ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
OLDER FICTION
Fussner, Kate

The Song of Us

368 pp. | HarperCollins/Tegen | May, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780063256941 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780063256958 $10.99
(2) YA In this verse-novel retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, seventh-grade girls Olivia and Eden fall in "like-like" at first sight. Soon, they're meeting up to kiss almost daily and professing their love. But their (secret) happiness doesn't last long. Eden falls in with a reckless crowd, and Olivia reacts with strong, hurtful words. The two are driven further and further apart, but Olivia sets out to reunite them on a quest involving poetry. The source material lends itself to the seriousness with which the protagonists take their situation--and beyond their romance and conflict, there are weighty elements at play, including Olivia's mother's depression and Eden's fear of her homophobic father. It all leads up to an ending that isn't perfectly happy, but one that gives hope to readers rooting for the two girls' connection. Poet Olivia's more deliberate voice ("I scramble to scribble / but my mind says wrong / to every word I write") is distinct from more impulsive music-lover Eden's ("This girl is / a power ballad: / bold, clever, all confidence / joy at full volume"); both are accessible and often impassioned. Hand to middle-school readers ready to be swept up in emotion.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

RELATED 

OLDER FICTION

What Beauty There Is
by Anderson, Cory
OLDER FICTION

Between Perfect and Real
by Stoeve, Ray
OLDER FICTION

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good
by Werlin, Nancy
OLDER FICTION

Home Is Not a Country
by Elhillo, Safia
OLDER FICTION

All Our Hidden Gifts
by O'Donoghue, Caroline
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?