My apologies right off the bat: This “review” is going to be all over the place, I’m afraid. And it might be longish. Disclaimer stated and moving on…
Ovid, named after the Roman poet, has several problems, most of which stemming from his sister’s drug abuse and willing disappearance. His parents’ fear that Ovid will pull a repeat performance to rival his sister’s has made his home a prison; he’s suffocating under the weight of someone else’s mistakes and tunnels the energy he has left into art and poetry.
As he looks around at his friends and classmates, Ovid takes a page from his namesake’s book, reshaping myths to narrate their lives.
Most of the myths Ovid uses to explore his world are fairly well known: Orpheus/Eurydice, Daphne/Apollo, Psyche/Cupid. Having at least a passing familiarity with each will make your experience with this book a pleasure. (As for the other, less known myths, well, they can always be looked up after.) For instance, the Orpheus myth – In Franco’s book, Ovid nicknames a gorgeous music player Orpheus, and dissects his failed relationship with a girl named Dalia in a poem (which you can read after the cut.)
In that regard, I thought this book was very clever, and insightful in the way Ovid regarded superficial appearances.
But things aren’t like that, as far as I can tell. It seems to me that we all navigate our way through high school – solo or in ever-shifting pairs or groups – trying to find some rhyme or rhythm, some sense.
Sometimes we throw lights on our faces, letting other people get a glimpse of us. Then we retreat.
Seems like we’re all just groping our way through a labyrinth, fighting our personal minotaurs, morphing into who we really are, like it or not. And along the way, we cross paths with other people.
There’s no golden thread to follow. That’s for sure. So we all just try to help each other through the maze.
I could have pulled several quotes from this book, random lines that would have really spoken to my teenage self and ones that tugged at me now, but I really like that one above. I like that it keeps to the idea of reshaping mythology to suit contemporary problems and issues.
Along with the poems and prose narrative there are illustrations. Drawn by Tom Franco, the images are actually supposed to be Ovid’s own. Ovid wants to be an artist, to go to art school, and the drawings play an important role in forcing his parents to see who he is, not what they want him to be. They’re also often discussed with Ovid’s art teacher; initially, the art teacher praises Ovid for his creativity and imagination, but, if I read it correctly, eventually begins to question the motivation and emotions behind them.
If I’m being brutally honest, I didn’t always understand the images, certainly not in the same way that I did the poetry. Ovid does explain them to a certain degree, but even then, I kind of looked at them, shrugged after an extended beat or two, and then turned the page. They’re perfectly good and interesting illustrations, fitting of the book’s theme, but I just didn’t feel them in the same way, if that makes sense.
Metamorphosis: Junior Year is a very short book, only 114 pages, and that including full-page illustrations. Despite it’s length, it explores themes of drug abuse, broken families, cutting and other self-abuse methods, and that’s just to start. If I could apply one word to it it would be clever, like I said before, but it’s also creative and engaging. I’m not sure if it would be so warmly regarded among its intended demographic, or by those who have little to no interest in mythology, but I really enjoyed it.
The image and poem were found on Betsy Franco’s website.
Orpheus and Dalia
Doesn’t the rain need the clouds?
Doesn’t the ocean need the sand?
Doesn’t the wind need the sky?
That’s how Orpheus needed Dalia.
And Dalia liked it fine
until she stopped liking it.
“I love you, Orpheus,
like the lightning loves the thunder,
like the mountain loves its trees
but it’ll never work between us
if you don’t give me some f**king space.
Give me some space
and we’ll be great again.
Just prove you can do it.
Just for a few weeks.”
Orpheus didn’t call her
didn’t msg her text
didn’t text her e-mail
didn’t find her between classes
until he felt like
rain without a cloud
sand without an ocean
wind with no sky to blow around in
and he sent her a text
just once
just that once
“miss u”
And it was over.
