Orpheus Girl is the story of a young lesbian, Raya, growing up in Texas during the 90s knowing full well that who she is, must remain hidden.

Raya, Orpheus, was left with her Grammy at two years old when her mom went off to be a tv star. Raya and her Grammy have lived with the grief ever since. Raya, who has no mother, has scars from a childhood surgery, must hide who she truly is, who she loves, in order to stay safe. But even when you’re so careful, sometimes being caught is inevitable. Orpheus must descend into hell in order to save Eurydice.

The writing is very poetic and beautiful and the style is gripping and romantic - even when horrifying you. For such a small book, it packs a seriously moving and empactful punch. I for one cannot wait for more books by Rebele-Henry, her way with prose and of making a classic myth story queer is all I need to want more.

I unfortunately just wasn't a fan of the writing with this one. I'm sure others will like it, but I don't know that I'm the right audience- I was intrigued by the plot, but wasn't able to enjoy myself while reading.

This was a phenomenal book and also a very hard book. The concept of a Orpheus and Eurydice retelling with a lesbian couple in a gay conversion camp is so fascinating. It was executed very well. The characters are dynamic, fascinating people. Even though this is a shorter book, just shy of 200 pages, there is a lot packed into here.
While I loved this book, it was also very hard to read. There were quite a few times that I had to put it down. This book doesn't shrink away from some very important issues.
TW: Homophobia, violence to LGBTQ characters, and Conversion Therapy.

This story hurts to read. The writing is sparse, which makes for character development to be a tricky thing, but it really does feel like a myth. Except, thankfully, Rebele-Henry has chosen to give our Orpheus and Eurydice an ending that starts off happily.

I found the sparse writing style of this book to be well executed, but it didn't resonate to me like a teenager's voice. I wonder if young readers will have a hard time engaging with it. To me, the tone of the book feels very heavy and sad, and the main character's overwhelming preoccupation with her absent mother felt a little overstated. Lastly, the main character's knowledge of queer issues, but lack of obvious engagement with technology, felt confusing for me. I'm not from a rural area, so perhaps this is my own lack of understanding showing. For these reasons, I found the book difficult to relate to personally. I would still advocate for the book to be sold, because there aren't enough rural queer stories being written, and it's an important story to tell, but I would not personally recommend it.

This book is an important one and in some ways one revealing of the author's poetic past (the electroshock scenes were simultaneously perhaps the most engrossing in terms of writing and so distressing to read that I nearly stopped), but it didn't feel very complete. There wasn't much in the way of world-building or character introduction/growth/development. The movement from arrival at the facility through the escape attempt and the escalated "treatment," was so accelerated it didn't feel as if there was enough time for it to feel realistic or for things to settle. I also would have avoided outright referencing the source text (in the case, Orpheus) repeatedly in the text.

It's kind of hard to put my thoughts on this into words. Because I'm not sure how I feel. On one hand, this book is full of strength and rebellion and hope, but on the other it's dark and devastating and painful to read. What I really need to say is: please don't read this book if you're in a bad place.


So when it says "conservative Texas town" it means hardcore catholic christian where nobody tolerates queer people. As soon as somebody notices you being not cis and straight, you disappear. You're a disappointment, become a sinner. That's what Raya has been afraid of for a very long time and the reason why she never wanted to come out. But everything blows up in her face and she gets send to this christian camp that is supposed to make her heterosexual. But this camp is hard. Really hard. It's destroying people's lives. Teens that go there often change and not for the better. The methods they use at this camp are harsh and painful and manipulating. What seems like a weird Jesus camp at first soon turns about to be full of horrors.


Raya is rebellious at first, fighting the camp everywhere she can. But the further her "treatment" goes, the weaker she gets, both mentally and physically. And so is everyone else. Some can take it, some not so well. Some hide behind sarcasm, some just break completely. Because what they do in this camp is actual torture in so many ways. The words spoken to young queers, the things done to their bodies. None of them will leave there the same, unharmed, unscathed. It hurt me to read all this. It hurt me really deep down and I had to put the book away several times to process what I've just been reading.


