A review by elfs29
The Emperor's Babe by Bernardine Evaristo

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

Evaristo's writing is so cleverly curated, her character formation so dense, that I was amazed constantly by the relentless dissection of Zuleika's character and life. Imperfect heroines are my favourite characters in fiction, and through Zuleika, Evaristo brilliantly explores power - who has it, what one must do to possess it, how impossible it is to keep it, and whether it was ever real in the first place. The novel being in verse is not tedious but gripping, allowing Evaristo to alter the form and use it to more wholly explore the characters' feelings, and every part unveils and explores another facet of womanhood both in the first century and today.

I was the person this world
created me to be, and so were they,
though who I was becoming,
I was not so sure anymore.
Our lives were in the hands of the gods,
though we could tinker with them, if lucky.