A review by yourbookishbff
What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a beautiful reimagining of Wuthering Heights, that brings greater truth and insight to both Heathcliff and Catherine by leaning into the insinuations of the original. We are meant to assume Heathcliff was likely biracial, the son of an Indian sailor or even the illegitimate child of Mr. Earnshaw, in Bronte's telling, but it is unexplored on page, given the white gaze of both author and narrator. In What Souls Are Made Of, Suri expands this assumption, weaves a compelling and believable backstory for it, and brings Catherine into this alternative narrative as well. By doing so, she shines light on the racism, misogyny, and complexity of family and heritage beneath the surface of the original and elevates the story for a new generation of readers. 

Fittingly, Suri's entire storyline takes place in the gap years where Heathcliff disappears in Bronte's narrative, imagining how both Heathcliff and Catherine might have found themselves on different paths, had they only confronted their own trauma and set themselves on paths to healing. We see again and again the path we know these characters took in another, parallel telling, and find relief and joy that they can choose differently in this telling. Suri also gives voice to both Heathcliff and Catherine, making them first-person narrators, dissolving the barriers of Bronte's intentionally distant narrative. 

Lovers of Wuthering Heights will appreciate how deeply Suri is engaging with the original story and expanding it in ways that enter into conversation with Bronte's world and our own in meaningful ways.
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