A review by mt_gilley
Burntcoat by Sarah Hall

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-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

4.5

I've just read this for the second time and it's really made clear for me just how exceptional a book it is - feverish, thrilling. It's full of poetic insight into love, art, death, illness, lust, but without ever seeming forced. The structure invites all these comparisons between the different relationships - first love, motherhood, serious illness - but then the book confounds them. There's something very natural and honest about that - while there's a burning passion and intensity and will to all the bits of the story, it's also keenly attuned to the specifities of individuals and circumstances, to different moments of existence.