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lowercase_em's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Blood, Gore, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Abortion
jesshindes's review
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I came across 'Orpheus Builds a Girl' on Twitter somewhere and I'm glad I did! It's a debut novel from a British author that came out with a relatively small press so I could easily have missed it but it's definitely aligned with my interests; it's closer to straight horror than I generally read, although I've been leaning more in that direction lately.
One of the things I really liked about 'Orpheus' was that it felt like a response to some of the nineteenth-century novels that have been very influential on me: something like Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. At the centre of the story is a doctor, Wilhelm van Tore, who asserts that he's developed a set of scientific protocols that can bring the dead back to life, and sets out both to tell his life story and to offer an account of this breakthrough. Interweaved with Van Tore's account, however, is the account of Gabriela Madrigal, a Cuban woman who loathes Van Tore for what he did to her sister: the 'love of his life', the woman he supposedly succeeded in reanimating. Having the two narratives run in parallel works very well in terms of having this (extremely, sometimes even comically) sinister voice of the establishment giving what purports to be a sort of detached, scientific, rigorously truthful narrative and then a dissenting voice running in parallel giving a different account. It's recognising and challenging the power dynamics that drive the novel (and drive so much of the history of medicine, which is something that I'm super interested in) and like I say, it made me think of Frankenstein where you have the doctor's narrative which tells one story but which looks quite different if you take the creature's point of view. So I loved that, and I liked how dark it was and the sort of relish with which Parry absolutely goes into the horribleness of what Van Tore does - like I say, he's SO awful and at times it's funny but it's like, the blackest black humour. She says in the afterword that her writing group friends encouraged her to make it 'more disgusting' (which I have also been told by writing friends) and it definitely does get disgusting so if you're squeamish about death and bodies and fluids, this is not the book for you. However if like me you are fascinated by people's relationships with 'the body', their own and others, then this is definitely the book for you!
I knew when I read it that 'Orpheus' was based on a true story but I didn't go and read about the true story until after I had finished it. One thing I was curious to find out related to the end of the novel - which was the bit that I found least convincing, in some ways, but I wondered if it was actually quite accurate to what really happened (in that way that the narrative beats of reality don't always line up with what you'd expect in fiction). Anyway, it was. I don't want to spoil by going into detail but basically I was like, 'would people have REALLY reacted this way?' and turns out yes, they would and did. So I suppose that rather blows my criticism out of the water (and it wasn't a serious criticism so much as a sort of feeling, like, this feels TOO awful, but I guess real life is that awful! People are awful! Great). In fact the whole real story of it is EXTREMELY weird and fucked-up so I can absolutely see why you would want to turn it into a novel, and I love the way that Parry chose to do this - that she did it from wanting to give a voice to (or, on behalf of) this woman who is absolutely literally objectified through what happens (and through what really did happen in real life). It's a specific sordid incident but of course, as Parry recognises, it's not really or not just about that one story, it's about what that story means and stands for. And this novel does a great job of exploring that, while also being a very effective self-contained horror. Thumbs up from me!
One of the things I really liked about 'Orpheus' was that it felt like a response to some of the nineteenth-century novels that have been very influential on me: something like Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. At the centre of the story is a doctor, Wilhelm van Tore, who asserts that he's developed a set of scientific protocols that can bring the dead back to life, and sets out both to tell his life story and to offer an account of this breakthrough. Interweaved with Van Tore's account, however, is the account of Gabriela Madrigal, a Cuban woman who loathes Van Tore for what he did to her sister: the 'love of his life', the woman he supposedly succeeded in reanimating. Having the two narratives run in parallel works very well in terms of having this (extremely, sometimes even comically) sinister voice of the establishment giving what purports to be a sort of detached, scientific, rigorously truthful narrative and then a dissenting voice running in parallel giving a different account. It's recognising and challenging the power dynamics that drive the novel (and drive so much of the history of medicine, which is something that I'm super interested in) and like I say, it made me think of Frankenstein where you have the doctor's narrative which tells one story but which looks quite different if you take the creature's point of view. So I loved that, and I liked how dark it was and the sort of relish with which Parry absolutely goes into the horribleness of what Van Tore does - like I say, he's SO awful and at times it's funny but it's like, the blackest black humour. She says in the afterword that her writing group friends encouraged her to make it 'more disgusting' (which I have also been told by writing friends) and it definitely does get disgusting so if you're squeamish about death and bodies and fluids, this is not the book for you. However if like me you are fascinated by people's relationships with 'the body', their own and others, then this is definitely the book for you!
I knew when I read it that 'Orpheus' was based on a true story but I didn't go and read about the true story until after I had finished it. One thing I was curious to find out related to the end of the novel - which was the bit that I found least convincing, in some ways, but I wondered if it was actually quite accurate to what really happened (in that way that the narrative beats of reality don't always line up with what you'd expect in fiction). Anyway, it was. I don't want to spoil by going into detail but basically I was like, 'would people have REALLY reacted this way?' and turns out yes, they would and did. So I suppose that rather blows my criticism out of the water (and it wasn't a serious criticism so much as a sort of feeling, like, this feels TOO awful, but I guess real life is that awful! People are awful! Great). In fact the whole real story of it is EXTREMELY weird and fucked-up so I can absolutely see why you would want to turn it into a novel, and I love the way that Parry chose to do this - that she did it from wanting to give a voice to (or, on behalf of) this woman who is absolutely literally objectified through what happens (and through what really did happen in real life). It's a specific sordid incident but of course, as Parry recognises, it's not really or not just about that one story, it's about what that story means and stands for. And this novel does a great job of exploring that, while also being a very effective self-contained horror. Thumbs up from me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Racism, Medical content, and Death
rhbufton's review
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Terminal illness, Sexism, Gore, Medical trauma, Racism, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Abortion, Confinement, Grief, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism
Minor: Animal death, Alcoholism, Child death, and War
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