Reviews

Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris

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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jwoolley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

colagoddess's review against another edition

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

4.0

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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eliebooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

4.0

norastar's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

willdarlingg's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

This had interesting bits and pieces, but a lot of it unfortunately fell flat for me. Following a mother into the afterlife on a quest to retrieve her daughter, Orfeia deals with grief, death, and belonging. There is a lot of beautiful, lyrical writing, but also a lot of repetitive imagery and washed out descriptions. I enjoyed the twists on the Orpheus myth and the mythology that was built, but I found a lot of the characters flat and uninteresting, and their relationships basically nonexistent. This book was sold to me as a dreamy fairytale-esque story about stories, dreams, and songs, and I guess it was that, but it just didn't hit that deep.

heelyfrog's review against another edition

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

3.0

cottagecore_librarian's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

anneke_b's review

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3.0

Quick re-telling, but I didn't like at as much as I hoped I would. Still enjoyed it though. Some great illustrations, others I didn't really care about.