BOOK REVIEW | OUR MONSTROUS BODIES | EMMA CLEARY

 

BOOK REVIEW | OUR MONSTROUS BODIES | EMMA CLEARY

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the wake of an ill-omened romance with a horror cinephile, Brooke arrives in Vancouver to care for her sister, Izzy, who is facing reproductive surgery. But Izzy’s rapidly decaying apartment building, its hallways stalked by an ominous crone known only as Medusa, offers little refuge to the sisters.

Seeking solace in the films her ex-girlfriend loved, Brooke soon finds traces of horror bleeding from the screen into her life. Old wounds reopen and new frictions surface, and when Brooke begins to exhibit strange symptoms of her own, Izzy’s concern spirals into obsession. The line between self and sister blurs until only one question remains: who, or what, will survive when all unravels?

Through the dual lenses of art and horror cinema, Emma Cleary brilliantly dissects loneliness, motherhood and the body’s threatened autonomy. Eerie and threaded with yearning, Our Monstrous Bodies is a haunting literary debut that blooms with the dark desires we suppress or to which we surrender.

REVIEW

Emma Cleary bursts on to the horror scene with her bold, hallucinogenic tale of two sisters in Canada whose lives unravel following a medical procedure.

Sleepwalking through her life after returning from teaching English in Japan, Brooke travels to Canada to play nursemaid to her older sister who is to undergo surgery to remove a large abdominal cyst .Left alone with only her sister’s dog to keep her company, Brooke soon finds herself enmeshed in a battle of survival, sanity and the strange forces that inhabit the walls of the building she lives.

Blending the body horror of the female body with hallucinogenic, dreamlike prose, Our Monstrous Bodies is a tale that plays with the mind well after the last page.

Cleary’s prose is the books main strength, writing with a clear, lyrical precision that evokes atmosphere not only of the internal struggles of the main characters but the strange atmosphere inside the building where they are living. Cleary cleverly builds tension brick by brick, peppered with unsettling and creepy imagery until spiralling into full blown weirdness for the end of the story.

Is the book perfect, no! At times Cleary can spend large chunks of prose centring on the minutia of the story which can affect the place, especially in the early part of the book demanding patience with the tale.

What makes the novel especially compelling is its ambiguity. Clearly resists offering explanations for the events that happen in the book, instead allowing the narrative to remain opaque and uncertain. Some readers may find this method frustrating, whilst for others, this may be the essence of the power of the story.

If you like an introspective tale that plays with reader’s expectations, then Our Monstrous Bodies may be right up your street.