Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris

6 reviews

lolajh's review against another edition

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

4.5

I don’t know the original story this was based off so I have nothing to compare it to but this was so beautiful 😫 Honestly such a tragic story that made me feel empty after reading it like all the best books do! Beautiful drawings (I’m in love with Moth) but I do think the story would have benefited from being a bit longer to really delve into it and sort out some of the rushed pacing. Loved the way the mysteries and plot twists were revealed, but definitely would have liked to get a bit more attached to the story by it being longer, this only took me like a day to get through!

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ijustreallyliketrees's review

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

5.0


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foxwish's review against another edition

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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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renpuspita's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad slow-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? No

3.0

 Orfeia is a novella about the journey that Fay Orr did to make her deceased daughter to live again. In her journey, the Faerie constantly call her Orfeia, claim that she is their long lost Fae queen that fall in love with human and have a daughter whom she love above all else. Basically the journey of Orfeia is a retelling of Orpheus who want his wife back and challenge the death itself. Only, in this novella instead a man, Orfeia is a mother and instead Eurydice, it was Daisy's life that Orfeia want to bring back.

I think the fault is entirely on mine because while I'm familiar with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Joanne M Harris took liberties in retelling the Child Ballad, King Orfeo and The Elphin Knight while writing Orfeia and I admit I'm not familiar with them! Since the ballad use ye old English and English is not my native, it's difficult to me to understand the meaning of the ballad without try to googling it first. However, Harris's writing is lovely and the story itself actually is about a mother's love to her daughter. Although, I got confused about some things like the situation regarding Daisy's death because it's so convoluted. The illustration itself inside the book is pretty to look at but also unnerving, perfectly compliment the book's content.

I guess, I need to re-read Orfeia in order to understand the story especially about Daisy. Overall, the narrative itself are pretty much easy to understand. The description about London Beneath, London Beyond and the land of Death kinda remind me of Gaiman's novel. The story itself end with a happy note, regarding how you view it. At least, Fay is finally happy and remember that Orfeia at first is always about mother's love so you will get my gist. A lovely novella about retelling of King Orfeo and the myth about Orpheus and Eurydice. 

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nb_alex's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A story focused in a mothers quest to the underworld to find her lost daughter. If you love the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice then you’ll love this story. It’s more of a dark fairytale retelling but I couldn’t put this down. The extra imagery from the Child Ballads (ballad 2 and 19 mainly) mixed in gave some interesting riddles to try and solve, I felt like I was going on the journey with this book

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katievh's review

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

3.0


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