✨3.8 STARS✨

So, "this is a book written in verse" is what you're reading in all the reviews of this book. What you aren't reading is thatthis is a book that you forget is written in verse.so you just kind of plow through three quarters of ituntil something kind of sings outand your eyes stutterand you remember that this is a book written in verse.I don't really have the right words to comment on this story. It's magical and lyrical and full of lust and love and sorrow. The commentary is feminist; it's moder...

My latest book from Evaristo's earlier work is this verse novel set in 3rd century Britain. It is a playful book full of deliberate anachronisms. The verse is never very cryptic, which makes it a quick and entertaining read.The heroine Zuleika is the daughter of an African trader, who marries her off at the age of 11 to a more important middle aged Roman, but she soon gets bored of life in his London villa and has an affair with the emperor Septimius Severus.

Twoooo.......and a half? Idk.Wow first of all I think the edition I had definitely had the best cover. But anyway. This book feels like somebody's thesis that didn't get enough of a tightening-up before publication. I love the core idea so much--the main character, Zuleika, is the daughter of Nubian immigrants to Roman Londinium, and the book chronicles her life through verse, since she's an aspiring poet--but this really feels like round one of something, where you find an old thing you wrote i...

11-2-19: Liked this one from the start. Finally, a use for my HS Latin! Surprising how much comes right back: amo, amas, amat and all that. Zen Cho called it "smart and sharp and very funny." Good call. I liked the mix of details of Roman Britain with startlingly anachronistic dialogue. The best review I saw here is by KJ Charles: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...12/15/19: at about 2/3 in, I'm losing interest: repetitious, and the historical incongruities are wearing thin. I'll finish i...

A witty modern ancient smorgasbord detailing the young life of our main girl Zuleika; this kept me chuckling throughout whilst detailing the realities of life as a young woman in a sprawling metropolis. The narrator for this audiobook really sold the story for me. The characters and world were so vividly brought to life I looked forward to diving in every time I pressed play.The ending was unexpected, making it all the more jarring compared to the lighter tone used throughout the rest of this sh...

Beautiful, fascinating, troubling, and moving—a dazzling, majestic, crude, vulgar “verse novel” set in a kind of conceptual amalgam of third-century Londinium and modern Britain. This is a daring formal experiment, but Evaristo ultimately brings it off, uniting lyric and narrative in a way that seems to preserve the best and richest of both.

I've mentioned here many times that I'm not a fan of poetry. But look at me now, Evaristo has made me read and enjoy a novel written in verse! It doesn't even rhyme, the verse is mostly in lolloping four-beat accentual syllabics, and the language, man, fuck! This woman is a freaking genius. I Am In Awe! I usually don't share the synopsis anymore but the spoiler is in the title. The protagonist, Zuleika, a beautiful and feisty Sudanese woman, is married to an older wealthy Roman who is always awa...

Very enjoyable! Loved the mix of the old and up to date way it was written, as well as the prose. Reserving her other work at the library..............

3.5 really. This was not quite what I expected. I liked, but did not love it. It's daring and different, so credit for that, and I might get more on a second reading, which I may do someday, as it's only 250 pages. I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this, especially those who might be interested in an anachronistic feminist mash-up of I don't quite know what, set in 3rd-century Roman-ruled Britain and done in free verse.

What an amazing read. A verse novel about a black Roman child bride in 3rd-century London who becomes an emperor's mistress. The text is vivid to the point of fluorescent, mingling details of classical life with casually modern expressions and references (I especially liked this in the placenames, eg they go into the jungle at Bayswater); the cast of characters includes people of all kinds of origins, including the Libyan born emperor and our Sudanese heroine (JUST LIKE ROMAN LONDON ACTUALLY DID...

I could give him backchat, and anywayI’d never write good poetry because what didI know about war, death, the godsand the founding of countries?But you see, Dad, what I really want to readand hear is stuff about us, about nowabout Nubians in Londinium, about menwho dress up as women, about extramaritalpeccadilloes, about girls getting marriedto older men and on that note Londoninium 211, Zuleika the young daughter of a black Nubian small businessman who fled to London as a refugee following

Happy Wednesday to everyone, but especially to Bernardine Evaristo whose books always bring me joy! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is just something so playful about her use of language and this is a particularly striking example of it.In The Emperor’s Babe, Evaristo throws the rule book out of the window, it is a book written in verse mixing noughties cosmopolitan London parlance with the Latin of Roman Londinium, creating a product that is entirely unlike anything I’ve ever r...

Set in London in Roman occupation, Zulieka is full of life and energy and wit.The book mixes modern with old to great effect, Zuleika's friends Alba and Venus are just like her both hilarious, touching and sad. The story of Zuleika's marriage at 11 and love affair at 18 is shocking, and her feelings are expressed so well.Wondeful

This is the most unique book that I've ever read, but then again, it's my first experience reading a novel in verse. But the whole time, I felt honoured to be reading something so beautiful, so graphic, so charming, so brutally honest, so raw, so well-written. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the poetic writing, but once you learn the author's style, it's simply the most lovely thing. Mix that with the brutal content and graphic scenes of the book, and it's truly something so jarring...

When @penguinukbooks offered to send me two books for #BlackHistoryMonth I asked them to surprise me with their choices. Along with "Bone", this one arrived. I flicked through it and was immediately sceptical. I've never read a modern novel in blank verse and wondered to myself how this was going to go down. I needn't have worried. I was so engrossed that the format did not bother me one bit. *Set in Roman London, the protagonist is Zuleika, born to Sudanese immigrant parents and is sold at age

I don’t really know what to say. Yes it’s written in verse, which I thought would be an issue but actually it’s fine and you get into it. It’s short and a quick read. It’s a bit all over the place in terms of narrative but maybe I just didn’t really get it? What I did get, I did enjoy.

I have to admit, I am still getting use to reading novels told in verses. Some have been hits and others not so much. I enjoyed reading The Emperor's Babe because I wanted to get an appreciation for Evaristo's earlier works. I also like that Evaristo writes about a space and time in history that I have little knowledge about and made it it accessible and interesting. Some parts I had to re-read just to understand what was happening, but overall I enjoyed the freshness and feisty characters in th...

The Emperor’s Babe - Bernadine EvaristoIf for any reason anyone has ever doubted the power of written word- this book will restore your faith in that! With so few words, Bernadine Evaristo manages to cover so much in a short time leaving such a lasting impact.Zuleika is a young bride to a much older man. She is rebellious, driven and full of character. The change in her situation is hard for her to come to terms with (understandably) as one moment she is young and free, next she is expected to b...

so fun and witty !!!