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pam_pam_85's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
caprivoyant's review
Meh
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, Car accident, and Death of parent
flissrobyn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
I read this after it was recommended by StoryGraph. It’s not my usual read, and I went in not knowing what to expect.
My only response is… wow. I finished it within 4 hours of starting it, and couldn’t tear myself away.
It was confusing to start, and that felt intentional. The lack of chapters left you having to really try to figure out at which point of time you were in.
The book is written as if a letter to someone. As the book progressed, in tandem you learned more about the narrator, and their life and illness. It was mysterious and haunting.
The first half read like a love letter, and then it becomes clear that it’s not.
The story, the writing, made me feel a lot of emotions, and I’m still reeling from it!
My only response is… wow. I finished it within 4 hours of starting it, and couldn’t tear myself away.
It was confusing to start, and that felt intentional. The lack of chapters left you having to really try to figure out at which point of time you were in.
The book is written as if a letter to someone. As the book progressed, in tandem you learned more about the narrator, and their life and illness. It was mysterious and haunting.
The first half read like a love letter, and then it becomes clear that it’s not.
The story, the writing, made me feel a lot of emotions, and I’m still reeling from it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, and Abandonment
tamarant4's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-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? Yes
3.75
Is it possible to work with a material so long and still not understand its condition? We are figures briefly draw in space; given temporary form in exchange for consciousness, sense, a chance. We are ready-mades, disposables. How do we live every last moment as this -- savant dust? [p. 166]
My desire to read this short novel was sparked by my discovery that it was, in part, about the narrator Edith's relationship with her mother, who suffered a brain haemorrhage when Edith was eight years old, and effectively became a different person whom Edith knew as Naomi. (I was ten when I experienced something very similar, though I did not bestow a new name on my mother.) Edith becomes an sculptor of some renown, and the eponymous Burntcoat is her home, a converted warehouse that's spacious enough to accommodate her works.
But this is a pandemic novel, though not quite our pandemic. Burntcoat features a hantavirus called Nova, which she caught from her Turkish lover -- who in turn caught it when set upon by looters while trying to retrieve food from his closed restaurant. The frame of the novel is Edith looking back from the vantage point of her late fifties, aware that the long-dormant virus is reactivating in her body, and that she will soon die.
Burntcoat felt like a set of unfinished stories: Edith's relationship with her mother (who dies while Edith is studying art in Japan); Edith's father, who leaves the wife who's no long the woman he loved and remarries; the pandemic itself, its social effects recognisable, if magnified, from our own experience; the ways the world has changed. In the end I think it's a story about bodies. There's a lot of graphic sex between Edith and her lover, and the whole novel is replete with human physicality, from pissing as a sign of dominance, to the scars of Edith's mother's surgery, to the gradual putrescence of a corpse.
I wasn't exactly disappointed -- Hall's writing is never a disappointment -- but this was not the book I'd hoped it would be.
Fulfils the ‘one word title’ rubric of the Something Bookish Reading Challenge.
Fulfils the ‘one word title’ rubric of the Something Bookish Reading Challenge.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Suicide and Violence
micaelabrody's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
a while ago there was a tumblr post i read saying:
At my core I need to shut the hell up and read a short novel that changes me forever (allsadnshit)
i can now share that burntcoat is one of those novels.
like many i think i was skeptical of "the covid novel" but i think this one pulled it off. by maintaining a laser focus on one person, it didn't try to really capture the scale and scope of a pandemic, just the personal effects. i did feel that halit was underdeveloped considering how much of a presence he was, so he felt more like a symbol of "body of another" more than a person in his own right. this could have been intentional but considering the careful thought put into the body of edith and her mother, it felt a little flat.
many reviews on here at first glance seem to focus on the "bodily fluids." yes, there were a lot of bodily fluids i guess - though at 3/4 of the way through i did specifically note that i didn't feel like it was more than usual for an adult contemporary that focused on a sexual relationship. once the focus shifted to the sickness ("nova") it increased, but it felt appropriate. i constantly reference the article that talked about characters having bodily functions in the handmaid's tale - this book really follows up on that; it is unflinching in the face of shit and semen and piss. without that, it would have fallen so flat. the entire focus is on the body. even her giant witch sculpture is controversial because of its aggressive use of breasts and vagina. why write a book about a deadly illness - two, if you count her mom - and avoid the inherent grossness of still being alive??
(similarly - i saw a review complaining it was in 2nd person. IT IS NOT IN 2ND PERSON. it is in 1st person!! she is addressing a character as "you"! this isn't uncommon! they're totally different!!! I do not think it means what you think it means.gif)
this was especially effective because the novel really felt like a gothic horror story, where the sickness was the ghost in the haunted house. (her mommy issues, which i personally had been hoping to avoid but were objectively done well, were another haunting, and the aforementioned narrow focus on edith's experience and her home really drove home the eeriness of isolation.) the pacing didn't quite match up as it felt a little end-heavy, and the constant double line breaks really hindered developing a rhythm in the otherwise gorgeous prose, but they didn't have a significant impact in the overall vibe and atmosphere, especially once the plot really kicked into high gear around page 100.
i think this book is understandably not for everyone and at times it was tough to read - at a personal level, i've read a lot of Mother or Grandmother stuff recently and i'm in desperate need of a reprieve - but it worked as a tense and unsettling elegy. yes, a short & quick book, a slice of devastation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Excrement, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
char_lottevg's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide attempt
amyymon's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
victoria_catherine_shaw's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent
savvylit's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Imagine that COVID-19 was even more lethal. That's what the virus, aka novavirus or AG3, that's sweeping the world of Burntcoat is like. Hall wrote this book at the beginning of lockdown in March 2020 - and it shows. Hall makes numerous eerie and unsettling parallels to our own pandemic. I honestly found it difficult as a reader to reckon with a phenomenon that is still so current.
There are two primary threads in this story. The first thread follows Edith's experience with her lover Halit during the novavirus pandemic. The second is Edith's reflections on growing up with her mother, a stroke survivor. Ultimately, Burntcoat weaves a tale that is somehow both bleak and beautiful. In writing this novel, Sarah Hall has written a lyrical and humane take on the full spectrum of mortality.
Though I personally found this novel to be a little too on-the-nose, I am definitely looking forward to reading more of Hall's work. Her beautiful prose has enchanted me and I'd love to experience more of it.
There are two primary threads in this story. The first thread follows Edith's experience with her lover Halit during the novavirus pandemic. The second is Edith's reflections on growing up with her mother, a stroke survivor. Ultimately, Burntcoat weaves a tale that is somehow both bleak and beautiful. In writing this novel, Sarah Hall has written a lyrical and humane take on the full spectrum of mortality.
Though I personally found this novel to be a little too on-the-nose, I am definitely looking forward to reading more of Hall's work. Her beautiful prose has enchanted me and I'd love to experience more of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
lola_milk's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I gave this book four stars because I was very moved by the relationship between the main character and her mother, who raised her as a single mum even though she had brain damage. I also enjoyed reading about the main character's artistic process.
However, I'm not sure if these elements paired well with the narrative about the main character and her lover trying to survive a pandemic. The relationship with the lover was just not as compelling as her relationship with her mum, and I am very burnt out on pandemic stories for obvious reasons.
The book was beautifully written, with gleaming prose.
However, I'm not sure if these elements paired well with the narrative about the main character and her lover trying to survive a pandemic. The relationship with the lover was just not as compelling as her relationship with her mum, and I am very burnt out on pandemic stories for obvious reasons.
The book was beautifully written, with gleaming prose.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Dementia
Moderate: Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail