This is such a beautiful, lyrical, magical story - such a complete contrast to the recent teen romance and dystopian stories I've been reading. It's a modern-day telling of the Greek myth Eurydice and Orpheus. I read a brief precis of that myth after I'd finished 'Ella Grey' and David has stuck quite closely to the story.
Claire and Ella are best friends at school in Newcastle, in fact they've been best friends since they were tiny. One weekend, Claire and her other friends go away camping to the coast, and meet a very strange young travelling man, who plays beautiful music on his lyre. His name is Orpheus. Claire rings Ella, who has had to stay at home to revise, and holds the phone up so Ella can hear the mesmerising, enchanting music. Ella is totally hooked - there seems to be an immediate connection between her and Orpheus. When Orpheus appears later that week outside their school, Ella knows he is there for her and runs out of school to spend the day with him. They fall desperately in love and intend to marry on the beach at half term. But what happens that weekend and the days and weeks following are both tragic and sorrowful, and will change the lives of all those concerned.
Perfect
by Rachel Joyce
I really enjoyed Rachel Joyce's first book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so I was looking forward to reading this one. Rachel has such lovely descriptive prose, and her turn of phrase is perfect. But do not come to this book expecting a tragi-comedy. Come expecting tragedy but no comedy. You feel constantly on your guard, expecting something awful to happen, knowing the moment is coming very soon, and when it does it is heartbreakingly sad. Catastrophic events build up to one big disaster that leaves the characters and the readers saddened and tearful. The twist at the end will have you sobbing even more.
Black Heart Blue
by Louisa Reid
Deeply disturbing, harrowing, dark, there is no let up to the pain in this story of child abuse in a vicarage. The story is told 'Before' and 'After' by twins Hephzi and Rebecca. 'Before' is narrated by Hephzi, 'After' by Rebecca, the event being the tragic and lonely death of Hephzi. 'The Mother' and 'The Father' - as Rebecca refers to them - are cold, cruel and heartless to their daughters. The girls are abused mentally, physically and verbally, and they only have each other as comfort. Hephzi tries to break free by falling in love with Craig at college, but misunderstandings, cruel words and an act of love put an end to this brief ray of sunshine that had broken into her world of darkness. This book will stay with you long after finishing it.
