Ella Grey is a young, smart girl whose best friend is Claire. Claire narrates the tragic tale but, nonetheless, she loved Ella with all her heart. Ella, Claire and their friends dreamed to turn the cold Northumberland beaches into Greece; when their trip came around Ella was not allowed to go. So, with a heavy heart Claire went to the beach. A strange young traveller named Orpheus appeared and won their hearts with his voice. Then Claire did something she shouldn’t have.
She got out her phone, dialled Ella’s number and said “listen”. After a few days of Orpheus, singing, drinking and dancing, Claire couldn’t take being away from her best friend any more. But, when she got home she did not expect what Ella had to say.
Ella was certain that she was in love with Orpheus and that they should wed soon. Of course Claire could not think of anything worse, however, Ella was still her best friend: so she agreed to help with the ‘wedding’. When the time came to return to school, a surprise – yet expected – visitor arrived. In the middle of a lesson Ella got up and left. Only after she was outside did Claire see who she was with. Orpheus.
Ella was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to be married to her one, true love. Claire, on the other hand, felt the opposite; but, for the sake of her best friend’s happiness she went along with it. After walking Ella down the aisle, Claire gets the happy couple to say their vows. Orpheus gives another earth–shattering performance; all in the world seems perfect, but then the illusion shatters.
Ella goes to find her new husband, but instead finds adders. Claire hears her screams; she comes around the corner to find a swarm of adders biting at Ella’s ankles. The rest of the group come, they pick her up and run to find help. However, when they get to town Ella has already stopped breathing. She was dead.
When Claire and her friends went back to school Ella’s death was the biggest news of the school; well Ella and Orpheus. At the funeral a while later, Orpheus is a no show; which causes everyone to question Orpheus’s true feelings towards Ella. Shortly after Claire sees Orpheus and he says he wants to try to reach Ella in the underworld. And it works.
The pages turn black themselves to show the darkness. The words the demons speak are shown by large animal looking font. He goes to the underworld – getting through with his voice – and finds Ella. All he has to do is not look at her. Easy, or at least it should have been. Right when they got to the place where Orpheus had entered, he turned around unable to resist the sound of her sweet voice; then he wakes up and Ella is gone.
A friend from school knocked at Claire’s door a few weeks after the ‘Ella back from the dead incident’. She explained a gruesome encounter with Orpheus. On the beach a group of rough looking women came up to Orpheus; they kept beating him, until he was in pieces.
A Song for Ella Grey is a story like no other. It shows that love is stronger than any force – even death. Every word had me on the edge of my seat. This is a heart tugging story that you never want to end. This twisted love story will never leave you, even after you’ve turned the last page.
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