📕 Title: Cleopatra
✏️ Author: Saara El-Arifi
📖 Genre: Historical Fiction
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The story of Cleopatra as told from her own point of view.

REVIEW

Thank you to Ballantine Books for the digital copy!

I’ve always enjoyed stories about great historical figures and El-Arifi’s take on Cleopatra is no exception. The novel begins on the day Cleopatra became Pharaoh and is narrated in a first person POV, breaking the fourth wall as she reflects back on her life and shares insights with the reader.

This retelling is made of three parts, acknowledging her legacy as a witch, a whore, and a villain, each challenging the archetypes assigned to her by men like Plutarch and Cicero with reimagined scenes that bring a new interpretation into the great Queen’s story.

El-Arifi captures Cleopatra’s humanity in her tumultuous relationships with her siblings, her romances with Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, and her love for her handmaiden and her children, highlighting her roles as a mother, as a healer, as a lover, and as a woman.