Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black was an interesting journey for the reader. Part graphic novel (Which in my ARC didn't always play nicely in my device), part hero journey to the Underworld, this book crafted a wartime tale of family dysfunction and redemption and becomes a tale of the love of two brothers.

It is a strange tale and can be confusing as the POV changes from the main character and back to Orpheus. But this paints a fun, is this real or is this fantasy feel throughout the book. This is a fun YA read. Not normally the style I would pick out but I think the author set out what he intended to do.

I received a copy of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The format that I read this in wasn’t exactly the best so I don’t feel like I got the full benefit of the illustrations and it was a bit confusing. However, that being said, the story, the words, the poetry, the images, and most importantly, the message, were beautiful.
This is a story about 2 brothers during WWII in England. They have different opinions on the war and this has driven them, and their family apart. In an effort to reconcile, Harry goes to meet his brother, Ellis at a pub to discuss collaborating on a book together; Ellis would write the prose and poetry and Harry would illustrate. Unfortunately, after agreeing to disagree on the matter, Harry leaves the pub and shortly after, the pub is bombed. Harry is injured in the blast and he ends up in the hospital where he meets Agatha, a young German Jew who has managed to escape.
Together they embark on a mission through hell in order to find Ellis and Agatha’s parents They encounter quite a number of delays and obstacles, but in the end, everything works out as it should. It’s quite a beautiful ending actually.
My advice, stick with it even though it does get confusing. The Orpheus passages were my favourite and the language was very pretty and moving.

*Received via NetGalley for review*

I love the story of Orpheus, I love frame narratives, and I love unexpected genre blends (like historical and science fiction). Some things get a little confusing and muddied (there's a lot of layers to this story), but overall, it delivers. While slow, the emotional payoff is worth it.

I liked that this book focused on Conscientious Objectors, an often forgotten segment of the wartime population, and their reception by society. I liked the concrete portrayal of what life was like for a young man not in the army during the war. It's about disconnect from your family and your culture, of trying to prove yourself without compromising your morals. It's a it magical and emotionally disconnected. Literary but predictable.

It's December 1944 and since September, the Nazis have once again been bombing London with their newest weapon, the V2 rocket. Harry Black, a conscientious objector, has been working on the fire brigade with fellow objectors. His moral position has caused a rift in the Black household. His father refuses to have anything to do him, claiming Harry has blackened the family name. Older brother Ellis is a soldier, back in London to recuperate from wounds suffered on the battlefield, and waiting to be sent back into combat. He also feels that Harry is a coward, but agrees to meet him at a pub called the White Horse. The two talk about a few things, including about a possible book of poems that Ellis could write and Harry could illustrate.

After talking for a while, Ellis decides to remain at the pub and Harry boards a bus home. The pub then takes a direct hit from a V2 rocket and is completely demolished. The bus was also destroyed in the hit and Harry wakes up in a hospital, seriously injured. But a nagging feeling tells him that Ellis is still alive, buried in the debris of the destroyed pub and Harry decides he must venture underneath the rubble to find and save his brother. While still in hospital, Harry meets a 14-year-old girl named Agatha, who had been a Kindertransport child in 1939 and now wants to find her parents, whom she believes are now in London.

Together, a semi-delirious Harry and a determined Agatha venture forth through the bombed and burning streets of London to find the remains of the White Horse in order to rescue Ellis and reunite Agatha with her parents. Throughout their journey, Harry stops to take the time to document everything in his notebook, which already includes copious, detailed illustrations for a planned science-fiction book called Machines of War.

Harry's journey into London's underworld to reach his brother has parallels to the myth of Orpheus and his journey to the Underworld to bring his wife back from the dead. Not surprisingly, Harry's notebook entries are explained and made clear through free verse poems by a poet named Orpheus. But who Orpheus is here is a mystery (until the end, but even then, I questioned Orpheus' identity here).

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black is not an easy book to read. It can feel confusing and muddled at times, but it is so worthwhile to stick with it to the end. This is clearly an anti-war story, catching all the particular horrors of World War II, and in fact, all wars. The Sedgwick brothers have created a hero in Harry Black, which is not surprising. Apparently, their father, a Quaker, was a conscientious objector during WWII and it is clear they consider him to be a hero for taking a stand against war that was seen as almost treasonous during WWII.

