Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Maddie Mortimer’s Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a gripping novel about Lia, a mother battling a devastating illness. The book has flashes between Lia’s present life with her fabulous husband Harry and wonderful daughter Iris, Lia’s past life, and the voice of her illness.
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies was one of my most anticipated reads for June, and it didn’t disappoint. It is incredibly moving. It combined traditional prose with verse, and it really captured my attention.
This book felt so authentic, because when I was dying back in 2021 before my first heart surgery, you do reflect back on your life. What moments did you waste? Where did you go wrong? Are you prepared to exit the world? Am I in good shape to meet my Maker? And you also wonder: when did this all begin? How long have I been living with this disease? Was it there all along? What would my life be like without this horrible thing?
Mortimer perfectly developed her characters. None of them are saints, and she didn’t lean on cliches to carry Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies.
As far as the ending, it is deeply moving, well done and memorable.
This book is definitely sad so if you like sad stories, you might want to give this a go. Also, this book really reminded me of The Book Thief which has the narrator as the voice of death. So if you enjoyed the style of The Book Thief, you might want to try Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies.
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is around 433 pages (at least according to this version of the Advanced Reader Copy), and I think it is a touch too long.
Overall, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a deeply moving novel with unexpected twists, written in a style that I haven’t seen before, a treasure, haunting, lingering.
*Thanks, Scriber, for a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.