tl;dr:

Overall: ★★★★☆

Characters: ★★★☆☆

Setting: ★★★☆☆

Story: ★★★★☆

Quick Thoughts: A quick thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks Bloom Books for an advanced reader copy of this book! This was such a unique take on the Eurycide and Orpheus myth and a wonderful first YA book for author Scarlett St. Clair!

My words flood the air between us far past midnight, when stars come out and monsters come to life.

// Content Warning: violence, suicide, death //

- Synopsis

Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn't change her identity for nothing.

Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she's claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there's no mistaking the murder weapon.

Navigating the loss of her Poppa, the mistrust of her mother, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth - and they want Anora and her powers for themselves.

- Characters

This story follows our main character, Anora Silby, as she tries to have a fresh start in Oklahoma. She is shy and very reserved, fearing her past coming to light in her new town. There she meets a host of characters, most of all the star quarterback, Shy Savior. These characters were pretty believable, though Shy's name always threw me for a loop as it felt a bit awkward and very stereotypical of a main character's name in a YA book.

Anora is a really relatable heroine, struggling with who she is and what her place is in the world. My only issue with her is that, as the story progresses, we see her going from an insecure girl to suddenly a pretty decent badass who stands up for herself. I'm all for character arcs and character development, but I feel we missed a chunk of her really coming into her own power here. Especially by the end of the book where she is holding her own against others who are far more powerful than her.

Shy has a bit more meat to his character, a lot more to prove and reasons for what he does. He has his convictions and sticks to them, no matter the consequences. His attachment to Anora is really sweet and I love the connection between the two of them. Again, my biggest issue isn't his character arc but his name.

I did love the secondary characters of Natalie and Jacobi, both amazingly fleshed out and very real high schoolers with problems and attitudes and their own unique hobbies and skills. Then there's Thane and Lennon, the two outcast types who befriend Anora. I fell in love with Thane pretty early on, but I also love the dark-haired, sarcastic types.

- Setting

The story takes place in an undisclosed part of Oklahoma, which I know is where author Scarlett St. Clair is from. There wasn't much in the way of scenery building, mostly focusing on the school. I didn't get a clear picture in my head of where they were, except for a few locations that I won't talk about due to spoilers. But for the most part, what was happening to them seemed to take place in a weird in-between place in my head, half-imagined but half fuzz. I wish she had spent a little more time on the scenery.

However, I did love the entire premise of what was happening and the connection it had with the story. There are a few times we're taken to a graveyard or adjacent to it that really adds to the suspense and creep factor of what's going on. Then there's a train yard that plays a significant role, also super creepy. It seems that she really poured most of her imagery into places that needed to pull emotion from you and kinda skimmed over the other parts, figuring that everyone knew what a high school was like, or a small town. Easy to imagine.

- Story

This is probably the first ever Eudydice and Orpheus retelling I've ever read. I don't know a whole lot about the myth other than bits of songs from the broadway show Hadestown, so I went into this pretty blind. After a brief bit of research online, I don't know how much St. Clair actually pulled from the myth, but there is going to be a second book, so I'm very interested to see where it's going to go.

I will say, a lot of the twists were a bit predictable, but I feel like she tried to deceive us with the ending a bit, which I didn't see coming. I was thinking it was an either-or situation. Nope! Blindsided by that stab of deception.

I feel like because the Hades and Persephone myth is a little more detailed and has numerous retellings, those books of hers feel a bit more solidified whereas the Eurydice and Orpheus myth is... not as well known? So I felt like I was reading more of an homage to the myth rather than a retelling, which might honestly be the case! Either way, it was a really fun ride, there were lots of twists in it that, again, I won't talk about due to spoilers, but despite the areas where it falls flat, it was a really great read and helped me get out of a reading slump.

- Conclusion

Positive- Love the story and the believability of the characters

Negative- Lack of real world-building and some characters fell a little flat.

Overall- ★★★★☆

Quick recap

This was honestly a really fun ride and a great break into the YA genre for St. Clair. I enjoyed her other works and love that she's sticking with the Greek myth retellings for her books. I'm excited to see where book #2 will take us (and still waiting on A Touch of Chaos) and what sorts of shenanigans will happen.

"If I could give you anything in this life...it would be the happiness you feel when you look at the stars."