But here's the thing. The book was not bad. And it definitely gives you something to think about. Because it's so real. The writing style is lyrical in some parts, then plain in others, bringing the harsh truth to life. It made Raya's voice of telling this story so real, so raw, so painful. The reader gets stuck in her head, questioning life with her, trying to unknot the real from the unreal, the wrong from right. The whole story was dark, going ever darker, but where there's darkness, there is light. Hope and fierceness were woven into this dark madness like a glowing ribbon.


So yeah, this book hurt me and left me with a hollowed out feeling. And I just want to say to every queer: you are valid, you are beautiful and strong. If anybody tells you otherwise? Seriously, fuck them. Sorry for the swearing, but this needs to be said.


And what I want to say is this, and I know I repeat myself, only read Orpheus Girl when you're in a good mental place. There is just so much dark stuff in there. If you read it though, the book will make you feel a lot and give you much to think about and sort through. It is definitely a book worth reading if you prepare for heavy stuff

As someone who isn't queer, I am definitely not the right person to properly review this, but I'll give a few thoughts.

CW - homophobia, transphobia, self-harm, suicide attempt, conversion therapy

This is a devastating story about two queer girls who are publicly outed when caught together, and sent to a camp to be "fixed." It can be really painful and heartbreaking to read at times, but I really loved Raya and Sarah. Raya has a particular obsession with Greek mythology, and I really liked the author's way of weaving myths into the story.

I did find the writing style a bit too...amateur-ish, I guess is the best word. There are constant jumps between past and present, almost like a stream of consciousness, and it got really distracting for me to try and keep track of events. The writing is definitely my biggest complaint for the story, but it is a quick read otherwise.

I wouldn't call reading about the abuse of my community pleasant, but these are very real and very hard things explored with care by Rebele-Henry. While I'm not super familiar with the story of Orpheus, that metaphor worked just fine for me. The absolute strength of this book is how unapologetically and indubitably the two main girls cling to their identities as lesbians. Short hair, ugliness, and masculine energies are not seen as weird, gross, or lesser, and it was very powerful for me to read about these teens reclaiming the dyke identity! Yes!!!!

I wanted to like this book, but I had some issues with it. First, I struggled to place the story in time. When i first started watching it, I thought it was set in the 1950s, and then maybe the 1980s/early 1990s, and it wasn’t until several chapters in that I realized it was set in the 2000s (but even still, I couldn’t quite figure out when), and that frustrated me, because I kept having to revise the images I had in my head of the characters and the setting. Second, I felt like the timeline while they were at the “reparative therapy” place was weird — it seemed like things happened after they had just been there a couple of days, but then the narrator would refer to things that made it seem much longer than that, which made it feel like things had gotten mixed up during revision of something. I also had a hard time believing the characters that ran the therapy program — they felt underdeveloped and like charicatures.

A somber and moving story of two teen women descending into figurative hell and fighting to survive a world determined to deny them. It's certainly a retelling of the Greek myth, but the reader does not need to be familiar with the original tale to become immersed in Raya and Sarah's story. Be advised that the scenes depicting conversion therapy by way of electrocution are disturbing and graphic.

This was a Do Not Finish for me. I did not like how it opened, the way the details of their sad lives were presented, and life is too short to read books that don't grab you. I was hopeful about the plot and the LGBTQ characters, but I think the book lacked some exposition.

This was a difficult book to read and I spent most of my time angry at how the main characters were treated. It's also an important book for that reason. For my students who are able to handle heavier topics, I will definitely recommend Orpheus Girl.

This book highlights the sad history of conversion camps and the trauma inflicted through reparative therapy. If you are unfamiliar with the camps designed to "repair" LGBTQ+ individuals, you should read this book to better understand the tragic history. Some individuals become the people who hurt others, while others run away from the communities and beliefs that hurt them, feeling forced to choose between family and love or religion and love.

If you identify as LGBTQ+, this book (although well-written) may just be triggering for you with its graphic depictions of the therapies used and the homophobic and transphobic incidents portrayed.


I only gave the book 4 stars because although I saw the parallels to the myth of Orpheus, it did not feel like a retelling.

