Orpheus Builds A Girl

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ORPHEUS BUILDS A GIRL is not my usual read I admit, but I enjoy listening to the author during the podcast Teenage Scream, and perhaps this has swayed me to read outside my usual genres. That being said this dual point of viewed novel was delicious to read. Then there is Gabriela, sister to Luciana. She recalls a feisty and carefree young woman, taken too soon but never forgotten. These two characters are worlds apart but united in their love for the same person. But love can have different forms; familial, habitual, obsessional.

Hell, this is fun to read as doctor Wilhelm channels Victor Frankenstein in his 'over-reaching' medical theory that he can re-animate a corpse - and tries it on the dead body of a young woman with whom he is obsessed. Cue lots of grisly descriptions of fleshly insect infestations, peeling skin, odours, blood and other gore - so far so Psycho-lite, I thought. Gabi's chapter's are filled with something else unsettling, herself being unsettled and anxious throughout her life; always thinking of keeping her family together and ooking out for her younger more robust and adventurous sisters. The reader is pulled into the lives of her Cuban family, living through joys and heartbreak but always constantly aware of what Luci was doing. Gabi's recollection revolves around her sister to counteract the doctor's views; perhaps that is the point of her recalling memories, to actively disagree with what the doctor has put forward? Or maybe that is truly how Gabi saw her youth? Either way the familial chapters paints Luci in a different light than that of von Tore.A fresh and exciting addition to the horror genre is Heather Parry’s debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl. I loved the way this novel explored fascism's links to the control of the female body, and the social complicity that allows professional white men to wield power in the most horrific ways. It has one of the best unreliable narrators I've read and a counter-narrator in the shape of the victim's sister that humanises the woman the protagonist is determined to objectify.

Thus is simply stunning. I can’t remember a story that’s gripped me so tight that I’ve spent a whole day reading it. Mesmerising, gruesome and strangely intoxicating. I’ve read many horror books so it didn’t phase me but it’s not for the squeamish. From the start Parry is able to create something unsettling in the chapters devised through von Tore's descriptions; there is something remarkably twisted and self-gratifying in the doctor's chapters of his youth that only become more questionable once the two character's lives become intertwined. Though only together for a few months in her first life, their love is written in the stars. Using scientific research compiled over decades, Wilhelm ensures that, for him and his beloved, death is only the beginning.Based on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry. ORPHEUS is written in part as a scientific biopic from the personal statement of Wilhelm von Tore; the doctor using this manuscript as a justification and confession for his actions in relation to his "life's work and purpose" in relation to Luci. The alternate chapters are written more as a recollection by Gabi, Luci's older sister, about her life and the intrusion/influence of von Tore. When this book is good it’s really good. Once the ball starts rolling on Wilhelm gross experiments as he tries to “revive” Luci it’s very engrossing as well as just plain gross lol. Wilhelm is a very disgusting character, not only because of what he does to Luci but because he’s intentionally vague with everything he tells us. When going over his past he intentionally never goes into the specifics of the types of studies he was doing in his home country, WW2 era Germany, he never admits to being a Nazi but he constantly has small moments where he shows his prejudice for other nationalities. He romanticizes the brief relationship he had with Luci while she was alive and romanticizes what he does to her while she’s dead so there’s always this feeling that he’s probably done way worse than what he’s willing to admit. We follow the story of Wilhelm Von Tore and Luci told through the eyes of Gabriela (Luci's Sister) and I love that we get the two different perspectives to the story. This is particularly relevant in Orpheus Builds a Girl and it really makes you question what the reality of the situation was and the motives behind the different characters actions. It also explores what it means to love someone. Wilhem von Tore doesn’t have much time left. As he reflects on his life his main memory is his beloved Luci, love of his life and the woman he vowed to stay with forever. And stay with her he did, despite her having died of tuberculosis only a few months after their first meeting. Despite Luci being buried by her grieving family shortly after her death. Small obstacles, but nothing that would get in the way of Wilhem’s quest.