A review by polyphonic_reads
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss

4.0

Sarah Moss is a bit of a hit and miss author for me, but there's something beguiling about her work, to the point that I've almost made my way through her entire back catalogue. Bodies of Light belongs to the genre of what I would call 'female costume drama', a genre dominated by the likes of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue, A.S Byatt and Maggie O'Farrell. It is not my favourite genre, but there was something in the cover and the blurb that drew me in. I found Bodies of Light surprisingly compelling. At its heart is a complicated relationship between an abusive mother who tries to live her dreams through her daughters, and her eldest daughter, the more compliant and meek one. The relationship and the character of the mother deserve much more credit that the 'monster' other reviewers branded her as. One of my favourite lines in the novel is 'people who do not spare themselves rarely spare others', which I think brilliantly sums up the tremendous work Moss did in setting up the central conflict and drawing her characters. The mother is abusive and the upbringing is monstrous, but there is much more complexity and nuance to it. Brilliantly written, difficult to put down, would work for those looking for character studies and beautiful prose.