Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: April 2, 2024 (yes I'm behind)

This was a lovely, lyrical, gender-flipped Greek retelling. I feel like fans of The Song of Achilles would enjoy this.

First, I want to thank NetGalley, Harper360, and Elyse John for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Morphia and Eurydicius is a reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek mythology with a gender twist. I enjoyed the shake up of the story, and adding queer representation. I love mythology, and the change Elyse made was one I really enjoyed.

The way Orphia stands up for what she feels is right for her was empowering (also slightly terrifying with her standing up to her Greek god father Apollo). I love strong female characters, especially when she is bisexual (no bi erasure here)! Eurydicius not being your typical Greek mythology idea of masculinity was refreshing. The characters really were written so well. A great balance in all of them, and I really felt I was able to get to know the characters. Orphia and Eurydicius being determined to not let anything stop them from being together was definitely a tying quest, but what love story or relationship isn't?

I could truly read an entire other book just about the Muses and Calliope (Orphia's mother). Hera, and Persephone were really lyrically written. I wanted to stay in their world and learn so much more. Weaving in a balance of original mythology and the reimagining of the gods, goddesses, and Muses felt natural and I truly felt pulled into the story,

I did feel the story line hit a bit of a drag just about mid-book. It felt a little repetitive in the storyline, but it picks right back up. I only mention it because I want you to read this book, and keep with it if you feel stuck (but you might not feel stuck at all). When the book ended, I wasn't ready. I'm torn on here, and wish we could do half stars. I am putting 4 stars, but would do 4.5 if I could add a half. Be sure to check out Elyse's social media or her website to see some beautiful character art. I absolutely love when authors do this. The book is out now, so be sure to add it to your TBR and pick it up from your local indie bookstore. Yes, there are even ways to support indie bookstores with ebooks and audiobooks!

I’m not usually a fan of tragedies, but when I saw the description of Orphia and Eurydicius as a gender bent, queer retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, I knew I had to give this one a shot. This book, while a slow start, was heartfelt and the characters feel similar, yet different enough from their familiar counterparts to keep the story interesting.

Note: check Content Warnings on StoryGraph before picking up this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the eARC!

Orphia and Eurydicius was quite a surprising debut; a Greek mythology retelling of the original Orpheus and Eurydice experiencing a gender flip. I adored the delicate and oh-so-poetic writing of author Elyse John. Orphia was a passionate characters I really enjoyed reading; not afraid to defy her father God Apollo who wants to make her a warrior, but Orphia feels deep in her bones that being a warrior is not what she is meant to be. Her strong will leads her to her mother Calliope who introduces her to the Muses who teach all teach her the skill required to become the best poet in the world. In comes Eurydicius and we can clearly say that it was love at first sight
They complement each other, he is the Ying to her Yang, and they reminded me of the twin flame theory. This book takes us on a beautiful live quest and how they both shook "heaven and earth" (not quite, but anyway) to be together forever.

Greatness!

I fell for this myth when I saw Hadestown last year, and this gender-swapped version is gorgeous! The prose is enchanting and beautiful in how it weaves poetry and magic — visceral. Paced a bit slower than my preference, but still worth a look!

This was a book that I was extremely excited to read and now that I’ve finished it, I’m left with a ton of mixed feelings. Orphia and Eurydicius is a cisbent retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice — which is one of my favourite myths. 

Overall the book is beautifully written with flowery prose, but that also happens to be a bit of a drawback for me. Sometimes purple prose makes it a bit difficult to connect with characters and follow a storyline (despite me already knowing the myth itself), but I know not everyone might be familiar with the original story and it might make this book intimidating and inaccessible for some readers. 

The pacing was also a bit off, especially since the author removed a few crucial parts from the original myth. Some boring parts of the story were dragged out and then other important details were glossed over.

Complaints aside… the romance between Orphia and Eurydicius kept me pushing through. Their tragic romance is so beyond beautiful and the subtle queerness displayed by both main characters made me so happy as a fellow bisexual nonbinary. I just wish that they had been more of a focal point than the overly poetic lengthy descriptions and inner dialogue that didn’t serve much of a purpose. 

It was a beautiful book in general, but I just think that it took a bit too long for me personally to get into the groove of the writing style to fully enjoy this book. This is more so on me than Elyse John who clearly poured so much love and care into crafting this story.

Thank to netgalley and Harpercolins for the ARC of this book. In exchange, this is my honest review of the novel.

