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3.12 AVERAGE
3.12 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Drug use
Man, this was a let-down. I love the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, I love David Almond, and I am down with contemporary re-tellings. But this was a slog. I couldn't finish.
I also don't believe this is mean for young adults - just because it's about teenagers (but is it? I guess they're in the UK somewhere, so longer school breaks, but they felt more college-aged to me) doesn't mean it's for them. The language, the dreaminess, the atmosphere... none of this would appeal to many teens, if any.
I also don't believe this is mean for young adults - just because it's about teenagers (but is it? I guess they're in the UK somewhere, so longer school breaks, but they felt more college-aged to me) doesn't mean it's for them. The language, the dreaminess, the atmosphere... none of this would appeal to many teens, if any.
Zauberhaft poetische Nacherzählung der Geschichte von Orpheus und Eurydike.
* J'ai reçu une copie de ce livre en échange d'une review honnete*
Une ré-écriture unique
Quand j'ai vu que Gallimard Jeunesse allait publier une réécriture du mythe d'Orphée et Eurydice, pas le choix, j'ai foncé. En grande fan de la mythologie greque, je ne pouvais pas résister! Je ne sais pas à quoi je m'attendais en prennant ce livre, mais certainement pas à la lecture que j'ai faite! Je ne dis pas forcément ça de façon négative. C'est plutôt que... l'écriture et le style de David Almond sont tellement uniques et étranges qu'il est difficile pour moi de voir clairement comment je me sens par rapport à ce livre. Une partie de moi adore, une autre est déstabilisée par cette étrangeté. En fait, son écriture me rappelle beaucoup celle d'Albert Camus que j'avais découvert à travers l'étranger. C'est une expérience que l'on a pas avec chaque livre et cela m'a surprise. Et en même temps, j'ai aimé cette fraîcheur nouvelle.
Une autenticité adolescente qui sonne juste
Parce que oui, ce roman a un côté très innocent et à fleur de peau. La tragédie d'Ella et d'Orphée nous est rapporté à travers les yeux d'une adolescente et on s'y croit. J'avais vraiment l'impression d'être directement connectée aux pensées de Claire, à ses émotions, à ses expériences d'adolescente qui refuse encore l'âge adulte. Il y avait vraiment quelquechose de spécial dans sa façon de nous décrire les évènements!
En quelques mots, si vous voulex quelque chose qui change, qui bouscule, tentez donc cette expérience avec David Almond!
Une ré-écriture unique
Quand j'ai vu que Gallimard Jeunesse allait publier une réécriture du mythe d'Orphée et Eurydice, pas le choix, j'ai foncé. En grande fan de la mythologie greque, je ne pouvais pas résister! Je ne sais pas à quoi je m'attendais en prennant ce livre, mais certainement pas à la lecture que j'ai faite! Je ne dis pas forcément ça de façon négative. C'est plutôt que... l'écriture et le style de David Almond sont tellement uniques et étranges qu'il est difficile pour moi de voir clairement comment je me sens par rapport à ce livre. Une partie de moi adore, une autre est déstabilisée par cette étrangeté. En fait, son écriture me rappelle beaucoup celle d'Albert Camus que j'avais découvert à travers l'étranger. C'est une expérience que l'on a pas avec chaque livre et cela m'a surprise. Et en même temps, j'ai aimé cette fraîcheur nouvelle.
Une autenticité adolescente qui sonne juste
Parce que oui, ce roman a un côté très innocent et à fleur de peau. La tragédie d'Ella et d'Orphée nous est rapporté à travers les yeux d'une adolescente et on s'y croit. J'avais vraiment l'impression d'être directement connectée aux pensées de Claire, à ses émotions, à ses expériences d'adolescente qui refuse encore l'âge adulte. Il y avait vraiment quelquechose de spécial dans sa façon de nous décrire les évènements!
En quelques mots, si vous voulex quelque chose qui change, qui bouscule, tentez donc cette expérience avec David Almond!
This one was a weird one. I picked it up because I'm a sucker for retellings and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has always been one that has stuck with me. The prose is lyrical and, considering the Northumberland setting, musical in its own way. The narration is not written in dialect but I can definitely hear Claire's northern accent as she tells the story.
Claire and Ella have been best friends since they were five. They do everything together, even though Ella's parents are quite overprotective, and hang out with a bunch of like minded artsy teens. One day this guy Orpheus shows up and everything changes for everyone.
