Kate C's Reviews > Death's Country

Thank you to the Peachtree Teen for providing this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Overall Rating: 3.75 / 5

Warnings: Death, War, Injury Detail, Drowning, Emotional Abuse, Self-Harm, Disordered Eating, Toxic Relationship

“Death’s Country” is a stunning queer reimagining of the classic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice that beautifully blends Latine heritage with the already well known Greek tales and mythology.

My favorite parts of this book were the characters and the way that Romero was able to handle such heavy themes with care. Through only short vignettes or quick interactions between characters I found myself able to quickly grasp who each person was or what they represented in the City of the dead. Along with getting to know these characters, we got to know their pasts and, although many of their stories were quite heavy, they were told in very respectful ways.

The pacing of the story seemed to follow the feelings of the main character, Andres, slow and intentional in moments of joy but rushing to the finish line in uncomfortable situations. In some ways this helped me get a sense of what being inside of his head was like, however I do think it made for the beginning of this story to feel rushed. Especially since the time spent in the City of the dead was given so much world-building and in-depth moments. If the beginning was given as much detail I think it would have really helped the reader feel more invested in the triad’s relationship and make the stakes feel even higher.

While it took me a bit of time to find the rhythm within Romero’s style of verse, I found I really enjoyed their linguistic choices and their beautifully laid out metaphors. There were so many passages I found myself highlighting, as the raw emotion or dreamy imagery just exuded off of the page. The most disjointing thing to me was how on the nose some references were. Although a wonderful love letter to classic epic poems, it did feel off that characters would almost self-insert themselves, stating exactly who they were representative of during the journey. Along with that, there were some formatting choices in the ARC edition that I found myself constantly stumbling through to catch the rhythm again. The biggest issues I ran into were the choices of bold text that I could not discern if they were meant to be read with emphasis or a new section of the story and that the chapter headers were not separated out onto new pages.

Overall I would recommend this to someone who either loves novels in verse or someone who loves the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. The themes and messages this novel focused on were handled very well, there were some really strong quotes that will sit with me for some time, and the journey of Andres growing to learn what it means to love and be loved is such an important message for YA readers.