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Tom W.

"Power. Betrayal. Destruction. Corruption. If I was you, I'd want to know about it."

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2018

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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.

(I noticed the hardcover edition has some beautiful formatting touches that don't carry over in the Kindle edition.)

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 it’s 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.”

Kris Hughes

Beware of Content not for children

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2019

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While this book is marked for YA (ages 12-18) and the characters are teenagers, it is important to note that the content of this book should be marked for mature audiences. The profanity throughout the book is vile and excessive. There is disturbing sexual content as well. The plot was interesting and could have been a great story if it was not overshadowed by crudeness.

Kelly V.

Unexpected Power

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2019

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I, Claudia is about a high schooler who is surprised to come to power in her student government (which is unusually powerful in a school where the adults hardly get involved). It's all framed in a series of therapy visits, where Claudia (as a "teenager in crisis," as she puts it) is explaining what happened to get her to this point. Claudia is a nobody in the beginning of the book, but by the end, she's done some major things that have changed many people's lives, in both good and bad ways. The book covers three years in Claudia's school, from freshman through junior year and it's fascinating to watch everything unfold. It's a great book that I highly recommend if you're looking for something quite novel in YA today.

Jenny Z.

Impeccable voice, unputdownable plot, political intrigue -- highly recommended read

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020

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This is one of those books that I want to shout about from the rooftops, it is such a delight.

Claudia's is an impeccable voice - smart as hell, self aware, disaffected yet vulnerable. She prides herself on being a historian, but gets sucked into politics at her elite LA high school, its moral code governed by the whims of a student Honor Council. Though marked an outsider by her limp and her stutter, Claudia refuses to be a victim and finds herself embroiled in a twisty series of political power plays and corruption. The message? Politicians who cheat their way to power do not learn to do so overnight; they practice.

Disturbingly relevant to current events, this is a book that would have been illuminating to me as a teenager, when I remember being embarrased to admit that I didn't really understand what "politics" was all about. Through her role in student government, Claudia tries her best to rise above it all and enact reforms to make the school a better place, yet when she finds her best intentions thwarted by a complicated game of power plays, she realizes that she has no choice but to play the game herself if she wants any hope of succeeding in changing the culture of duplicity and corruption at her school.

A taut and twisty plot, along with Claudia's delightful voice, made this book unputdownable for me. The last act was a tad too rushed for my liking, but that's partly because I was enjoying it so much that I wanted more. Mary McCoy is a huge talent; her writing is the exact brand of smart, clever, and tongue in cheek that I enjoy most; her plotting and pacing are impeccable. I'm eagerly anticipated her next book already.

I wish I, Claudia would get reissued in paperback with a better cover and a shiny Printz honor seal embossed on it; if there was ever a time for a kickass book about a tough outsider girl fighting a corrupt political system, the time is now.

Andrew Coleman

Great YA Novel

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2018

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This book is a great read featuring a fascinating protagonist. Claudia is an incoming freshman at an expensive prep school in Los Angeles. She's brought into the student government, which has a large amount of power to determine student discipline in addition to more traditional activities like organizing the Homecoming dance. The main question of the book is to what extent that kind of power corrupts Claudia and her classmates and whether someone who intends to do good can be good in such a setting.

As the title implies, this story is inspired by I, Claudius, and if you are familiar with that story or the early history of the Roman Empire, some of the plot points may be familiar to you. But I enjoyed this novel immensely because there are rich character motivations and the adaptation to a modern setting made everything fresh again.

I felt this novel had special resonance in the wake of the stories in the news about the culture at elite private high schools recently. You see the indifference from adults to step forward to actually teach their children morals and the culture of silence among students to protect each other's privilege. And how Claudia fights against this system, or tries to.

Amazon Customer

Great condition.

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2019

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Everything as expected.