Amber & Clay

Continuing with my ancient Greek historical fiction binge, I finished Amber & Clay in less than 24 hours. The book looks huge, but it's partly written in blank verse and there are object illustrations, so it's not as long as it appears. (Not that I'm averse to long books, but for a children's book, it was Harry Potter/Riordan level thick.) 

Amber & Clay is set in the late 5th century/early 4th century BCE in Greece. It follows the lives of two young characters. The first is a slave boy named Rhaskos. The second is an aristocratic girl named Melisto. 

Rhaskos' chapters are written in blank verse and follow his life as a slave, beginning in Thessaly. Melisto's are in prose and they begin when she gets a new nurse, who just happens to be Rhaskos' mother, sold and now living in Athens. Rhaskos' is intelligent and artistic. Melisto is wild and untamed. Both characters are abused: Rhaskos of course by his masters and Melisto by her mother, who hates her. 

Melisto shines in her final, but lengthy, chapter, when she goes to Brauron to become one of Artemis's "Little Bears," young Athenian girls who serve at her temple for a year or more. When a bear cub is delivered to the shrine for sacrifice, Melisto works to tame it and becomes its protector. The priestess and heads of the temple take their time trying to figure out what to do with it, as a bear has never been sacrificed before, but when the decision is made, Melisto sneaks into the bear's stall and frees it during a storm. She performs the Bear Dance to Artemis as she leads the bear away to safety, but she's struck by lightning and killed at 10 years old. 

Back in Athens, Rhaskos' mother writes a curse tablet, summoning Melisto's ghost to free Rhaskos from slavery. The rest of the book is mostly in blank verse, being chapters mostly about Rhaskos. (The gods pop in and out, too.) Melisto hovers in the background, trying to help as much as a ghost can, but finally appears in a speaking role at the end, freeing Rhaskos and saving his master's family from having to leave Athens. Rhaskos' master is a former slave and needed a protector who was a citizen to watch over him. Melisto sends Rhaskos to her father who becomes the family's protector once Rhaskos has proven he actually knew Melisto's ghost.

The book is sprinkled with great illustrations that are a museum catalogue of artifacts that tie into the story. I loved that aspect. 

I'm not a fan of blank verse, so I'm glad I had no idea this book was mostly written in it or I may have skipped it. I enjoyed it and even cried at the end when Rhaskos is telling Melisto's father a story that only he and she would have known. I loved Melisto and felt she could have been kept alive a little bit longer, as she dies before the book is even halfway over. 

I think the book would have also been fine without Socrates as a character. He becomes a friend to Rhaskos, but I just don't think he was necessary. The philosophical discussions were okay, but could have been removed or replaced with something else. 

This is also the second book I've read recently that tries to occasionally instruct on ancient Greek pronunciation and gets it wrong. Yeah, I just looked this up to be sure and the author this time is using modern Greek pronunciation. The language changed over time. If you're going to have instruction in your book, make SURE you've got the right pronunciations. Even disregarding my having two years of Ancient Greek, it didn't take me that long to Google, so there's no excuse to teach readers the wrong things.

Overall though, a good read! I recommend it.