This is a unique retelling of Eurydice and Orpheus. An angry boy makes a pact with death to help him control his anger. When he moves from Sao Paolo to Miami, he meets two girls with whom he becomes entwined. When one of them is in a car accident, they must face death again to save her.

The cover for this book was FANTASTIC but it just wasn't for me. I didn't like the queer YA rep and the mix of fantasy, real world life and Greek mythology though. Recommended for fans of authors like Katee Roberts. Overall quick and entertaining just not my particular genre fav. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

R.M. Romero is honestly such an underrated author! I really wish her books would get the attention they deserve, because they are so unique and stunning. My absolute favorite is "The Ghosts of Rose Hill," and while I didn't love this one quite as much, I still really enjoyed it.

In "Death's Country," Andres, a boy full of anger and venom, survives a near-death experience by making a deal with Death. The catch? One day, Death will take something he loves as its payment. Andres becomes a new, kinder person and eventually falls in love with Renee and Liora, embarking on a polyamorous relationship. But when Death returns to take Liora, Andres and Renee must journey into the underworld to retrieve her soul.

This is such a unique book, especially since there are few YA books that have polyamory rep and approach a polyamorous relationship in a respectful, sensitive way. I did feel like the romance was a bit rushed, by the relationship between Andres, Liora, and Renee was very beautiful. There's lots of gorgeous imagery throughout the book, and Romero's verse writing is lyrical and lush.

Check this one out if you like "Me(Moth)" or "We Are All So Good At Smiling" by Amber McBride, or "Home Is Not a Country" by Safia Elhillo!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! ☠️🎸

Going into this, I hadn't expected this to be written in verse, which is on me; I didn't read the synopsis properly.
That being said, I was rather pleasantly surprised! I am not one to read novels written in verse, as I find that the pacing or the style in general reads strangely. However, in Death's Country, the author does a great job, in that the story flows well, regardless, or perhaps because, of the writing style. There was so much story fit into this book, considering the fact that there are less words than typically would be in a full-length novel. The writing was excellent, every word was fully utilised such that I felt every moment of the characters' emotional journey.

The way each character's arc was handled, alongside their growing relationship was sooo good, the author gives each character their own screentime to develop, and also twines it together with their love story. I think teens would find this cast of characters relatable, especially with all the obstacles and uncertainty they face, which are real and prevalent issues today. I also liked how the book doesn't just provide a clean solution to everything, but the characters grow and learn how to manage things in a way that feels more realistic.

I find that this novel also provides a rather age-appropriate exploration of the concept of death, and how different people deal with it, as well as the different perspectives our main cast has about it. This could be an interesting discussion to have with youths about concepts of mortality and the afterlife.

All in all, an excellent read, one that is quite short in terms of word count, but makes a big impact <3

This was unlike anything I have read before, the lyrical prose and haunting visuals. Deaths Country follows three main protagonists, Andres has found himself haunted by Death after a near fatal accident. When Andres and Renee must go into the underworld to recover Liora’s spirit and bring her back from a coma they soon realise that this is only the first step in getting out of the Underworld.

I adored the writing style in this, written in verse which isn’t my preferred style but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The throuple at the centre of the story had so much heart. Really excited to see what Romero does next

4.5 rounded up

Many thanks to Netgalley and Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink for providing me with a free copy of this books in exchange for an honest review!

This book was just... Stunning. The prose was wonderful; it flowed so beautifully and painted a gorgeous picture of this book for the reader. The way the characters and environments were described, succinctly yet in such a lovely way made this an incredibly refreshing book to read overall. The worldbuilding was so intriguing, and the author did a wonderful job of introducing you to the world within the limitations of the style they chose.

The only thing I can nitpick about this book is that I want more; more time with the characters, more time in the underworld the author created and just more time spent in the novel itself, but I think that this would prove an almost-insurmountable task. It would likely take away from the stylistic choices made to make this novel whole, and overall would probably work to its detriment, so I can't really call it a criticism at all. As much as I would have loved to spend more time with these characters, I think it is more a compliment to the author that I became so connected to them in such a short time. Even the side characters were endearing and the antagonist was quite obvious to me, but I think that was also intentional; even Andres had his suspicions quite early on.

Overall, this was a wonderful read that will absolutely stay with me, and will certainly be reread and analysed again in the future.

