Orpheus Girl
By Brynne Rebele-Henry
Publication Year: 2018
Type: Fiction
Genre: LGBTQ, romance
Read on 2020-02-19
View additional specs on this book in Muhan’s 2020 Reading Survey ➞
★★★☆☆
Dreamy sad teen lesbian romance, very very very loosely based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the American south in the early 2000s (I presume based on the clothes + there’s a reference to watching the Madonna/Britney kiss on MTV).
Writing is mostly good, a really powerful first-person narrative by our 16 year old closeted high school protagonist. Great use of present tense throughout to give a sense of urgency, contemporaneity, and temporal blurring (as in it sometimes felt like I was reading about things in my present-day, at others like I was reading about something timeless). There are a few very powerful moments and resonant quotes/chapter endings. Rebele-Henry is especially good at writing vividly, sensuously about color, clothes, teenage girlhood. She is a young writer which lends an authenticity to her writing of youth (as opposed to other great YA authors like J*hn Gr*en say).
Narrator directly references Greek myth (and associates herself with Orpheus/the myth) but fairly sparingly. I’m not familiar with the main characters of the Orpheus myth but even a connoisseur would probably need to check the index to know who’s meant to be who. The associations are ultimately very tenuous or nonexistent. The moments where plot and myth converge are the best in the book by far, but I definitely wanted more of it, and for the book to linger in those moments more.
Pacing could use some work. In general I think this book could’ve been much improved by at least 50 if not 100 more pages (it’s just over 150 as is). The characters are just not fleshed out enough and we don’t spend enough time with the fascinating side characters or even the main antagonists. The same is true of the setting in a small town in Texas, and the particular strain of conservatism/religiosity/homophobia that lives there.
I’m very excited to see what Brynne Rebele-Henry writes in the future. She is younger than me and very talented and I am a little bit jealous but mostly glad she exists and is being recognized and published and (hopefully!) supported by the industry/market. I will definitely continue to read her stuff in the future.
See me review this book in this video!