It's a much better read in retrospect but as you're reading it you definitely don't know if you should be reading this as magical realism or straight up fantasy, which is neat in retrospect. Definitely worth a read if you're into Greek mythology.
Claire and Ella have been best friends since they were five. They do everything together, even though Ella's parents are quite overprotective, and hang out with a bunch of like minded artsy teens. One day this guy Orpheus shows up and everything changes for everyone.
It's a much better read in retrospect but as you're reading it you definitely don't know if you should be reading this as magical realism or straight up fantasy, which is neat in retrospect. Definitely worth a read if you're into Greek mythology.
The writing in this book was truly beautiful. The story however, outside of the myth itself, sort of didn't come together. I struggled to get through it, parts not really making too much sense.
I feel as if it just needed a really good proof read, someone to say "and how did it get there" or "explain more". There were points where it said one thing only for a line or two later it repeated the exact same thing or took it back - outside of the poetic license. And then there was one character who's name was spelled two different ways and left me wondering which was which until I realized that it had to be the same character.
The writing was beautiful, I will say that. I had so many hopes for this book because of it, but it just didn't stick and left me disappointed over the whole thing.
I feel as if it just needed a really good proof read, someone to say "and how did it get there" or "explain more". There were points where it said one thing only for a line or two later it repeated the exact same thing or took it back - outside of the poetic license. And then there was one character who's name was spelled two different ways and left me wondering which was which until I realized that it had to be the same character.
The writing was beautiful, I will say that. I had so many hopes for this book because of it, but it just didn't stick and left me disappointed over the whole thing.
The Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is transformed into a tale of modern English teens in this masterful novel. Claire and Ella are the closest of friends, in fact Claire is in love with Ella. The two spend all of their time together and with their larger group of friends. When Ella is forbidden to go on the trip with all of the friends to the beaches of Northumberland, Claire goes without her. Throughout though, Claire is longing for Ella. Then she meets Orpheus, a strange and handsome musician whose music is so powerful that all of nature seems to stop when he plays. She calls Ella and holds the phone out so that Ella can hear the music too. That one impulsive moment sets in motion a story of profound love, deep loss, death and beyond.
Almond’s own writing is like the music of Orpheus. It creates an intoxicating blend of timeless Greek myth and wild modern teens. The girls become legends, their longing the desire of ages, their love the love to last all time. Orpheus is directly from myth, a wanderer who is captured in a love that seems to have been in existence for all time. There is such beauty here, not only in the myth itself but in the characters too. This book speaks to the power in each of us to live a story, a legend, a myth and to love in that way too.
Almond’s language is exquisite. His writing flows around the reader, inviting them into the magic that is happening on the page. He focuses on small things, showing how the tiny things in life are the most profound from falling rain to trees in the wind to sand drifting by. It is Orpheus’ music that brings these things to life for his listeners. And the reader falls in love with him alongside Ella, never having heard the music itself but having felt its impact to their bones.
Beautiful, mystic, and mythical, this book is a love song for young people, capturing the tumultuous feeling of tumbling into love and the tenuous nature of life and death. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
Almond’s own writing is like the music of Orpheus. It creates an intoxicating blend of timeless Greek myth and wild modern teens. The girls become legends, their longing the desire of ages, their love the love to last all time. Orpheus is directly from myth, a wanderer who is captured in a love that seems to have been in existence for all time. There is such beauty here, not only in the myth itself but in the characters too. This book speaks to the power in each of us to live a story, a legend, a myth and to love in that way too.
Almond’s language is exquisite. His writing flows around the reader, inviting them into the magic that is happening on the page. He focuses on small things, showing how the tiny things in life are the most profound from falling rain to trees in the wind to sand drifting by. It is Orpheus’ music that brings these things to life for his listeners. And the reader falls in love with him alongside Ella, never having heard the music itself but having felt its impact to their bones.
Beautiful, mystic, and mythical, this book is a love song for young people, capturing the tumultuous feeling of tumbling into love and the tenuous nature of life and death. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
A Song for Ella Grey is like the lovechild of the Orpheus myth and a Francesca Lia Block book. Until I started reading this book, I’d have said there wasn’t anything out there like a Block book, but, had I not known who had written it, I would have sworn up and down that A Song for Ella Grey was by her, not David Almond. Obviously, it is by Almond though.
The writing is strange and beautiful. It’s confusing but in this way that’s oddly engaging and hard to resist. It’s like Orpheus’ lyre music, tempting even to death.