So, I’m probably not the target audience of this novel. I hold a degree in classics, (as well as English) so the mythology differences immediately jumped out at me. I don’t mind this so much; every novel I’ve read that retells Greek stories takes liberties. It’s hard to rewrite lyrical poetry and plays as a full length, modern tale. However, the discrepancies in this one just rubbed me all the wrong ways. For one, changing Orphia’s background completely and making her a god from a lesser known telling struck me as interesting. How complex a story could be when the daughter of the god of poetry is forbidden from performing! However, she’s treated almost as mortal outside of her power over poetry force (because it really came off as the force through recitals) and space jumping. There is no real repercussions to her crossing her father, a god. Likewise, the changing of Ixion felt way too head nodding to people who wouldn’t be familiar with the myths and quite possibly not even the name until the wheel drop.

Which, let’s talk about Ixion, because he was one in a long line of overtly 2010s feminism push that rubbed me all kinds of wrong. I’m an intersectional feminist myself and I actively engage in writing and works in feminist circles, but the push that ONLY Euridicius being the “good man” of the story just gave me the ick. I’m all onboard for Jason slander, always, among most men in Greek mythology because most of them suck hardcore from a modern lens, but holy smokes Batman did I suddenly snap back to my tumblr feminism days with this one. The message was boiled down to basically “men are stupid and oppress/r@pe women and only this one man is redeeming”. Which, again, an argument can be made for ancient gender roles, but did I need it so heavy handed in this novel? No. I didn’t.

The pacing was also very slow at times and too fast at others. The first half with the quick skips over years of Orphia’s life felt like I was missing so much of her training and her time with the muses. I didn’t feel the relationship with them at all. The second half felt too quick with cascading action and story beats, taking descending actions to a whole new meaning. The reversal of the golden woman trope in Eurydicius also left a lot to be desired for me. I got too little of him to actually build a love for him as a character. I cared more about Orphia’s grief over him that I did for him himself.

But I won’t say everything was an issue for me. The writing itself was lovely and flowed well. I found myself enjoying Orphia as a character and I loved her relationship with Eurydicius. The two met the star crossed lovers trope to a tee, always have, and John very much captured that here. If you’re reading it for a woman focused tale with lots of revenge vindication, this book has that for you. But if you’re a fan of retellings like Madeline Miller’s which stick pretty closely to the myths they stem from or TS Elliot’s Until We Have Faces, i would steer clear, personally. I enjoyed it as far as putting aside my education and I will more than likely pick up a physical for my shelf to maybe revisit in the future and I will keep my eyes peeled for Elyse John's future releases.

Incredible! The details John put into this story were amazing! I fell in love beside Orphia and felt the heartbreak and regret she felt. I loved reading this story and cannot wait for more!

This book is a gender-bending retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice. I am really loving all of these female-centric myth retellings but this one was very, very long for no reason. I think a lot of the things the author wanted to hammer down into the reader (like that the gender-roles were reversed for Orphia and Euridicius and that almost all of the characters were queer) were stated far too many times - don’t assume your readers are stupid or won’t understand the significance of something, especially if it’s important to the overall story.

I wish this story would have been shorter and had a stronger tie to all of Orphia’s plights - they just kind of each fell off of her as she went to her next journey.

i'm sorry does a more compelling story exist? If it does, I don't know that I have the emotional bandwith to read it, because this one destroyed me.
in the best possible way.
LOVE LOVE LOVE FOREVER LOVE god this story was AMAZING. SO well told.
ten out of ten, no notes. Loved it, can't say that enough. Great world building.

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. This is the mythological re-telling I have been waiting for when it is advertised as feminist. This was an entirely new re-telling of Orpheus and Eurydice which hits differently with the gender swap and how that can change the whole story and find new themes within. This gave a new view on the old story and still hit the highlights of what we know of Orpheus. I will say this did feel long but I have to dock it a star there as it became difficult in the start to get it going. This is on par with Madeline Miller's Circe for me so I highly encourage readers to check this out. 4 stars.

This was gut wrenching start to finish for me in the best way. The start of Orphia finding herself, her purpose, and her power is incredibly compelling. The romance between Orphia and Eurydicius was lyrical and heartbreaking. If you've read the original myth, no huge changes there. The way John expands and develops these characters, Orphia especially, through a lens of being a woman with innate power at a time where women were not able to do much of anything at all. I do loveeeeee most modernized myth retellings, and this one hit all the markers for me, especially with the romance and tragedy that comes along with the myth.

I think the writing was beautiful and the romance was sweet and new in greek myth retellings but I feel that this book fell into the surface level feminism trap as many feminist greek myth retellings do. I would suggest it and I can see a lot of customers loving this book but I just don't think I am the target audience specifically.

I remember as a small little girl curling up by our radiator and reading D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. I would read the stories over and over again and could never grow tired. Reading this book made me feel similar thoughts.

Orphia and Eurydicius is a gender swap on Orpheus and Eurydice. I was immediately drawn to into the story as I began reading. Elyse crafts a beautiful and immersive world through her story.

