I, Claudia

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy is a young adult political thriller based loosely on the classic I, Claudius by Robert Graves, which illuminates the tumultuous and corrupt political climate of Ancient Rome with sarcasm, wit, and suspense. In her novel, McCoy takes the plot of I, Claudius, and moves it to a private high school, where protagonist Claudia McCarthy finds herself swept against her will into the mind-bogglingly complex world of the Honors Council. The novel features a diverse cast of characters in terms of race, sexual orientation, and ability, and McCoy focuses on characterization to pull the thriller toward its inevitable conclusion.

The novel is narrated by Claudia, who finds herself in a position of significant authority as the vice president of the Honors Council after starting a new school year at Imperial Day Academy. The story is primarily told as a reflection on the past, as Claudia thinks back on her experience rising to power, and how it differed from her original intentions upon arriving at the academy. Through this method of reflection, Claudia considers whether it matters that her hopes had been different from the actuality of events during her time on the Honors Council – a student council organization that has been given the authority by the principal to oversee discipline at the school. Though Claudia seems to have good intentions, her actions are, by most accounts, unforgivable.

Claudia begins her time at Imperial Day Academy as a girl who for her entire life had been brutally teased and harassed for her speech impediment and her limp. Claudia had hoped that when she started high school, she could become invisible – hiding on the sidelines and avoiding any unwanted attention that might spark more bullying, making her life as miserable as it had been before. Her plan, however, is threatened immediately by Livia Drusus, Claudia's mortal enemy and an Honors Council member, who uses her authority on the Honors Council to force Claudia to run for Student Senate. Claudia runs, and in a surprising turn of events, she is elected. Suddenly, Claudia finds herself in the midst of a much more complicated political environment than any she could have anticipated.



Claudia unearths a financial scandal in the Senate that gets her elected not only to the council but placed in the role of vice president. Though she never wanted power, she finds that once she has it, it has its own appeal. Claudia makes a vow to herself to use her power to better the school but soon finds that the political environment in which she has found herself has very few clear-cut answers. Around every corner, there are wannabe tyrants waiting to take the reigns, and a series of scandals make Claudia wonder whether it is better to keep quiet and put everything out in the open. Claudia eventually finds herself enmeshed in a nuanced social environment, and her good intentions seem to be moving further and further from her reach.

Along the way, Claudia involves herself in a romance with one of the popular boys at Imperial Day Academy – this is notable because Claudia is disabled, and it is rare in literature that disabled protagonists end up in romantic relationships with interested, able-bodied, and popular characters. Though many of the characters in I, Claudia are based on real figures in Roman politics, McCoy fleshes out each character individually without relying too much on their archetypes. This makes for a more complicated social environment, particularly in terms of the characters of Livia, who is both brutal in her punishment and just, and Cal, who is desperately hungry for power. Ultimately, the novel asks whether power inevitably corrupts, and the thrilling scandals, including a number of expulsions, power grabs, and even death, give the book momentum as Claudia is tugged along on a ride she didn't ever expect to be on.

Mary McCoy is a librarian and young adult author living in Los Angeles. She has written three books – I, Claudia, Camp So-and-So, and Dead to Me. She works at the Los Angeles Public Library and is interested in thriller and mystery novels that defy genre stereotypes. I, Claudia won a 2019 Printz Honor, among other awards, and was listed by a number of libraries as a significant book of 2018. McCoy, who grew up in western Pennsylvania, also contributes to a number of online journals about the dark history of Los Angeles.