This is a carefully crafted story, part graphic novel, part verse novel, part prose novel, seemingly told from three different points of view - Harry, Orpheus, and, to a lesser degree, Ellis. Each part, each person ties into the other, adding to the story, and creating plenty of intrigue.

I found myself really caught up in Harry's first person narration, even at his most muddled, but I could have done with less of Orpheus and his songs. At times, I felt they interrupted the flow of the story too much. Also, it didn't take me long to figure out the mystery of Agatha, but maybe that was supposed to happen. After all, she pushed Harry along to act before it was too late to rescue Ellis.

Students will one day have a field day analyzing the meaning of this novel, the themes, the metaphors, the veiled references to reality contained in Harry's Machines of War work-in-progress, and the illustrations, which are so much a part of the story, don't gloss over them. The ones done in blues and whites are Harry's illustrations for his book, the black and white illustrations represent reality and belong to the story being told.

All told, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a harrowing journey to the end but it had the kind of very satisfying, emotional ending I find appealing in books like this. And since I don't find too many really good alternative histories that take place in WWII, this was a very welcome addition to that particular genre.

Part poetry, Part graphic novel, Part Greek Mythology retelling. I loved the concept but the choppy nature made it hard to get into a reading grove. The story was interesting but being from the perspective of a traumatized war survivor made it a little hard to fallow. I did like how the author wove together the stories of WWII and Greek Mythology.

Would love to read more from this author even if this wasn't a total win for me.

One detail left out of the original tale of Orpheus is that he is reincarnated over and over, at least in this novel he is. In Voyages (shortened for my sanity) we follow an artist named Harry Black who is a conscientious objector to World War II. Through his “cowardly” choice to not paricipate in the war effort he loses the affection of his brother and father, thus sending him on a path of redemption aimed at his brother. Harry yearns to rekindle the friendship he had with his brother prior to the war, and he wants to create an illustrated book with his brother as the writer. When asked about the book Harry says, “I want to do a big illustrated book, with words and images combined; make a kind of warning. About how we’re just going to become more efficient at killing each other unless we work out how to develop our better selves.” I found this explanation very self aware because that is exactly what Voyages does. But, soon after, disaster strikes and the pub where Harry’s brother Ellis was drinking is bombed by the Germans, and Harry is sent on the search of his life to recover Ellis at all costs, Harry knows that his brother has to have lived.

Voyages is an interesting mixture of fiction and poetry, often swirling together and creating a lyrical tale that meanders down a sad path of loneliness. I am not what I would call a poetry expert nor enthusiast but I found the poetic aspects to be very beautiful. It sung its way through this story and really turned it into a piece of artwork. While on the topic of artwork, the pieces of illustration that I had access to in this ARC, while limited, were beautiful. Alexis Deacon did an amazing job of brinigng Voyages to life. The illustrations depict a world similiar but not entirely our own, a mirror of what our world looks like but with an almost sinister twist. Every illustration filled me with anxiety but also wonder.

Something that really caught my attention was the ever looming presence of Orpheus. He is constantly near by, playing the fiddle or infecting the town with his music. You can expect to see a reference of him around every corner. His music haunts Harry as he recognizes it but can’t place where he has heard it. This detail gave me something familiar in an unfamiliar setting, I had a detail to orient myself by.

My only real bone to pick with this book is that it is extremely slow paced and a bit difficult to get through. I believe I have had access to this book since May or June and I am just now finishing it. It’s not that this book is uninteresting it just didn’t captivate me like other novels, and like I previously stated I’m not really one for poetry, which is a personal issue but an issue none-the-less. This book took too long to develop and by the time you get to the interesting pieces you’re a little bit lost and it starts making less sense. I was also a little bit lost on the ending, I had a hard time understanding who was alive and who was dead, that made it hard for me to feel any kind of satisfaction.

