I, Claudia

by Mary McCoy

A 2019 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Disaffected teen historian Claudia McCarthy never expected to be in charge of Imperial Day Academy, but by accident, design, or scheme, she is pulled into the tumultuous and high-profile world of the Senate and Honor Council. Suddenly, Claudia is wielding power over her fellow students that she never expected to have and isn't sure she wants.

Claudia vows to use her power to help the school. But there are forces aligned against shocking scandals, tyrants waiting in the wings, and political dilemmas with no easy answers. As Claudia struggles to be a force for good in the universe, she wrestles with the does power inevitably corrupt?

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Retellings, Mystery, Teen

424 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2018

About the author

Mary McCoy is a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library. She has also been a contributor to On Bunker Hill and the 1947project, where she wrote stories about Los Angeles's notorious past. She grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied at Rhodes College and the University of Wisconsin. Mary now lives in Los Angeles with her family.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should have won the Printz. It should have a better cover. And most importantly, more people should read this brilliant, fascinating, and astonishingly well done retelling of I, Claudius (and its inspiration, Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars) set in a Los Angeles high school.

If you've ever read I, Claudius, or watched the miniseries, read this. A fan of The Twelve Caesars? Read this. Liked The Politician on Netflix? Read this. (It's so much better!)

Most importantly: Do you like awesome, twisty, enthralling reads about the best and worst of human nature with a side (or twelve) of intrigue and power that you can't put down? Then read this.

In short, read this! I created two shelves for this because yeah, it's worth it.

[Renata · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has SUCH A BAD COVER. I know, there's a whole aphorism about not judging based on that, and yet...it just looks so boring. This was recommended to me earlier and I was like "idk looks boring tho"

And then it won a Printz Honor and I was like FINE I'LL READ IT

And I loved it, it's super dark and funny, kind of a Veronica Mars/Frankie Landau Banks vibe...which I love.

[Tatiana]

Printz Honor 2019

This one came out of left field.

Original review

I tried very hard to like it. But while I think the plot is a dynamite - a clever fight for power in a prep school setting fashioned after "I, Claudius," the narrative voice is too detached to keep me going.

[Patty Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Netgalley, Lerner Publishing Group and Mary McCoy for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving and advanced copy.

Political intrigue. Think House of Cards for high schoolers, except teenagers are so much more ruthless than adults. A modern retelling of “I, Claudius” where ancient Rome is replaced by a Los Angeles private high school. Is this where we will find tomorrows leaders? Let’s hope not, but after reading this, probably, given what we have seen from the political arena. Has nothing changed? Not really. Is power the seductive - certainly. Does it corrupt - absolutely. A living entity and watching what it does to those students it comes into contact with - fascinating. From the outside, where it won’t affect you in any way. Does it turn good into evil and evil into…psychopaths? No one comes out unscathed, that’s for sure. We aren’t all good and all bad, but it does warp each person in a different way. Can you avoid it? Well, history has lots to teach us, but we don’t seem to learn from it. Many of these questions and more are raised in this fantastic, outstanding and thoroughly enjoyable read about the Imperial Day Academy.

Claudia McCarthy has a stutter and a noticeable limp as a result of one leg being noticeably shorter than the other. School has not been the kindest, most sympathetic place, with children often being cruel in their taunts. She quickly realizes that high school will not be any different. Her only friend is her sister, Maise, who sits on Imperial’s High Council. The school has two organizing bodies, the Senate and the High Council. The Senate doesn’t have any real power, with it’s main function organizing school dances and such. The High Council has more power than the administration, voting on a student’s smallest infraction with suspensions and expulsions. The story is told through Claudia’s perspective, privy only to people and events as she sees them. Interspersed between the chapters we get glimpses of the transcript of Claudia on trial. We learn that she is being accused of abusing her power as president of the High Council. How did she get from being invisible to holding the highest office? Claudia relates her journey that takes her from witnessing the corruption from those in power, to being enticed to running for the Senate and ends up being elected president of High Council. Her only intent was to weed out those who were abusing power and to restore the school to a safe, honest environment. How did she get into the predicament of Imperial Day Academy Board vs. Claudia McCarthy.

McCoy does an excellent job of retelling or reimagining the original. It is full of nefarious characters, intensity of emotions, depicting the rise and fall of a reluctant leader, all fo it just works at so many levels. Claudia’s rise and fall takes place over four years, crafted so well that makes it believable. She uses a play on the character’s names from Grave’s text - you have an Augustus, Livia, Herod becomes Hector. Her characters are deep and come to life, jumping off the page at you. It is dark with some violence, drugs, death, but nothing a young adult wouldn’t have come across in other novels for their age. Then ending, cruel almost - you’ll see why. There is al least one big flaw that I found in the story but I don’t want to get into spoilers in my review. I’d be happy to discuss in comments if anyone has the same feeling. McCoy includes two pages of discussion questions that will encourage thought and analysis. Something that can be done individually, in small groups or as a class. This so easily lends itself to be taught in a classroom setting, although I believe anyone would enjoy reading it on its own for pure enjoyment. It is too good to just be in a classroom. Too good to not be done in a classroom.

Definitely one of my stand out reads of 2018.

[Dahlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just so my kind of book - I adore Machiavellian heroines and smart takes on retellings and a mix of formats and in general just really liked a lot of things Mary McCoy did here. The ending both was and wasn't what I expected - at some point, I really didn't want the book to be over because all these stories play out in this great way and I could've read like a hundred pages of it, but then the ultimate ending was not quite as twisty as I thought it was gonna be, and I'm not sure if it was supposed to be? So, I wouldn't say I left it feeling as satisfied as humanly possible, but I would say I enjoyed the hell out of Claudia and was really intrigued by how a lot of things played out and the execution in general.

[Karyn Silverman · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was basically next level Frankie Landau-Banks level commentary on gender and teen politicking and what it means to be a good person, with a hefty side of the classics. The voice is excellent, the structure intriguing, and the conclusion both clear and totally uncomfortable, and perfect on both counts. To bad the cover is total crap; I ignored this ARC all year because it looked like junk. Hear hear for the Printz committee who read this book when no one else was paying it any attention and gave it a well-deserved medal.

[Monica Edinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

You might not know this, but I have a degree in Ancient History, and any book that even has a whiff of classics to it, will be on my wishlist/in my basket ASAP - this book was no different. The Julio-Claudian family and and early Imperial Rome has always been a love of mine, and Claudius was one of my favourite Emperors. I had high hopes for this book, because of that, and I was not disappointed.

If you've ever seen the BBC series, I, Claudius, or read Robert Graves book of the same name, you'll have a vague idea of the history of the Julio-Claudian family. In I, Claudia, we follow Claudia, the female reincarnation of Claudius for this adaptation, as she navigates the brutal and cruel life of Imperial Day Academy. Despite her best intentions, she finds herself entangled in the Senate and Honor Council of the school. Filled with cut-throat characters, scandals at every turn, and the risk of being stabbed in the back on a day to day basis, Claudia has to discover just who she can trust, and try and regain her own humanity, before the power corrupts her too.

I simply adored this book, and Claudia too. She has a limp and stutter, just like the real Claudius, and has been underestimated for most of her life. She was happy with that, and used it to get by school without any trouble. Her sister had been on the High Council at school, and that was her only link with the group, initially. After her sister left school, we see through court transcripts and flashbacks, how Claudia's rise and fall took place over the four years of high school. Everything was done so believably, and was so like the true history, that McCoy must've researched the history so well. Every little nuance played out in a high school setting, which wasn't actually that far from reality, and nothing seemed forced. We had the honour of Augustus, the vindictiveness of Livia, and the sheer depravity of Caligula. I wish the book never ended, and I can't believe how little I've heard people talk about this book. Really, you need to get a hold of this book!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of our English teachers recently had her students choose examples of postmodernist books, and I wish I had read this a little earlier, because it definitely fits the bill— unreliable narrator; deeply, darkly humorous; intertextuality, the metafiction elements...

I loved McCoy’s revamping of I, Claudius to a modern-day L.A. prep school, and the way that she wove in so many of the original historical characters. This is utterly original and has much to say about today’s political climate. It was not on my radar until this year’s Printz Committee awarded it an honor, so shout-out to YMA award-committees for their diligence in identifying those worthy titles that might otherwise escape our notice.

Highly recommended.

