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sophiahelix 's review for:
Mara: Daughter of the Nile
by Eloise McGraw
I loved this in junior high and dug it out again for a "light" read -- it's actually more intense than I remembered, but still fun. For being written in 1953, Mara is a surprisingly strong female character, a slave-turned-spy for two opposing masters. She's smart, quick on her feet, speaks Babylonian, plays both sides, and even stands up under torture. The romance novel aspects are the least interesting elements, not because they're particularly silly but just because McGraw's beautiful descriptions of ancient Eygpt's people, lands, and politics are so engaging it's hard to pay attention to the romance. It's irritating that Hatshepsut has been turned into the evil villainess, and the "fettered king" whose revolution is being planned isn't described as, ahem, her half-brother and husband (who didn't need a revolution), so it's easier just to read the story as entirely made up. Definitely recommended, even if one of the last lines in the story is "Oh, Amon! No hand but mine shall slay that misbegotten Libyan!"