I give Voyages a 3/5 stars, while truly beautiful it had some flaws that were hard for me to forgive. If you love poetry and a good mythological retelling I urge you to give Voyages a try.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me access to this book and thank you to Candlewick Press for granting me permission to read and review Voyages. Voyages is available for purchase TODAY!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
Mix of poetry, story and illustration Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black is the story of Harry Black that is part mythology and also a story of a brother who just really wants to find and save his brother.
Set in World War II Harry Black is a conscientious objector to the war going on and serves on the fire department in London. Harry has a strained relationship with his beloved brother Ellis, who he deeply admires as a writer and wants to try and connect with again. Harry and Ellis get together for drinks and after Harry leaves the bar is bombed and Harry is caught in the blast of another one. Upon waking in a hospital and finding out his brother is dead Harry is convinced that Ellis is still alive despite being told the blast was a direct hit, no one could survive. Harry begins a journey to find and bring back Ellis. His injured head gets stuck between the story he’s been working to tell, war torn London and the mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The story is weird, bizarre, magical, and beautiful and so gosh darned slow. It seems to drag a bit but it is still quite enjoyable.
This is both a sweet story of discovery and longing and a sad story of loss and letting go.

I loved the concept behind this book: the mixture of greek mythology with WWII, part graphic novel, part poetry and, as its main plot point, a man who is trying to find and save his brother. Unfortunately, the combination of these elements on paper didn’t work for me at all.

Being in our protagonist’s head was an utterly confusing experience. I’m aware the author’s intention was to show us how delirious and disoriented Harry Black was and how chaotic was his state of mind, after being told his brother Ellis was dead, but I found it very hard to understand what I was reading most of the time from that point forward. That resulted in me not connecting with the story and the characters and struggling to finish this book.

The writing in some parts was really good and the artwork, in general, was beautiful, but still, the overall reading experience wasn’t pleasant.

I really wanted to like this book, and maybe I would enjoy it in audiobook format, but it as really difficult to get through, and even then I didn't finish it. It's a wonderful idea and the setting sounds dark and poetic, but I just couldn't get into it. If you like brother stories and a bit of a depressing setting with a slower plot, I highly recommend this, otherwise it might just not be for you.

An unusual blend of Greek mythology, a world war two era story,poetry and some beautiful illustrations, this is a difficult book to describe but I will say I found it both beautiful and sad. It is the story of two brothers, Harry and Ellis. Ellis is a serving soldier in the British Army, while Harry is a Conscientious Objector, and works as a volunteer fireman in the aftermath of Luftwaffe bombing raids. One evening they arrange to meet, but a German bomb hits the pub and Harry wakes up injured in a hospital bed to the news that his brother is dead. In his delirium he is convinced that his brother is still alive and trapped beneath the rubble and leaves the hospital to find him. His journey takes him deep into the city's underworld in a quest that mirrors Orpheus's journey to find Persephone.
The illustrations by the talented Alexis Deacon do a wonderful job of portraying Jack's journey and some of the poetry pieces scattered throughout the book are beautiful.
It is an unusual and emotional piece of fiction and while it might not be to everyone's taste, I thought it was wonderful,
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC.

Interesting idea of Orpheus in World War II saving his brother. This was a lot of poetry, some graphic novel, some journal entries and some regular novel. I applaud the idea, but it was not my thing.

"Harry Black is lost between the world of war and the land of myth in this illustrated novel that transports the tale of Orpheus to World War II–era London.

Brothers Marcus and Julian Sedgwick team up to pen this haunting tale of another pair of brothers, caught between life and death in World War II. Harry Black, a conscientious objector, artist, and firefighter battling the blazes of German bombing in London in 1944, wakes in the hospital to news that his soldier brother, Ellis, has been killed. In the delirium of his wounded state, Harry’s mind begins to blur the distinctions between the reality of war-torn London, the fiction of his unpublished sci-fi novel, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Driven by visions of Ellis still alive and a sense of poetic inevitability, Harry sets off on a search for his brother that will lead him deep into the city’s Underworld. With otherworldly paintings by Alexis Deacon depicting Harry’s surreal descent further into the depths of hell, this eerily beautiful blend of prose, verse, and illustration delves into love, loyalty, and the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood as it builds to a fierce indictment of mechanized warfare."

I couldn't think of a better pairing than WWII and Orpheus, it just seems so right.

This was an interesting retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice (in this case, the the story of two brothers in England during WWII) that is part prose, part poetry, and part graphic novel. While concept is an interesting one, ultimately I feel like it didn't fully come together. I really enjoyed the poetry sections, and I thought the art was beautiful, but the prose (the bulk of the story) just didn't grab me as you're never quite sure what is actually happening. If this had just been the poetry and art I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 44%

Part graphic novel with poetry and a dash of Greek mythology, Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black is set in WWII era England and follows the story of Harry Black, an English firefighter waking up in a hospital only to discover his brother, Julius Black was been killed in the London air strike.