[DaNae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a book with a tangled a long game. One where you need to go back and reread between the lines.

I hung my hat on the certainty that I, CLAUDIA was such a book. Turns out - it was not. Claudia is what she claims, an historian. One who doesn't always see around the next corner, but is prepared to take action once she gets there, even if the only action available for a time is bearing witness.

In the end, a perfectly satisfying outcome.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, man, I loved this. For fans of Tracy Flick.

[Celia T · Rating 2 out of 5]

God bless Mary McCoy for looking her publisher in the eye and saying "I, Claudius Gender-Bent High School AU" and god bless her publisher for saying "okeydokey".

As (I assume) one of the very few other people in this world who has spent a lot of time thinking about how a Julio-Claudian high school AU would go, two stars is maybe unfair, since I think my problems with this book were due to my disappointment at the ways in which it diverged from my own ideas (and also a small amount of resentment that somebody else beat me to it). Some actual, objective issues though:

-I didn't really understand the point/purpose of the decision to gender-swap. Also, imho if you're going to do some gender-bendage, have the courage to make it gay!! watching female!claudius fall in love with the Herod Agrippa character was. kind of weird.
-This book really didn't need a romance subplot. Just because it's a teen novel does not mean your protagonist has to fall in love and be fallen in love with.
-At a certain point there were Too Many Characters. There are a lot of characters in I, Claudius because it spans almost a hundred of years of history; squeezing as many of them as possible into one high school got very confusing very fast.
-I get that a modern re-working of a story isn't just exactly the same plot and characters in a new setting, and you can play fast and loose with the original plot but like.... having Livia be the one responsible for Caligula's "assassination" didn't really work, in my onion. .

Overall though: a fun read, and maybe more fun if you're not a Roman history pedant. Nobody better do a Jupiter Ascending-esque I, Claudius re-working in space, though. That one's mine.

[Sacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciate the concept and timeliness, and this is so well devised. But, I really struggled to connect to the characters and plot. I just could not get very invested, and this became- for me- a pretty slow read.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREAD UPDATE MAY 2021: I listened to the audiobook for the first time and it was just as good as I remember. This book is twisty and still absolutely worth a read. If you like political drama, elite private school settings, and dark YA fiction, this book is for you.

ORIGINAL REVIEW DECEMBER 2019:

Five incredible, twisty, politically intriguing stars.

This book is a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it. Mary McCoy writes Claudia with the most unique, compelling voice. From the beginning of the book, I was hooked on the way Claudia was recounting her story.

Please ignore the cover of this book, because what is inside is much better than the art on the outside. This is the story of Claudia, a student at an elite private school that is governed by a student Honor Council. The 8 students on the council enforce the school honor code and dole out punishment as they see fit. They wield their power in different ways, and when that power falls into the wrong hands, the school begins to function as a police state, with students looking over their shoulders waiting to be given an honor code violation.

This book is cleverly told as an "interview" where Claudia is telling the story of her rise and fall from the Imperial Day Honor Council. Claudia considers herself to be a historian, so she's always discussing how accurate a story might be, based on the validity of the sources or if Claudia is sharing her first-hand account. I find this element of the book to be really engaging.

Imperial Day is filled with flawed characters, and I really enjoyed following the narrative and guessing which students were going to double-cross the others. The book kept me on my toes until the very end and included some truly shocking twists. But it never felt over-the-top. The world of Imperial Day was well-established early on so that all of the events that followed seemed realistic in the environment.

I was sad to finish this book. I want to read more of Claudia's musings. I highly, highly recommend this book.

[Kate Crabtree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! Prep school hijinks, absent parents, unreliable characters (and possibly narrator?). I love a book that really explores the difference in perspectives in characters and this book does so beautifully. It’s a tiny bit dry, which is why I can’t give it a five, but it’s worth the read, especially for anyone who loves history and was fascinated by Joseph McCarthy (I have to assume Claudia’s last name is referencing him. Although, to be fair, the book also references a peace activist named Eugene McCarthy, which muddles things delightfully.)

[PVLD Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genius retelling of I, Claudius starring Claudia, a moody teen who gets pulled into the high stakes world of her private high school's student political body.

Reviewed by Megan, librarian
Find it at the library here.

