A review by ladybookamore
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

5.0

Sometimes, the stories we read hint at the inevitable, that something is going to happen eventually, and you will not able to do anything about it. It has to happen.
It must happen. So, is this "you" you, or a character in the book? You choose.

Bring Up the Bodies makes you helplessly rely on it, as the story resumes from Cromwell stepping into Wolf Hall and ends with Cromwell being named Baron of Wimbledon. Of course, I will not mention the execution of Anne Boleyn, because this series hails an unsung figure in the history of Britain — Thomas Cromwell. He made the Reformation possible in England. He reduced his adversaries into dismantled corpses without touching the sword.

Can we consider Cromwell as a subaltern voice narrating the incidents that take place during the reign of King Henry VIII? The story of Thomas Cromwell can be likened to the story of an underdog who goes against all odds to establish himself as a distinguished personality, but not for long.

The last four words of the previous paragraph are elaborated throughout The Mirror and the Light.

In other words; if Wolf Hall is good, Bring Up the Bodies is better. Faaaaaaaaaar better than its predecessor.