I've always liked reading retellings of classic myths and legends, and David Almond is also one of my favourite authors, so this twist on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice sounded like the perfect book for me. It's set on the beaches and streets of modern Northumberland, the wild, bleak yet beautiful scenery providing the perfect backdrop to the dramatic, painful tale. It focuses on Ella and Claire, two sixteen year old girls who've been best friends ever since they can remember.
It all seems perfect until Ella is whisked away from Claire by her magical, fierce love of the tramp Orpheus, who mysteriously appears on the beach during their camping holiday. Claire feels forgotten and unloved, as from afar she helplessly watches her best friend get sucked into a world of magic and danger, placing all her trust in the unknown Orpheus. But when the unthinkable happens, can Orpheus be strong enough to save them both?
I really don't know what I thought of this book… It seemed almost like two different authors had written it! Some parts seemed really real and vivid, with great style, amazing characters and engaging dialogue, like in My Name is Mina and all his other books I've enjoyed. Other parts seemed perhaps as if he was trying a little too hard – they were almost overly poetic, spending two or three pages saying the same thing in lots of different ways, particularly in the Death part (don't want to give too much away, but if you know the myth…). I guess that might have been the point though, to give that section a kind of contrast to the rest, and it was quite effective in that way, although a bit of a surprise!
I also loved the way different fonts and page colours are made use of, I haven't seen that done in anyone else's books, but it's really engaging and looks great. At this point I also have to mention the cover, which was amazingly beautiful, one of the nicest I've seen for ages!
This book did remind me of one other – Kit's Wilderness, also by David Almond. It used a lot of the same themes, some of the characters seemed similar, the dialogue style was nearly identical with the Northern 'accent' written in… The only thing that was really different was the inclusion of the myth!
Overall, a really great book which is well worth reading, but don't start it with any preconceptions, as they're bound to be blown away! And in one word, which sums up everything? Unusual… but in a good way!
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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