I bought this book during a recent sojourn to San Remo. I’m hoping to write a little screed and put up some videos on YouTube about it, but finding the time is interesting. While there we found a bookshop in Cowes. I did my normal and wandered in. When I asked for a book written by a local or an Indigenous writer he tried to recommend a Melbourne writer. I queried his understanding of ‘local’ and he recommended me this book. I looked at the Turn The Page web page just now and I’m directed straight to their Staff Recommendations. Orpheus Nine is there, as it should be.
This book is beautifully written. I know I’ve said that a lot recently, but I’ve been very lucky with the books I’m actually reviewing. I made the mistake of opening up the book to look at the single note I made during the entire read. I don’t quite remember why I wrote it down, but I suspect it has something to do with Terry Pratchett. He was famous for putting in footnotes with jokes. This note was a reference to a footnote that should have been written in Dirk van de Saar’s life. He’s got rich parents but no money, and after he’s left school he’s discovering freedom that you can’t have unless you have money.
Opening my book to look for what prompted my note caused me to read a number of pages before I managed to pull myself out of it. I really don’t like Dirk and I suspect that’s probably the right thing to do. He’s not the nicest person, he’s very into getting his way, and he has very few friends. But all the background for each person we’re given helps us understand how they’re coping with the new world.
This is billed as a ‘spine-chilling thriller’ on the back of the book. I would have called it dystopian. Whichever it is it really hits the mark. At exactly the same time everywhere around the world every child who is the age of nine dies a dreadful death. On the soccer field in Gattan it hit every child on the field bar one, he turned ten one week prior. This book deals with how three sets of parents cope with life after Orpheus Nine. One child was lost on the field, another survived and yet another has only a few months until her nineth birthday. Children continue dying as they reach their ninth birthdays.
We see a very little of what life is like outside Gattan. The world is crumbling as children continue to die, no-one understands why this is happening. There are theories that it’s the salt. We see the militant parents who refuse to let their kids eat salt before their ninth birthdays. We see how some people battle to bring everyone down to their level of grief, or just battle to overthrow the governments.
Things I like about this book
The writing is really good. There’s so much showing rather than telling. The scene on the soccer field is where we’re given enough information to know that the age is important for the book without being told. We’ve got Ebony complaining about not being allowed on the team because she’s not nine yet even though Alex is on the team and he’s ten. The way information is conveyed to us through the book is beautifully done.
The characters are believable. I love how we see them hanging on by a thread or going totally off the rails. I feel real feelings for all of them. Some of those feelings are negative, but they’re there. The sympathy I have for the characters losing their children, knowing that other children will also die soon is real. And it’s totally because of the writing.
There is some love in here, but it feels real and it doesn’t mean there’s a happy ending. I really don’t like a happy ending. Some of the love is between two lesbians. It felt right, and you probably know how much I detest romance in a story. There seems to be no in-between with religion. The religious people seem to be totally religious to the exclusion of anything else. There is a reason I’ve got these in the same paragraph, but spoilers sweetie.
If you like thrillers or dystopian fiction then I fully recommend this. If I ever get to meet Chris Flynn I’ll be accusing him of writing a good book. Because of the topic it’s not an easy read. But, because of the writing it is an easy read. I understand the contradictions, but there you go. Next time I get to Turn the Page in Cowes I’ll be sure to tell them how good the recommendation was.