Title: Orpheus Girl
Author: Brynne Rebele-Henry
Publisher: Soho Teen
Publication date: October 8, 2019
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Summary
Raya spent most of her life wishing for her mother to come back for her. Growing up with her grandmother in conservative, rural Texas, Raya feels like she;s always hiding. After all, she’s always been a bit different than the other girls in her class, never quite living up to her grandmother’s expectations. Plus, she’s developed feelings for one of her close friends, Sarah. The two are secretive about their romance, careful of being discovered.
However, they weren’t careful enough. Caught by one of Sarah’s brother’s friends, Sarah and Raya find themselves at a religious conversion camp. There, Raya finds the resolve to save Sarah and herself.
Review: Orpheus Girl
Thanks to NetGalley and Soho Teen for sending me a copy of this to review! Let’s start with the cover: isn’t it gorgeous? It’s a bit reminiscent of We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, I think. Similar subject matter, too! Well, sort of similar. There isn’t a conversion camp in that one.
At first, I was really excited to read this book. After all, it’s in my wheel house, and I’d been hearing good things about it. Plus, it’s loosely based on the Greek Orpheus myth, which is intriguing! Though, I admittedly don’t know much about it. Maybe a bit of context would have helped me to connect to the story a bit more, as I felt a bit lost for a good part of the book.
This is an overall short read, but there are good moments to it. Rebele-Henry writes some beautiful sentences. In fact, I highlight a few of them while I was reading because they stood out to me. However, I didn’t feel like I learned enough about Raya. Even though she’s the narrator, her personality didn’t shine. Her actions from the second half of the book didn’t necessarily fit with the first half of the book. By the end, I wished she was a more concrete character, which would have made the book easier for me to get lost in.
Despite that, this is an important topic to explore in YA because there are a lot of these conversion camps that still exist. Which is absolutely heartbreaking. Fair warning, there is a lot of homophobia present in this book. It’s important to show, but it’s also difficult to read at times.
All in all, there are a lot of small moments in this book that are good, and it shines a light on an important topic. I just wish the characters were a bit stronger.
2.5/5 stars