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A review by ruthsic
The Orphan's Song by Lauren Kate
3.0
Warnings: implied domestic violence, homeless living, death in childbirth
The Orphan's Song is a love story between two people, but also about love for music, love for you city, and the magic of Venice. In the author's note, Kate mentions how she got the inspiration for the story, and I loved how she spun this tale from that. The story is told from the perspectives of Violetta and Milo, two orphans from the same place Incurables, which was a hospital as well as an orphanage. The girls were trained up to be musicians and singers for the coveted position in the coro, while the boys were encouraged to be apprentices when they got older, to take up a trade; as such, the trajectories of the lives of the orphans there were quite different. For Violetta, life at the Incurables is stifling; she loves music, but the mold of being a coro girl is not enough for her. She wants to be free to sing, to explore the passion in music, and Milo and she share that in their adolescent stages, when they meet on the roof to make music together.
Life takes a turn for them as the time comes for Milo to leave, and Violetta to move up in the coro. He loves her, and she doesn't know yet that she loves him; so a bad decision leads to their lives taking separate paths. Over the course of the rest of the book, their paths cross many times, without each knowing it, and we, the reader, holding our breath. There are several circumstances that keep them apart - Violetta's refusal to enter into a marital relationship, the complex they both feel over being orphans, Milo's search for his mother, new loves for both of them. Even being so close in the city, they are separated by many ways - yet they both once yearned to be of the patrician class, the ones who get to enjoy Venice at its best. The book takes us through the carnevals, the masks, and the splendour, but also lets us see the rougher side of it.
My main problem with this book is the pacing, and the time jumps which skip over character and relationship development. Suddenly it would be months later, and we would have to piece together what led the characters to this place. As close as we would feel to Violetta and Milo in the start, the distance increases between them and the reader as the book goes on. As a historical fiction, though, the book does a good job, infusing enough detail about Venetian life and the city's changes through the seasons. Overall, it is a good book but it did take me a long time to get through it.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from G.P. Putnam's Sons, via Edelweiss.
The Orphan's Song is a love story between two people, but also about love for music, love for you city, and the magic of Venice. In the author's note, Kate mentions how she got the inspiration for the story, and I loved how she spun this tale from that. The story is told from the perspectives of Violetta and Milo, two orphans from the same place Incurables, which was a hospital as well as an orphanage. The girls were trained up to be musicians and singers for the coveted position in the coro, while the boys were encouraged to be apprentices when they got older, to take up a trade; as such, the trajectories of the lives of the orphans there were quite different. For Violetta, life at the Incurables is stifling; she loves music, but the mold of being a coro girl is not enough for her. She wants to be free to sing, to explore the passion in music, and Milo and she share that in their adolescent stages, when they meet on the roof to make music together.
Life takes a turn for them as the time comes for Milo to leave, and Violetta to move up in the coro. He loves her, and she doesn't know yet that she loves him; so a bad decision leads to their lives taking separate paths. Over the course of the rest of the book, their paths cross many times, without each knowing it, and we, the reader, holding our breath. There are several circumstances that keep them apart - Violetta's refusal to enter into a marital relationship, the complex they both feel over being orphans, Milo's search for his mother, new loves for both of them. Even being so close in the city, they are separated by many ways - yet they both once yearned to be of the patrician class, the ones who get to enjoy Venice at its best. The book takes us through the carnevals, the masks, and the splendour, but also lets us see the rougher side of it.
My main problem with this book is the pacing, and the time jumps which skip over character and relationship development. Suddenly it would be months later, and we would have to piece together what led the characters to this place. As close as we would feel to Violetta and Milo in the start, the distance increases between them and the reader as the book goes on. As a historical fiction, though, the book does a good job, infusing enough detail about Venetian life and the city's changes through the seasons. Overall, it is a good book but it did take me a long time to get through it.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from G.P. Putnam's Sons, via Edelweiss.