I will read anything Saara El-Arifi writes. And Cleopatra is no exception. This was such a fascinating read about the lines between myth, legend, and legacy. Keep reading this book review of Cleopatra for my full thoughts.
Summary
Your historians call me seductress, but I was always in love’s thrall.
Your playwrights speak of my witchcraft, but I was gifted my talents by the gods.
Your poets sing of my blood-lust, but I was protecting my children.
They cannot credit that a mere woman could be powerful, strategic, divinely blessed to rule.
Death will silence me no longer.
This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
You must always know the story of the storyteller
Cleopatra has this reflective quality. She looks back on these memories, the cracks forming which we never saw when it happened. And she witnesses the historical accounts, the stories being formed, and the lies being told. When we see the last moments of happiness, innocence, and the warning bells of death. Cleopatra is about the woman behind the story. We become larger than life and become mythical. It explores the dangers of intention, when we become villified and only a reflective surface for others to cast their doubts, fears, insecurities, and hatred. All the signs we missed in the moment, but see in clearly in the rear view mirror.
This novel is not history, it is memory
Legends are not made overnight, they are built brick by brick. Cleopatra explores the love and the loss, the way that love and family don’t allow us to see those clearly. It’s a series of power moves, healing touches, and the moments when ambition win out. In many senses it examines how women with power will be villianized and seen in relation to men and their beauty only. And at the same time, it humanizes and gives depth to these stories, these myths, these lies and exists in the cracks between. To reign is a lonely endeavor and the path is littered with guilt and regrets. We don’t even realize that the road we are on leads to demise. We don’t recognize when love turns to hate and ambition to resentment.
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Cleopatra was everything I wanted. Find Cleopatra on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.