IN A Song For Ella Grey, David Almond updates the myth of Orpheus travelling to the underworld to bring his wife Eurydice back from death.
It's told through teenage friends, Ella Grey and Claire Wilkinson, who want to live all of their lives together.
But one camping trip in Northumberland changes everything. Claire meets Orpheus, a wanderer who grabs everyone's attention, even animals, by playing music on his lyre.
This instrument, made out of string and wood, makes the most beautiful sounds when he plays it, but if anyone else tries, it doesn't work. Claire rings Ella, so she can listen to Orpheus' music, but this proves to be a very bad decision.
Ella becomes completely obsessed with Orpheus, even though she's never met him. She tells Claire that she's always loved him, which Claire finds absurd. Then Ella announces they're getting married in Northumberland.
The couple run off together, but Ella is bitten by an adder and dies. Orpheus desperately tried to find her and visits Death to ask where she is.
Apart from a period of about 60 pages which were painfully boring, I thought the author told the story extremely well and I would recommend this book to anyone in their late teens.
6/10
Review by Charlie Barraclough, aged 14
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