The story’s also sex positive and there’s a lot of homosexuality and a bisexual love square thing. I’m not sure what I was supposed to ship, but definitely Claire and Ella, rather than Orpheus and Ella.
It doesn’t happen very often that I finish a book and feel like I didn’t understand it, but this is one of those times. Like, I put the book down, and I’m not even sure what the ending was, which then means that I don’t really get what the point was. I am really at such a loss to discuss this one because I swear it went over my head.
At the same time, though, I enjoyed reading it. I’d recommend it if you’re at all curious, because it’s definitively unique. And if you totally get it, please tell me what the heck the ending meant.
The writing is strange and beautiful. It’s confusing but in this way that’s oddly engaging and hard to resist. It’s like Orpheus’ lyre music, tempting even to death.
The story’s also sex positive and there’s a lot of homosexuality and a bisexual love square thing. I’m not sure what I was supposed to ship, but definitely Claire and Ella, rather than Orpheus and Ella.
It doesn’t happen very often that I finish a book and feel like I didn’t understand it, but this is one of those times. Like, I put the book down, and I’m not even sure what the ending was, which then means that I don’t really get what the point was. I am really at such a loss to discuss this one because I swear it went over my head.
At the same time, though, I enjoyed reading it. I’d recommend it if you’re at all curious, because it’s definitively unique. And if you totally get it, please tell me what the heck the ending meant.
I wish I had never read or been a part of the whole debate around whether this book was a children's book or not on social media as I feel it tainted my opinion of the text. I have always been a huge fan of Almond, right from Skellig onwards. I feel quite close to his exploration and celebration of the North as well as his strong tie to his role within the Catholic faith as a young boy. But for me, this book just wasn't quite as good as I wanted it to be.
A retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, a fated love story in which two lovers are torn apart through a tragic accident and, in his desire to be with his one true love again, Orpheus descends into the underworld to find Eurydice and bring her back. Sadly, just as the gates of hell, against the rules stated by Hades, he turns around to check that his love has followed him and, in his mistake, loses her once again.
Almond's retelling is set within Newcastle and focuses on a group of young hipsters who have very open and explorative relationships with each other. Told in first person from the perspective of Claire, a girl deeply besotted with her best friend Ella, Almond explores the pain and hunger that comes with first love and the exhilarating sense of exploration that comes with young adulthood. Of course, the language is beautiful and lyrical but sometimes I felt like it went on a bit too long and the power of the words would lose their effect.
I also felt that although the nights with Claire and her friends gathered upon the beach around the campfire, drinking and smoking, laughing and singing were strong images of teenage life and desire for freedom, he didn't (for me) capture the overwhelming and wholly engulfing nature of first love which he was looking for. Since we are in the mind of Claire, it seemed confusing that we never got to see how strongly she was in love with Ella.
If I were a teacher in KS3/4 I would absolutely want to be reading this to or with the class. It touches on issues of love, regret, the bitter loneliness of loving someone who does not love you back the same way that you love them and, regardless of whether I think Almond has captured the moment well enough himself, the themes and motifs he explores will undoubtedly strike a powerfully strong cord with the young adult readership.
A retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, a fated love story in which two lovers are torn apart through a tragic accident and, in his desire to be with his one true love again, Orpheus descends into the underworld to find Eurydice and bring her back. Sadly, just as the gates of hell, against the rules stated by Hades, he turns around to check that his love has followed him and, in his mistake, loses her once again.
Almond's retelling is set within Newcastle and focuses on a group of young hipsters who have very open and explorative relationships with each other. Told in first person from the perspective of Claire, a girl deeply besotted with her best friend Ella, Almond explores the pain and hunger that comes with first love and the exhilarating sense of exploration that comes with young adulthood. Of course, the language is beautiful and lyrical but sometimes I felt like it went on a bit too long and the power of the words would lose their effect.
I also felt that although the nights with Claire and her friends gathered upon the beach around the campfire, drinking and smoking, laughing and singing were strong images of teenage life and desire for freedom, he didn't (for me) capture the overwhelming and wholly engulfing nature of first love which he was looking for. Since we are in the mind of Claire, it seemed confusing that we never got to see how strongly she was in love with Ella.
If I were a teacher in KS3/4 I would absolutely want to be reading this to or with the class. It touches on issues of love, regret, the bitter loneliness of loving someone who does not love you back the same way that you love them and, regardless of whether I think Almond has captured the moment well enough himself, the themes and motifs he explores will undoubtedly strike a powerfully strong cord with the young adult readership.