[elissa]

Printz Honor 2019, and the only Printz that wasn't really on my radar this year. Looks good.

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book absolutely blew me away.

As a retelling of 'I, Claudius', in itself a retelling of real-life history, one might wonder exactly how well the novel performs in terms of drama and tension. Rest assured that the answer is 'really bloody well'. There were enough twists thrown in that I was never bored; the tale of Claudia's rise through the ranks of the Senate, Imperial Day Academy's student council, is full of violence, lies, secrets, and death. While it's hardly a spoiler that she ends up as Emperor (aka Honour Council President) how she gets there is never a boring tale.

Our friend Claudia

This is massively helped by the characterisation. McCoy handles her characters spectacularly. Livia is perfectly rendered, violent yet just; Cal is a brilliant tyrant; Claudia herself is unflinching in her ambition and cowardice. Almost every single character, even the relatively minor ones, are so well-fleshed-out they come to life, rather than being caricatures of their real-life counterparts. Having some classical knowledge is a plus here: I had a great time trying to figure out who was who. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that Ty was Tiberius).

The only flaw really was that the amount of power invested in students seemed to require a bit too much suspension of disbelief at times. Okay, so there's an all-powerful Honour Council tasked with overseeing school discipline, but are the teachers (including one Dr Bob Graves) really going to let them expel student after student with minimal input? I got so sucked into the student politics I stopped caring, though, which is a testament to McCoy's skill.

In short, this is a brilliant drama wherein all the brutality and scheming of Ancient Roman politics has been transposed into a modern-day prep school. Unmissable.

ARC received in exchange for an honest review - thank you!

[Blog] - [Twitter]

[Tom Woolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about the nature of history, and the nature of politics, and the nature of power. It is also a book about the strange, in-between world of adolescence.

What would happen if the students of a prestigious private academy held almost unlimited power of self-governance? This premise sets up a novel that owes equal parts to All the President’s Men, to Lord of the Flies, and to the daily headlines of our current political age.

It’s a fantastic book.

A few lines that strike close to the heart of the novel, without spoiling anything:

People always say that history is important because those who don’t learn from its mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
I’m not sure that’s true. I believe that history is important because if you’re still standing on the other side of it, it means you won. You survived. It’s in the past, and what’s behind you can’t hurt you.
Not as long as you can outrun it.

Paul Chudnuff took the ideas of honor and righteousness and linked them to power.
And to a certain kind of person, power like that is irresistible.

When Richard Nixon was running for reelection in 1972, he had a whole shadow campaign, a whole team of people who did nothing but sabotage his opponents ...
You don’t just wake up one morning with the audacity to pull something like that in a presidential election. You practice.

But the third reason I did it, the main reason I did it, is that I thought it might get some adults to step in and make it stop ...
I didn’t want to do it, but I thought, If I do something bad enough, the people in charge of this place won’t be able to ignore it anymore.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this and it's such a delightful blend of old and new, of funny and sad, of high school politics and conniving as old as Ancient Rome. McCoy reminds us that the Nixons (and Trumps) of the world didn't just emerge fully formed-- they practiced somewhere. Why not a high school honor council? Some lines in the novel were flat out hilarious, and there were also moments of true emotional insight. A book that's hard to pin down, but wonderful to read.

[Kiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I love this book. I picked it up off the library shelf on a whim, and I’m definitely thankful I did. This book was suspenseful, and the plot twists kept on coming. While it’s not the lightest read, it was so interesting and I really wanted it to keep going. The ending was partly suspenseful- but mostly resolved, which made me happy.

[Annie]

I read this manuscript for a project at work and I'm not going to give anything away, but let me just say that honestly, unbiasedly, this is fantastic.

[max theodore · Rating 5 out of 5]

i would place very few books before sleep but this was one of them

[Atlas · Rating 4 out of 5]

* * * *
4 / 5

I liked this a lot! I'm not a historian and I know nothing in particular about Emperor Claudius, so there are probably deeper depths to this book than I was able to appreciate. Even so, this was great.

There were a few specific things I loved - the fact that this takes place over a relatively long timespan for high-school setting novel. I believe it covers three years. I loved how people phased in and out of Claudia's life in a manner that felt real; there are people who outgrow her, like her sister Maisie who goes abroad to study, and people that Claudia outgrows, like Julia. The people who are important at the start are not by the end, and those that you thought were unimportant grow in prominence.