Now, let’s get into the fantasy queer polyam books out this year! Buckle up, because this premise has a lot going on. This is a queer, polyamorous, Latine YA retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Miami…told in verse. Andres drowned in a river in São Paulo one year ago — but it didn’t stick. He made a deal with death, and now he has a new start. One day on the beach, he meets Renee and Liora. They hit it off and become a polyamorous triad, happy in their relationship, even if no one else understands it. When Liora is in a car accident and ends up in a coma, Renee has an idea: the two of them will descend into the underworld, find their girlfriend’s spirit, and reunite it with her body. Navigating the city of the dead is difficult enough, but there’s one other complication: Andres left a part of himself behind when he died, something he never wanted to see again, and it wants to reunite with him.

3,75⭐️

First of all, thank you NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the ARC.

Death's Country by M. Romero is a YA polyamorous Orpheus and Eurydice's retelling in verse.
It's the first book that I read by this author, but it's likely not going to be my last.

From the start, "Death's Country" caught my attention due to its cover and the idea of a queer polyamorous retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice's tale.

The only thing that stopped me from reading this book before was the fact that it's written in verse, something that I'm not used to but that in reality didn't bother me during the reading.

I loved Andres as the main character and his relationship with Renee and Liora.
I also liked all the references to Dante and Greek mythology.

While I usually enjoy books written in verse, and usually can get through them very quickly, this one I struggled with and found myself not wanting to pick up. It's also not so much an "Orpheus and Eurydice" retelling as it is inspired by that myth - I actually think if this had been more of a retelling, it would have been far more compelling. The story didn't flow particularly well, and I struggled to connect to the characters. I did like the polyamorous love story at the heart of the story, and the author's take on the underworld was certainly unique, which I appreciated! This book will work for some people, unfortunately it just wasn't what I was wanting from it.

My heart is breaking over not being able to rate this book better, because the plot's idea is fantastic, and it's a polyamorous book which are incredibly rare, so I was ready to love this book with all of my heart. What went wrong then?, you may ask. The writing style and format. I didn't know beforehand, before starting the book, that it is written in verse, and at first after opening it, I thought it was just edited poorly, and that's why there were such short lines and such weird line breaks. But a quick Google search told me that it is intentional, since the book is written in verse. Not really my cup of tea, but I wasn't going to give up just because of this, so I kept reading. Unfortunately, though, the writing style wasn't to my liking either. It felt as if the whole book was a draft in the author's drawer that they intend to write properly one day, not a fully finished book ready to be published. Because of these reasons, I couldn't quite enjoy the book, it took me a lot of convincing myself to pick it up again whenever I paused reading, and even when I did continue reading, if you were to ask me the next day, "Hey, what happened in the chapters you read yesterday?", I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you, because my brain immediately forgot most of what happened, I couldn't remember it. It's such a pity, because the plot idea was fabulous, and I wish I could have loved and enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this story.
It is a polyamorous retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice written in verse.
I don’t know if it’s because of me not knowing the original Orpheus and Eurydice story, but I didn’t vibe with this as much as I wanted to.
I thought the story written was interesting though because I haven’t read a story like that before.
I did like the message too, that you need to embrace all parts of yourself.
I hope the trio finally finds peace and moves on from their misfortunes and insecurities.
Virgil was an awesome addition to their story. Loved him.

3.5*

I got through 50% of this on my ebook version before I folded and bought the audiobook 😅

The story is sweet and sad and a young me would've considered this a very meaningful piece of literature for myself. I can see this speaking to a lot of young people that might feel lost and are also on the search of finding themselves.

Romero draws beautiful images with her writing and tells a rather common story that many can relate to through a very unique lens. I also appreciated the polyam representation in a YA book - which is very new for me.

I think the formatting is were I struggled the most. It felt very willy-nilly with no rhyme or reason as to why the text was formatted that way. Unique formatting for *just* aesthetic reasons does not appeal to me at all. It is confusing and takes me out of the story which is why I ended up switching to the audiobook. This made the experience enjoyable again.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a YA story through a more dark fantastical/mythology-inspired lens.

This was my first novel in verse, which took some getting used to, since I never read poetry and stuff like that. Once I found my rythm, I really appreciated the myth/fairy tale vibe it gives to the story.
This novel is about accepting that your flaws are a part of yourself, however much you may want to detach yourself from them. It is good, especially for young people, to show them that people that truly love won't mind your scars and your flaws, because they'll love all of you. Also the parts with Virgil made me tear up, thinking of all the kids whose lives were ended all too early (especially with the state of the world right now).
I do think that the start of Andres, Liora, and Renee's relationship could have been more fleshed out. Though, I guess fairytales and the like don't really spend much time doing that either, so it's not really that big a deal.