This didn't quite work for me. The beginning felt rushed; Raya and Sarah's relationship was so hard to follow that I couldn't tell if things were happening in real time or in flashbacks. The rest of the book was very spare, leading to the feeling that it was rushed and not very deep.

I started this book with little idea of what it was about, apart from being influenced by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. It's a beautiful and sad story about a man descending into the underworld to get his wife back, and being told that he can leave and his wife will follow but he must not look back or she will be lost forever. Obviously, he looks back.

Orpheus Girl is a lyrical, moving story about two girls who fall in love and descend into the 'underworld' of a conversion therapy camp. I love the way this story is written, and it's no surprise to me that the author is a poet, as there were lines in this book which were so good I reread them.

There were some elements of this book which I really liked, such as the absence of Raya's mother and her characterisation as an actress playing Aphrodite on a crappy tv show. Sarah always felt like a bit of an enigma throughout the novel, which may be partially the point as it is from Raya's point of view, but I feel like we're not given quite enough information about her character to see her as more than the girl Raya loves. There are moments, when Raya remembers an intimate moment between them or recalls small details about something she said once etc, but I would have liked more of these.

I liked the emotional intensity of the book, and the evocation of the conversion therapy is very vivid, brutally and viscerally so. I feel like there wasn't enough time spent with the other kids at the conversion therapy to view them as fully dimensional characters, which slightly lessened the impact of certain plot developments. I liked the portrayal of the woman who runs the camp, and the evolution of her morality throughout.

Overall, I'm glad I read this book and enjoy it as a piece of writing, but as a novel it was slightly too languid/dreamy for my taste.

The LGBT book I've been waiting to read my whole life. This is a powerful, moving book about two teens who are sent to a religious re-education camp, and about what happens when homophobia is left unchecked. It's absolutely incredible and a must-read.

There is absolutely no reason for this book to be as awful as it is. If you're gonna write about queer pain, at least add some hope sprinkled in. This book hurt to read.

I thought this book was very well written. I really enjoyed the romance between Sarah and Raya. The book was heartbreaking and beautifully written. The book was also unapologetically truthful to the horror of conversion therapy. So while I don't know if everyone would enjoy this book due to the graphic nature of this story, I do think that it was a well written and thought out tale. I also thought the greek mythology comparisons & connections were a nice touch. The only issues I had with it was that sometimes it was a little to text heavy or flashback heavy and not enough dialouge wise. I also really wanted to see what happens after they leave the conversion therapy camp. I have read a lot of books like this such as Cameron Post and The Summer I Wasn't Me. Both are good books, but I really hoped that they would explore more of what happens after someone escapes those camps rather than mostly focusing on the experience that they face in them. Not that those books shouldn't exist, I just wish more books discussed the aftermath and I was disappointed to see this book did not stray from that norm. However, I would love a sequel and how that the author will consider writing one. Overall, this was a pretty good book and would recommend it to anyone who feels they can handle the subject matter (if they can't for any reason it that is perfectly fine and understandable).

Brynne Rebele-Henry's Opheaus Girl is a heartbreaking retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth of two lesbian girls who end up getting sent to conversion therapy. Let me tell you...this book gave me ALL the feels. The anger I felt toward the people who mistreated them - people who are supposed to LOVE them but instead betray and abuse them - was long-lasting.

This is an important book, and I'm glad I was able to read it during Pride Month. I'm not fully ignorant of the difficulties LGBTQ+ people face, but I've never witnessed it first hand. This is perhaps the closest I have ever come to understanding the risks and pain of being an LGBTQ+ person in a community that does not support you. I think anyone who wants to be a better ally should read this. Also, because the characters are so well-written and sympathetic, the reader is compelled to feel their pain so much stronger.

What I am familiar with and do know first hand, is familial abuse. This book did an excellent job as far as driving the point home that you do not have to forgive those who abuse you and that you don't owe anything to your blood family just because you happened to have the misfortune to be born into it.

Do not go into this book if you're not in a good head space, though. There is violent abuse, homophobia, transphobia, suicidal ideation, and just simply depressing material. This is not by any means a light book. But know that the ending is satisfying and therapeutic.

Thank you to Brynne Rebele-Henry, Soho Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to access this book to review. As always, all opinions are my own.