I’ll start by saying that the prose in this novel is very good and was pleasant to read. Unfortunately, that did not stop me from being bored for a lot of it. Particularly the first half I felt like I was waiting to get to the actual story.

For a book centered around romance, the romance is not spent much time on. Orphia and Eurydicius meet, they fall in love immediately, and then they spend a lot of time apart, which made everything that happened after Eurydicius’s death feel unearned. We are certainly told about how strong their love is, but up until Eurydicius’s death there weren’t that many instances of us seeing it.

I hate comparing books in reviews but I have to compare this to The Song of Achilles. After Eurydicius’s death I kept thinking about it, specifically Patroclus’s death and Orphia and Achilles’ intense mourning. Achilles’ felt earned because his love was shown throughout the entire book leading up to it. Orphia’s wasnt. I also have to mention that this book had the line “I will know you after death, always, at the end of the world.” Which is nearly identical to The Song of Achilles’ “I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” Idk I know this is harsh but it kind of felt like it wanted to be the next Song of Achilles but it’s not.

I know I’ve said a lot of negative things about this book but it wasn’t bad. I for the most part enjoyed reading it, but I probably won’t read it again.

weirdly enough, i wasn't the biggest fan of this one despite being a huge Greek Myth buff. i really don't know why

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Orphia and Eurydicius retelling. I had moments where I loved this book and times where I was just so bored. I wish the whole story was like the last few chapters.

Unfortunately, this book didn't hold my attention too much, I think I was expecting something different. However, the writing was beautiful and I think the story was well plotted. I might revisit this book again later and appreciate it!

For fans of:
- Song of Achilles

This book includes:
- Orphia and Eurydicius retelling
- themes of female liberation
- wrathful gods
- benevolence
- the muses and their stories
- greek heroes of all shapes and sizes
- tragedy

"Orphia and Eurydius" is beautifully written. The prose is lyrical and hypnotic, almost like the Muses themselves wrote it. The story explores themes of hubris, godhood, and glory and may have those unfamiliar with the myths on the edge of their seat. While I found the book very well written and full of deep, dynamic characters, the pace was slow for me, which prevented me from enjoying the book as much as I could have.

I received this eBook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper 360, and Elyse John for the opportunity to review this book. This review is also available on my GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

A gender bent Orpheus and Eurydice that delves into giving a voice to the powerless and the helpless.

There was a lot that I liked about this, and to be honest, if I had read this a couple years ago, I would be raving about it.

Orphia’s narrative voice is strong, and the historical setting was strong. It was really interesting seeing this reinterpretation of Orphia’s voice raised as a woman in a society that demeans and diminishes women.

I do wish that more had been spent on Orphia’s actual journey to the Underworld, the descriptions of Hades’s kingdom ended up feeling a little disconnected, when I was supposed to be most invested in the story. And there were two sections in second person point of view that really pulled me out of the story.

But I really, really disliked the black and white nature of this story. Every single woman, goddess, muse, nymph, or mortal was good and unified. I all for modern reinterpretations of maligned Greek women like Medea and Hera, but for every single woman to band together felt too easy. And all of the men, except for Eurydicius, were cruel and malicious. I understand what the story was trying to go for, but it feels like there could have been a little more nuance.

Thank you to both NetGalley and Harper 360 for this arc.

Orphia and Eurydicius is a gender bent retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. I'm a big fan of Greek mythology retellings and am also a huge Hadestown fan, so I thought this was the perfect book for me! I have read some gender bent retellings of fairytales, but I'm pretty sure this is my first one for Greek mythology, so I was excited to see how that worked in a very gendered story like Orpheus and Eurydice.

And... it super didn't work for me. I feel like the book was trying to do a very feminist retelling of the myth, but it read as less modern feminist than girl boss and girl power feminism. Or 90s Disney princess feminism. I did appreciate that the physical appearances were not completely swapped, so Orphia has more of a powerful frame as a woman and Eurydicius is more slender and delicate than how most men are portrayed. I thought that was cool! However, the plot really didn't hold me and I ended up DNFing at around 35%.

Overall, this wasn't for me. If you're curious, I'd say give it a shot! 2 stars. Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

A wonderful book. I throughly enjoyed the plot and the pacing. I had a lot of fun with this one. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves retellings.

I really wanted more time in the underworld! I thought that there were some problematic takes in making this feminist retelling.

However I found the language to be beautiful and lyrical!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper 360 for the e-arc!
A gender-flipped retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice? Sign me up! This is one of my favorite myths and I am so excited to receive an early copy of the story. I think the author did the original myth just us and had a great sense of what to change and want to keep from the original story. The romance itself is beautiful and extremely well-written. Their love is sweet and poetic and does a good job of mirroring the original romance.

This is a very unique take on the world involving Gods, Goddesses and muses. The story was told in a very poetic way and I highlighted many quotes. I just felt it was a little long and somewhat repetitive. I did enjoy my time reading it, but some of those pages could have been left out. All in all a good time.

I wish I could say this exceeded expectations but unfortunately I found this retelling very dull. The overall prose and social commentary felt shallow and superficial and very in-your-face. It also wasn’t quite true to the spirit of the original myth with was extremely disappointing.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy! This book was beautifully written. I enjoyed Orphia and Eurydicius anytime they interacted with each other. They cared for one another so deeply and I loved their mutual respect for one another. I liked that it was more than just about them but the underworld part did feel short compared to the rest of the story.

I must admit that this took me more time than I would like to get into, but once I was in I was in. This story was already one I was familiar with and I love the gender bending of the characters which allowed for a story that touches on female empowerment in a way so much of mythology does not. I appreciate the willingness of authors to revisit these stories that already have such great bones, and turn them into something really worth reading and remembering.

It took a little bit for me to really get into it but once I did I zoomed through this book.
A gender bent retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice is not something I ever thought would have quotes such as:

" "I would crawl on my knees to you, through burning coals. I would serve you while shards of ice pierced me, and even then, I would kiss your feet. I would give up my last breath for you at the end of the world." "

the two titular characters were phenomenal, I'm definitely going to be thinking about the last two chapters for a WHILE

A gender bent retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice! You know this myth ends in tragedy but I still wasn’t prepared for the ending. I sobbed.

This book took me a while to get into. I was very excited for this book, because I love Greek mythology retellings, but unfortunately I never felt like I was immersed in the story.

Elyse John's writing style is deeply descriptive and beautiful. However, I felt that was overshadowed by the slower build up and forced feminism that tends to be a trend with Greek mythology retellings.

I wish it had been a little stronger of a take on the feminism messaging, given how much that was the focus.

As far as the "retelling" portion, I felt like it fell flat. I understand taking a different stab at the story, but I feel like we missed the messaging of the original.

Overall, I thought it was beautifully written, but just not for me. Perhaps if I went into it without the expectations I have from other Greek retellings I'd have liked it more.

this was my first book that was a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and it even had a twist. I am familiar with their story, and found the gender role being switched to be enjoyable and a really innovative idea for the author to take on. the author's writing was beautiful. the crafting of sentences was something i dont really read often so it lead to an exciting reader experience. i thought the pacing of this story was a bit off-putting. the training was so long and i wish the journey part was a little bit longer. i enjoyed both main characters and their relationship. i just think that there were some things that could have been better that wouldve made me change my thoughts of "this book was fine" to "this book was so good".