I got an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Deaths Country is a YA Poly Orpheus and Eurydice retelling.

RM Romero is one of my all time favorite authors, so I will always read everything they come out with. Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me though, which is fine!

I'm not a greek mythology girly (I know absolutely nothing about it lol) so that aspect of this retelling was lost on me. It all felt really melodramatic to me as well. This is kinda the point I think - these are teens with big feelings dealing with big things! But it just didn't land with me personally.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Two teens travel to the underworld their girlfriend (the trio are in a polyamorous relationship).

I think what really threw me off here was that it was written in poem form. I was expecting prose, so was a little startled. I do not mind a novel in verse, but I don't think it worked with this story. It also did not hit not the Orpheus and Eurydice myth as much as expected, especially from the synopsis.

I enjoyed this book. I loved the queer take on such a well known tale.
The prose style takes some getting used to so it did take me quite a long time to warm into this book but once I was in I was in.
Beautifully written.

This was a beautifully written queer retelling of an Orpheus/Eurydice (?) that featured a polyamorous relationship. I really enjoyed the story but found the prose-like style to be a little frustrating at times, not fully allowing us to become well acquainted with the characters. I am not super familiar with the original storyline (Orpheus/Eurydice), so that made it a bit difficult to follow along. As the story progressed and I got familiar with the prose style, I began to really enjoy the writing and the characters.

Overall, this was sort of a mixed bag. It is pretty short and reads very quickly, and the queer/poly rep is wonderful, but it can be difficult to get into at the start.

If you cut part of yourself away, are you really still yourself? In this novel in verse, we follow Andres, a strikingly well-written teen who is struggling with his own past and choices as he travels the underworld with one of his girlfriends. They are searching for their other girlfriend to bring her back to the land of the living after an accident leaves her in a coma. This is Andres' second trip to the underworld, the first being when he drowned and made a deal with Death to cut away his anger. I think the way the underworld is written is beautiful, with not only the spirits of people but of cities and buildings as well. Each character we are introduced to feels so vivid and real. The poly relationship is painted so naturally and beautiful, which is hard to find in YA books.

I loved their debut, every book since I have not. I didn't really understand Andras at all and I was also super icked in the audio because while written mamí is fine, on audio, I keot hearing a high school boy talking about his mommy and I found all the characters very immature

R.M. Romero does such an incredible job blending magical realism with a realistic world. This is my second of her works and I now know I will read anything she writes. I adored this story so much and could not stop reading it last night. Novels written in verse always draw me in and I am so glad I found Romero's A Warning About Swans last year, which lead me to picking up this beauty.

As soon as I saw this being comped as part Hadestown and the myth of "Orpheus and Eurydice”, I knew I had to read it. Many of my favorite myths deal with the Underworld. Romero takes the myth and breathes new life into it with Andres, Renee, and Liora. It follows Andres and Renee as they travel into the Underworld to try and save their girlfriend, Liora from Death.

A beautiful poly romance which touched my heart from the first chapter. Andres comes alive in Romero's very first stanza. He is depicted vividly on every page, his voice as distinct as his story. The story begins with him making a bargain with Death to take his anger away in exchange for something he will love in the future. When one of his girlfriends, Liora goes into a coma, he believes Death is taking who he loves.

Andres is one of the Orpheuses of this story, who not only has to go on a physical journey, but also an emotional one. One of his girlfriends, Renee also takes on the role of Orpheus. She is the one who first suggests saving Liora and uses her magic to help get them into the Underworld. Liora is our Eurydice who gets a much more active role in the plot. I loved the journey all three had to go on.

Along with the characters, the world is just as striking. The Underworld depicted in this story reminded me a bit of Coco but it is very much its own entity. I thought the idea of not only having ghosts of people, but also places, was intriguing. It's one of the most interesting takes I have found of the Underworld. Also, we meet many famous faces and get multiple references to mythology throughout the course of the story. The love of music was a beautiful part of this story.

"Ground control to Major Tom"

I highly recommend Death's Country. Romero is an incredible storyteller, whose writing is a masterpiece. I adored this young adult story about healing and love. A modern-day take on "Orpheus and Eurydice" that is definitely one of my favorite books of the year.