I have a weakness for anything with Greek mythology so I was really excited to read this one. The premise sounded so intriguing but alas, I wasn't so fond of the novel's execution. This book is told through the perspective of Harry Black in his muddled state after a German bombing. I really liked this book's concept and liked the unique prose but what made me stop reading was how disjointed and hard to understand. While I realize that this was the authors' intention as it reflects the narrator's current state of mind, I was so confused reading this it made it difficult to fully appreciate the plotline.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for providing a free ARC

Images and creative text join forces in this attractive book for young readers. Marcus Sedgwick’s name on the cover is a selling point for me, having discovered his prior work. I was not disappointed with this read. It was poetic and engaging.

Being a conscientious objector has made Harry a non-combatant for the duration of WW2; he tried to become a war artist, but is instead a fireman. His brother Ellis, hating the 'cowardice' that has seen his sibling disowned by their father, is recovering from head surgery so he can go back to the front. Harry wants to get things right with Ellis, and perhaps work on a book together, but the war itself prevents that from happening. Harry is therefore stuck – stuck with a Jewish German girl he meets in hospital, stuck with a strangely musical man shadowing him around London, and stuck with the invasive spirit of Orpheus and a similar journey to be made into the Underworld to fetch someone back.

Unfortunately, those sticking points are just that for us, as well. Throughout the book is sort of narrated in verse – partly-rhymed lyrics that come from the Orpheus character and drag the reader from here to there and back again. I never got to enjoy those pages, even if the verse did make the book a much shorter read than I'd expected. Elsewhere, there's a little bit of an oddity in a book where two cultured and clever siblings write about the respect and admiration two cultured and clever siblings might have had for each other in peacetime. But the biggest problem is the narrative's woosiness, drifting from Harry's battered existence to the potential future he has of crossing the boundary of the living and the dead. A lot of the book is intelligently leaving a lot for the reader to intuit – there is much reading between the lines to be done, but I think too much. Add in the verse – heinously bad in places for the work of an ageless godlike expert – and what you end up with is surprisingly, and most disappointingly, a pretentious mess.

An unfortunately dull book with beautiful art.
I understand this is a retelling of a myth but the plot was tedious and predictable, unlike other books of its type it fails to keep the interest of the reader.
The switch from a romantic pairing to that of a sibling relationship was, in my opinion, a creative misstep as although it could have been done much better and created an overall better book the relationship wasn't build up enough for me to care about the rescue attempt.
I think this may have made a more effective graphic novel.

The premise of this book sounded really interesting but I found it quite hard to get into. I imagine it would read much better as an actual book as it contains a lot of illustrations and poems etc which I think has been lost in translation.

The story itself is quite interesting, situated in London in 1944. Harry Black is a conscientious objector turned firefighter, while on a bus leaving a pub after meeting his brother Ellis, he’s caught in the aftermath of a bomb being dropped on the very pub he just left. He wakes up in hospital not knowing whether his brother survived. He has visions that tell him Ellis is alive so he leaves to search for his brother.

While I did enjoy it, I feel like I may give this another go with the physical book.

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black by Marcus Sedgwick and Julian Sedgwick is quite a journey. This book is not only beautiful with the drawings and poetry but also engaging and touching as the prose takes the reader on a journey.

Harry is a conscientious objector, wanted to be a war artist and is a firefighter. Harry’s brother, Ellis is on the front lines and a wedge is driven between the brothers because of their beliefs.

Always hoping for reconciliation with his brother, Harry meets with Ellis at a local pub. The pub is bombed later in the evening, injuring Harry. When Harry awakes, it’s to the news that his brother has been killed even though his body hasn’t been found. Harry begins his journey to try and find his brother, refusing to give up on him.

Harry’s commitment to finding his brother made my heart ache. He’s steadfast in spite of the fact that he’s injured, weak and losing touch with reality.

Perhaps because he’s injured, Harry begins to merge the plot of a story he’s writing, with his desperate hunt for his brother and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I was only vaguely familiar with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice but I found that didn’t matter as I made my way through this book.

The art in this book captures the stark reality of the way, with a strange intimacy that I didn’t expect. The drawings are detailed, sometimes tragic and very poignant.