Scoring it low for my dislike of Zombies more than anything. This is a view of Orpheus if he was a successful musician in New York who succeeded in bringing Eurydice from Hades instead of looking back. But she's basically a zombie and there's a lot of rotting and fungus and me running away. Yes it was an interesting interpretation, and how the gods and heroes were blended into the modern world was well done but for me the squick factor was high. ( )

Wow, this is a creepy, insidious story. It's sort of a spin on a mythological story we think we know... but it's really about emotional abuse and self-absorbed men and the slow obliteration of a person in the name of love. ( )

Review of eBook

A retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the present day and offering readers an alternate ending.

Told from Orpheus’s point of view, this modern-day version depicts Orpheus as a music star while Eurydice, successfully rescued and brought back from Hades, is indeed a sort-of-alive corpse.

For good measure, several other mythical creatures wander into the story, including Hermes with his glowing angelic wing sneakers, up-at-the-crack-of-dawn Apollo, and more.

But this is not a true character study; rather, it's putting a modern spin on an old, old story and revealing the complicated truths in an intimate relationship. There’s an ethereal feel to this examination of the ardor between Orpheus and Eurydice. The contrast here, between the Greek myth [in which Orpheus looked back] and the telling of this tale [in which he did not], seems to be in the love he held for her . . . in the myth, his love was so strong and he was so concerned that he had to look back to ensure that she followed and was okay; here, although he professes his love, he didn’t look back and he doesn’t seem motivated to see if she is okay.

It’s a story that is poignant, beautiful and sad and tragic and haunting. After all, did Orpheus even ask if Eurydice wanted to come back?

Recommended. ( )