Yes, I know. Ridiculous. I am properly ashamed, I assure you.

But I'm also glad, because that mistake led me to a book which was surprisingly intense, enjoyable, and interesting. The only thing missing was a true fantasy element, which I was really rooting for, but there were some interesting almost-fantasy scenes to make up for it, so that's okay.

There's the obligatory flash-forward prologue, in which we learn that Cleopatra Selene's family is dead and the Romans all think she's a witch and LIFE SUCKS, GUYZ, which was interesting but not really. Then we backtrack to when she was seven years old, and we get to see her mother's Egypt at its peak. The narrative progresses by skipping from year to year, showing the relationships that connect the royal family and their immediate associates. By the time the reader gets used to this tight-knit community, Cleopatra Selene is eleven and it's time for everything to fall apart. From then on things really pick up, as she and her brothers arrive in Rome and all its politicking.

If this were plain old fiction and not historically based, I might complain about how a child's point of view is really not the best to examine such a complicated situation, but Shecter didn't really have a choice and did quite well with what she was handed. Yes, Selene is more adult than most children would be, but there are enough reasons that it's only slightly odd. She has moments where she really acts her age, too, which cement her characterization quite well.

So since that gets a pass, my complaint is about the way Rome is treated. It's almost unreservedly portrayed as a horrible, cruel, dirty place, contrasted to the shining beautiful Egypt in Selene's memories. By the same token, most of the Roman characters are fairly one-dimensional. This might be okay if one of those so characterized wasn't the Big Bad, Octavianus. He was far too flat and uninteresting to make a decent villain. On the other hand, he often was uninvolved for long stretches of time, so it wasn't a tremendous annoyance or liable to undermine the whole book.

The love triangle isn't really a triangle. Selene's choice between suitors is obvious for a long time, and in fact at one point she starts leading one guy on as a political ploy. That was when I started really enjoying her as a character, not just as a window onto the ancient world and its machinations. Selene herself proved multiple times that she wanted to be a player, to be involved and in control as her mother was, which made her a pleasantly strong main character. And unlike most YA novels, she chooses the good guy, the one who actually cares, over the manslut! Yay!


Uuuuuum this is kind of going nowhere and everywhere, so I'm gonna wrap it up real quick. This is definitely one to look out for come August, though doubtless it won't get the recognition or popularity that it deserves. You don't have to be really interested in Egypt to read it, because it is a good novel for its own sake. Shecter clearly knows her stuff, and she makes the ancient world feel real. It probably won't bring anyone to tears, but it will certainly be engrossing.


(view spoiler)[She looks exactly like Inara Serra of Firefly.

Exactly. (hide spoiler)]["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>