Orpheus Builds A Girl

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This story is something else. It’s macabre. It’s sinister. It’s so, so dark. But it’s also beautiful. It’s heartbreaking. Its unbearable. Its a story I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

She won the 2016 Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer, Cove Park's 2017 Emerging Writer residency, the Laxfield Literary Launch Prize in 2021 and was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2021. 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.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.

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. I rest easy; I could not have done a thing more for my beloved, nor could I have shown my love in any greater way’ 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. Parry is from Yorkshire, and her work is a modern take on classic gothic fiction, and though the idea, Frankenstein-esque, is of course not new, her approach is from a different angle. There are (welcomed) moments of hideous unpleasantness, though in a lenghty finale Parry leaves her reader with plenty to contemplate; firstly that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and a debate with more substance, what was the law, what is the law, and what should be the law..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. Written as the memoirs of a German doctor in exile scarily obsessed with one of his teenage patients even after her death, and based on a gruesome true story, this is a perfect read for spooky season. 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.

Based on true events ORPHEUS BUILDS A GIRL tells a story of obsession and possession, of the possible cruelty of human inquisitiveness, and the strange bonds within family, culture, and reputations. I would say this is not a book for the squeamish: including body horror, scientific experiments, war, racism, and much more. It is about sisterly love, the dead, and how obsession can be used to justify a person's actions. 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.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. Orpheus Builds a Girl is superbly creepy from the start, Parry expertly lacing unsettling details through her narratives. It’s a modern take on classic Gothic fiction, and while it certainly owes a debt to the likes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it breaks new ground of its own and will chill readers to the bone. Disturbing and compelling in equal measure, it’s highly recommended.