Reviews

Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris

becxreadz's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Liked
*Fairy tale esque
*A mother's love
*Journey Trope
*Lyric writing
*Beautifully designed book

quillonon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

bookish_b's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

xlivjones073's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Child death

wildflowercrypt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

tywilkinson's review against another edition

2.0

Maybe I just didn’t get it. It felt rushed the whole way, it felt poorly planned often, and the ending was both frustrating and underwhelming. Such a strong idea and central theme, but ultimately left no effect on me other than slight annoyance. I wish it was so much better

rosekk's review

4.0

It's a beautiful story. It has all the appeal of a fairy tale, but is a little bit more than that. The only problem I had was the constant changing scenes. Because if the nature of the setting & story, the setting had to shift and change like a dream, and while this helped with the feel of the book, it also created a sense of insubstantiality.

wishbea's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A mother strives to bring her recently deceased daughter back to life by journeying to Death and singing him a ballad. This is a retelling of the Orpheus myth, I think this novella is weaker than previous works by Harris, I didn't fall in love with the story like I did with A Pocketful of Crows. The side characters felt pointless to me and the answers to the riddles didn't feel satisfying. However the emotional aspect of the mother's devotion to her daughter was beautiful, the reveal at the end was heartbreaking.

Harris also added in overt references to her previous work which took me out of the story, she references A Pocketful of Crows with "A named thing is a tamed thing." and multiple uses of the word "honeycomb" as reference to her short story collection Honeycomb. I don't know if all these stories are meant to be taking place in the same universe, but the references felt very out of place regardless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

gth's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

sir_presh's review against another edition

3.0

Reads like a fairytale, kinda satisfying