I liked the mystery: who did what, who knew what. I liked the shifting sense of power, that I was never quite sure who was pulling the strings. That some people who seem dumb become utterly inconsequential when they get power, and others grow and become ugly and twisted.

There was something sinister and intriguing and ugly about I, Claudia and that was very interesting.

Read this review and more on my blog: http://atlasrisingbooks.wordpress.com

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so enjoyed this book, partly because I know and love Robert Graves's I, Claudius, and it was so much fun to see how the author adapted the story of the classical Roman emperors and their names to a private high school in contemporary California. Augustus and Livia remain the same but Caligula is Cal, Tiberius becomes Ty, and so forth.

Still I think any teen would resonate to the situation, where an elite high school is ruled by the student officials of the "Honor Council" and a school government is known as the Senate, by the dramatic conflicts between those who really do want to uphold the school's famous and stringent honor code and the bullies who just want power for its own sake. Like her namesake, Claudia is well connected but underestimated; she uses her stutter and her limp to ward off attention and persecution until she winds up taking power herself. She has all the charm of the outsider, the unreliable narrator who may or may not be giving us the inside scoop. Well written and well done.

[Sarah Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on politicking, power, and how terrible people can be to each other, especially teenagers.

Claudia narrates her years at Imperial Academy, an elite private school where teachers yield to the student led Honors Council. And this Honors Council has the power to enact punishments for crimes like vandalism, being truant, etc, with suspension and even expulsion. The council is run by naive people, sycophants, power hungry people and ultimately by a deranged tyrant. We see all this from Claudia’s historically driven mind, using past leaders like Nixon and Charles I to explain what she’s describing at her school. And it’s fascinating. It’s like the film Election, on steroids.

I think or maybe hope Claudia is a reliable narrator but her perspective has so much bias, sometimes she has me wondering. She’s interesting and this book sucked me in, hook, line and sinker. All the characters were intriguing. Very much dug this.

[ML · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I loved it. This book was not what I usually go for but for some reason it pulled me in and I’m glad. It has a very cinematic feel to it and somehow told the downfall of the entire school perfectly. I never felt that it was unrealistic for how well it eased you into Claudia’s world. About her as well, I can easily say that I’ve never read a book with a character like her. Intelligent, thoughtful, bitterly amusing, and her disabilities were never just mentioned occasionally as to ‘not ruin’ her narrative. No, she lives with them and handles it with grace. The other characters were also full of color, whether that color was bright sunshine or muddled gray. Excellent book, highly recommend.

[Steve DuBois · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I'm reading Suetonius and I think, "hey, this would be a cool realistic YA novel!" And I start writing it.

And during the research phase, I discover it's already been written.

And then I read it, and...well, crap. It's better than the book I was trying to write. A little bit too on-the-nose in spots (Cal Hurt?) and a little too close to Robert Graves to be fully credited as an original work of fiction. But McCoy understands high school, manipulation, and skulduggery at a deep, deep level, and she's crafted a hell of a complex viewpoint character in Claudia.

Ah well. If somebody beat me to the punch, I'm glad they made a good job of it.

In the meantime...Lives of the Caesars is pretty long, and there's a lot of different ways to wreck a high school...

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much better than I expected a version of I, Claudius to be! This is one time when I applaud the Print committee's tendency to choose a book or two that are not getting the attention they deserve. I loved the characters, the history, and the brilliant way the author was able to show the corruption of power, both at the high school level and in life. There is both sexual assault and violence, for those who may be triggered by them. There is also sharp humor and fully realized characters if all stripes. And I read it in less than 48 hours. I couldn't put it down, and when I had to, I was still thinking about it.

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two great books in a row. Is the drought over?

My YA connection has been under an awards gag order, so recommendations this year have been slim but when he delivers, he delivers! I, Claudia was SO DARN CLEVER and not at all in that overly cutesy way. The story was engaging from the first sentence to the last and while I heard the ending my be divisive, I thought it was a fitting codicil. I'd love more stories about the brilliant, flawed, unreliable narrator Claudia but if this is all we get, I'm good with that too.