Summary & Evaluation: In this work of historical fiction, Adele Geras creates a story where the gods of Ancient Greece not only concern themselves with the famous events of the Illiad, but also with the unknown citizens of Troy. The story focuses on five adolescents--three girls and two boys--entwined in the intrigues of love, as Aphrodite and Eros guide their affections to create conflict and disarray. As Troy begins to fall to the Greeks, the youth begin to understand that love, like war, has very real consequences in that it can rend the bonds of friendship and family and injure in lasting ways.
While Adele Geras found fertile ground for an exciting tale--what better excuse to feature the horrors and heroes of battle alongside the high passion of youth lovemaking than by setting the tale in Homer's Illiad?--her execution of the story is close to one-dimensional. The heroines' voices are not unique and so they begin to blend together, meaning that their first experiences with love becomes a shared reality to the reader. It's a bit unfortunate that this happens, as Adele Geras examines three very real modes of love--those being unrequited, spurned and fulfilled--that are important when examined individually. Adele Geras also tends to rely on a literary technique that becomes a bit tiresome as the Greek gods appear to the characters to impart crucial knowledge (driving the plot) but the characters--save one of the youths--always tend to forget, as the experience becomes dreamlike, and ultimately forgotten, a few seconds after it happens. Aside from these faults, the story captures the fervor of the youth's love stories while Troy teeters on the brink of destruction.
Booktalk Hook: If I were going to booktalk Troy, I would pull Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 in with the talk. Since 300's movie adaptation did so well in the theaters recently, I think it would be successful to offer Troy as an alternative for young adults interested in the theme of Ancient Greece and its wars.
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