A review by amelia_reads_and_reviews
Burntcoat by Sarah Hall

5.0

A small book that mercilessly interrogates those things from which we recoil and which fascinate us. Rot, disease, the physicality of sex, the body disrupted and the mind showing the limits of its machinations. Not everyone will vibe with such strong imagery or a book that takes as its subject the human condition at a time of extreme crisis. If you prefer a picture of a pristine forest to the fecund life and decay of the real thing, perhaps this is not the book for you. If you'd prefer that your lovers' ecstasies are of the mind exclusively or would rather not think of death as ghastly then this is not the book for you. Beautiful and raw and completely devastating,this novel tempers its heavier themes with crisply realised domestic moments and tender relationships. A unique, timely and imaginatively rich response to the lockdowns of 2020/1 which maintains at its core the emotions which will still bristle with familiarity for many in spite of their more dystopian emphasis.
The skill and ease with which Sarah Hall guides us through these moments of abjection is a truly exquisite thing.