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A review by rlaferney
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
5.0
The Murders of Molly Southbourne is a story about enduring trauma and the fear that comes with mental illness (as this story acts as a parable for mental illness). Thompson asks: what happens when someone who looks exactly like you, comes from within you, seeking to destroy your relationships and to kill you. This is what suffering from undiagnosed mental illness in extreme cases feels like.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne is a body horror/psychological thriller about a woman named Molly whose blood makes murderous doppelgängers when it is shed outside her body. She and her parents call them mollies. The reason that Molly’s blood has this effect is opaque to Molly, though as the story begins in Molly’s early childhood, it’s clear that this peculiar blood-borne disease is normal to Molly, even though she may be the only one in the world to suffer from it (although a letter from her mother reveals that Molly's disease was potentially somehow was passed on to her) Molly is trained from a young age to kill the mollies: to bleach and burn any of her blood that falls.
So when she goes to college, she finds that her disease makes everything harder. She finds out that her relations with men ultimately result in their deaths. Her parents are killed (also by mollies, ones that were trapped in Molly’s childhood and overlooked),and in the conclusion, we learn that Molly is trying to find a lucid non-murderous mollie to replace her, because she’s tired of living.
Talk about bleak. But Thompson has crafted a tale of life, death, love, and suffering and heartbreak that is so disturbing you can't look away. It's visceral, it's chilling, it's sad. AND there is truth to it.
Molly is fighting herself and she destroys everything she is connected to. When mental illness goes untreated this is what it feels like.
This is a powerful work of fiction.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne is a body horror/psychological thriller about a woman named Molly whose blood makes murderous doppelgängers when it is shed outside her body. She and her parents call them mollies. The reason that Molly’s blood has this effect is opaque to Molly, though as the story begins in Molly’s early childhood, it’s clear that this peculiar blood-borne disease is normal to Molly, even though she may be the only one in the world to suffer from it (although a letter from her mother reveals that Molly's disease was potentially somehow was passed on to her) Molly is trained from a young age to kill the mollies: to bleach and burn any of her blood that falls.
So when she goes to college, she finds that her disease makes everything harder. She finds out that her relations with men ultimately result in their deaths. Her parents are killed (also by mollies, ones that were trapped in Molly’s childhood and overlooked),and in the conclusion, we learn that Molly is trying to find a lucid non-murderous mollie to replace her, because she’s tired of living.
Talk about bleak. But Thompson has crafted a tale of life, death, love, and suffering and heartbreak that is so disturbing you can't look away. It's visceral, it's chilling, it's sad. AND there is truth to it.
Molly is fighting herself and she destroys everything she is connected to. When mental illness goes untreated this is what it feels like.
This is a powerful work of fiction.