Blue uses her guitar to get out of (and into) a wide array of trouble, and a backbone of folk music and Americana runs straight through Devil, making the story feel like an old-timey ballad. Both take us on a hero's journey through a strange land, and both blur the lines between harsh reality and a backwoods sort of magical realism. There are shades of the original Odyssey in Blue's journey as she faces monsters who must be outwitted and lonely souls who are reluctant to let her go on her way, but the best comparison might be to another adaptation of the tale - the film O Brother, Where Art Thou. And the devil keeps appearing, to not-so-gently nudge Blue on her way, never letting her get comfortable with new friends or hang on to useful gifts for more than a few days. She sets out with only her magic boots and her mother's guitar, jumping from one state to the next by any means she can manage. Seven years after losing her mother to cancer, Blue meets a devil at the crossroads and strikes a bargain: her voice, in exchange for a pair of boots that will guide her across the country to her missing sister. But it quickly becomes clear that Blue isn't trying to find her way home - she's trying to piece together a new one. Devil and the Bluebird starts out as a folksy road trip with a girl Odysseus whose journey takes her along the roads of modern America.
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