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abbie_ 's review for:
Bodies of Light
by Sarah Moss
First of my mini author binges is off to a flying start, as I think I’ve found a new favourite in Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss! Set during the early suffrage movement in England, we get to know a family of four - Alfred the father and painter, Elizabeth the puritanical mother obsessed with doing good for the poor and neglecting her own daughters in the process, Ally the eldest who finds herself at the forefront of the women’s higher education fight, and May, younger and naive but with a good heart.
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I’ve never read anything set in this period before and I have REGRETS! Why haven’t I?! The fight of women to be allowed access to higher education, the outrage over the Contagious Diseases Act, it’s all so interesting and Moss handles it all so well! It’s only 300 pages and spans about 40 years in total, but it’s expertly plotted and paced and I never felt like we were rushing or dragging in one part or another.
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Although I enjoyed all the sections, from Elizabeth’s childhood, her struggles with early motherhood, through to Ally’s early days at school and adolescence, it was her experience being one of the first women to be allowed to study medicine in London that was my favourite part. Imagine how utterly terrifying and overwhelming it must have been to be the example for your entire sex - the eyes of the (male) world on you, waiting for you to slip up so they can dismiss the idea of women ever practising medicine properly... the pressure was huge and Moss depicts it perfectly.
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Ally’s struggles with her anxiety were another great aspect of this book, as during the time mental illnesses were not understood, brushed off as feminine hysteria and women banished to asylums with unthinkable conditions. I love how Moss shows that while medicine was advancing, mental illnesses remained very much invisible.
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I ALSO loved (yep this is a gushing review) that Ally fought back against the idea that women could either be liberated, independent and educated or start a family, no in between. This sort of backward thinking still permeates today, when the important thing is CHOICE.
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Basically, I am recommending this book WHOLE. HEARTEDLY.
.
I’ve never read anything set in this period before and I have REGRETS! Why haven’t I?! The fight of women to be allowed access to higher education, the outrage over the Contagious Diseases Act, it’s all so interesting and Moss handles it all so well! It’s only 300 pages and spans about 40 years in total, but it’s expertly plotted and paced and I never felt like we were rushing or dragging in one part or another.
.
Although I enjoyed all the sections, from Elizabeth’s childhood, her struggles with early motherhood, through to Ally’s early days at school and adolescence, it was her experience being one of the first women to be allowed to study medicine in London that was my favourite part. Imagine how utterly terrifying and overwhelming it must have been to be the example for your entire sex - the eyes of the (male) world on you, waiting for you to slip up so they can dismiss the idea of women ever practising medicine properly... the pressure was huge and Moss depicts it perfectly.
.
Ally’s struggles with her anxiety were another great aspect of this book, as during the time mental illnesses were not understood, brushed off as feminine hysteria and women banished to asylums with unthinkable conditions. I love how Moss shows that while medicine was advancing, mental illnesses remained very much invisible.
.
I ALSO loved (yep this is a gushing review) that Ally fought back against the idea that women could either be liberated, independent and educated or start a family, no in between. This sort of backward thinking still permeates today, when the important thing is CHOICE.
.
Basically, I am recommending this book WHOLE. HEARTEDLY.