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A review by unfiltered_fiction
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
5.0
The best book I read in 2022. This novel is simply incredible and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Maps is a story rich with abstraction; it peaks when you put aside the need to fully understand the literal meaning of each sentence, and instead immerse yourself in the temperature, colour, taste, and shape of each pattern of words. At the same time, a new layer of intention can be revealed within many of these word puzzles if you're willing to break your reading flow to google an unfamiliar word - a body part, an obsolete adjective, a plant.
Like all the best books, it's more than the sum of its parts. The writing occasionally an undertone of self satisfaction and precociousness - but it is entirely earned by how hard each word, every syllable works to conjure an intricately textured landscape of thought and emotion. I felt some elements were handled imperfectly (particularly sexual assault and abuse of power) and yet could appreciate how this became part of the fallible, multi-dimensional humanity of the book and its characters.
Maps is a story rich with abstraction; it peaks when you put aside the need to fully understand the literal meaning of each sentence, and instead immerse yourself in the temperature, colour, taste, and shape of each pattern of words. At the same time, a new layer of intention can be revealed within many of these word puzzles if you're willing to break your reading flow to google an unfamiliar word - a body part, an obsolete adjective, a plant.
Like all the best books, it's more than the sum of its parts. The writing occasionally an undertone of self satisfaction and precociousness - but it is entirely earned by how hard each word, every syllable works to conjure an intricately textured landscape of thought and emotion. I felt some elements were handled imperfectly (particularly sexual assault and abuse of power) and yet could appreciate how this became part of the fallible, multi-dimensional humanity of the book and its characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Sexual harassment