Shannon McCarter's Reviews > Never Look Back

Never Look Back is a modern retelling of the tragic story of Orpheus and Eruydice. I was pretty excited about this, but was quickly disappointed to learn that this story wouldn't be nearly intriguing as it's predecessor. The first half of the story is your typical summer romance, love-at-first-sight contemporary, where we meet our mains, Pheus and Eury. Pheus is a carefree musician and Eury is the new girl will a lot of emotional baggage. I was really looking forward to unpacking all of that but unfortunately, that is pushed aside in favor of just showing the two fall instantly in love.

The second half of the story felt like it belonged in a different book; where before the story felt modern, now we've taken a turn for the mythic as we see the events of the original myth play out. Again, I was hoping for this to be more about the struggles that Eury has been through, she's clearly suffering from living through several hurricanes and it would have been interesting to see Pheus help pull her out of her metaphorical underworld. But instead things play out too literally and too easily, leaving no emotional connection to the characters.

Overall, I recognize that I'm just not a fan of these types of stories, but I really feel like Never Look Back could have been something really special. As it is, it just falls flat.