Orphic is feisty and strong, yet more tender-hearted and emotional than she thinks. I found myself rooting for the two of them to get together.

The book was very pro-female empowerment and brought different sides to Greek mythology that one might not think of. Such as portraying Hera in a different light.

It was a very enjoyable read and I think people who like Greek mythology novels such as Song of Achilles or Cierce would like this.

While I have read many Greek mythology retellings, this is the first one where I can feel our main character diving in to her femininity. All too often, fantasies or mythology retellings can focus too much on making sure the female main character is a "badass" and Orphia and Eurydicius focusses on Orphia's journey as a woman and defying the standards and expectations put on her by her father (he may be a god, but we can still relate to her).

A gender swapped telling of the story of Orpheus and Euridice was right up my alley. I have been obsessed with Hadestown for two years and I was excited to jump into this story of Orphia and Euridicius. Else John has a way with words. The prose of this story was engaging and creative. There's a poetic, lyrical sense to the words of Orphia. Altogether this was an interesting take on a classic Greek myth. While it didn't hit everything I wanted out of it, it's sure to be a winning novel for many.

Orphia And Eurydicius by Elyse John invites readers into a world where reality and fantasy intertwine seamlessly. John's masterful storytelling keeps readers guessing until the very end, leaving them spellbound by the enchanting tale of love and redemption.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper 360 for this ARC Copy!

I was really excited going into this book and I did not really know anything about Orphia and Eurydicius story so I was excited to experience it for the first time. Though I enjoyed the book it was hard to stay interested in it for long. The writing was beautiful and lyrical, but it was also so flowy and poetic at times that it felt like as a reader we were just floating along with the story.

Firstly, Thanks so much to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC version of this book. Secondly, I would like to say that I am a casual Greek Mythology fan, so I feel like that might impact how I felt about this book. Overall, I liked it.

There were some parts that just didn’t work for me. Like Orphia is supposed to be the greatest poet of all time, but I felt like I didn’t get enough of her poetry. In some parts, it was just describing her poetry, rather than like… giving us the poem. While the author’s writing style is so beautiful and poetic, I think what happens in a lot of Greek retellings, is that the language feels a little forced in places where the “feminism” parts are more apparent. I also think the pacing could’ve been a little better, there were some parts that were happening so quickly, and other parts that felt like they were dragging, especially towards the end. On one hand, the messaging of women using their voices loudly was well received, there were some parts that were laying it on THICCCKKKKKKK. Finally, this is a small point, but some of the God’s powers were kinda all over the place for me – like Zeus is supposedly all powerful and his descriptions/actions just didn’t work. There were often parts where I thought Apollo was way more powerful, which isn’t necessarily true. Or like Hera being able to skirt around Zeus’s power so easily was kinda odd to me.

BUTTTTT, There were some things about this book I really enjoyed and loved, for example, Eurydicius’ love for Orphia and literally all the romance scenes were to die for. Like Eurydicius and Orphia’s love was so pure and was REALLY FELT in my soul, even when death came for both of them. I also liked the author’s choices in terms of the mythology and chronical order to tell the story in. I loved getting to know the Muses and all the parts where she was training her poetry skills. I loved the messaging of “women defying what is expected of them,” and the often-forgotten women’s perspectives of Greek Mythology. The even brief mentions of Medusa, Hera’s story, and even the Maenads illustrates this beautifully! I also really loved the bisexual and LGBT+ representations! Elyse put her foot in those parts – like it was so natural and flowed perfectly with this story, where there were times I was forgetting this was a retelling!

Anyways – I liked the story enough! There were things I liked about the book, and other things I didn’t like much. Elyse John is a wonderful author and storyteller!

If you’re familiar with Greek mythology and the myth around Orpheus and Eurydice, then you essentially know the plot of this book. What sets this retelling apart is the gender reversal and feminist themes.

In this book, the author has switched genders, with Orpheus, the poet and hero becoming Orphia, the poetess yearning for eternal fame and glory, while Eurydice his love interest becomes Eurydicius, the shield maker with the feminine touch. The book is from Orphia’s POV and takes the reader through her journey as she uncovers her true parentage, learns the art of poetry from the Muses, goes on adventures, and eventually falls in love with Eurydicius.

I adored the author’s writing style and pacing. The language is both beautiful and easy to consume at the same time. Every chapter and paragraph felt edited to perfection. There is no stray word or sentence. The plot itself of course is very intriguing, but I do attribute that to the rich Greek myth it springs from. However, I really appreciated the inner monologue of a woman who believes herself to be independent and a feminist falling in love (both romantic and familial) and starting to understand that life isn’t complete till you form deep relationships.

Overall, if you are a fan of Madeline Miller or other mythological retellings, do give this one a go. I think Elyse John’s writing is so engaging and worthy of your time.