***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

This is a great and thoughtful update on the classic. Most classic English literature does not engage with colonialism, so books like this are vital counterparts to keep the worthwhile parts of the classics and provide context. I personally did not love the writing style compared to the purple prose I love in gothics, but I think younger audiences will connect. It’s hard to know how well this stands alone for readers with no familiarity with the original material, but they would probably need to be engaged with historical fiction in some fashion because of old timey vocabulary and whatnot.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly July New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

4.5 stars

Loved this so much (says the reader who feels ambivalent-bordering-on-negative toward the source material). A+ audiobook performance from debut narrators — Alex Williams and Becca Hirani nailed the Yorkshire (?) accent while keeping the melancholy/gothic vibes. Read via audio.

I received this book for free from Feiwel & Friends in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When I taught Advanced Placement Literature, I started the year off with Wuthering Heights. One year I came across a movie version of the book that cast Heathcliff as Black. This lead me down a road of research and annotation to prove that this perspective of Heathcliff being a person of color was correct. So needless to say I’ve been waiting in high anticipation for What Souls Are Made Of by Tasha Suri, a Wuthering Heights remix to come out. Plus, the book cover is a ten!

I really enjoyed this multicultural remix! I loved the decisions that the author made with the story. Her choices brought historical and cultural context in a space that was previously missing it.

Original Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is dark, gothic and tragic. There is an abundance of cruelty that passes from one character to the next. The plot includes domestic violence, alcoholism, childhood trauma and revenge. Catherine and Heathcliff are a couple so perfect for each other, yet doomed by cruelty, societal standards and expectations.

The Remix
In Tasha Suri’s What Souls Are Made Of, the plot framing stays true to the original, but gives a voice to one character we never heard enough from. Catherine.

In this remix, we get to hear Cathy’s thoughts and motivations. For those who read the original Wuthering Heights, when I say Cathy, I am referring to the girl Heathcliff was in love with, not her daughter. IYKYK. The book also covers the space that was left out of the original – what happened while Heathcliff was gone. Their separation leads to discoveries about their own identities and inner character. It also opens up new paths to these originally, extremely tragic characters.

The chapters alternate between the two character’s points of views. Both of them are telling a story and essentially addressing their missing half at the same time. I really enjoyed the prose of the novel. It is almost lyrical in its use of simple sentence structure to convey complicated emotions that both Heathcliff and Cathy have for each other and about their situation.

South Asian Representation
In What Souls Are Made Of, Suri brings back the multicultural and multidimensional reality that Great Britain was at the time the novel was set. Heathcliff is readily identifiable as the son of a lascar. A lascar, was a sailor from India or South Asia. In Wuthering Heights, he is only seen as the ultimate outsider, a darker skinned boy with no family, history or place. At least not one that is identified by Bronte. In this remix, Heathcliff’s past is still mysterious, but he is given a culture to identify with.

The Earnshaw family also has a connection to India, as Mr. Earnshaw was an East India Company officer in Bengal. The book explores the colonialist connections between Britain and India. I recommend that you read the Author’s Note at the end of the book that discusses this further.

I love how Tasha Suri rewrote Wuthering Heights. The main characters being isolated due to their ethnicity and the prejudice they face from, basically, everyone, makes this version of Emily Bronte's classic...well, better. In the original, Heathcliff and Cathy are mistreated and feel like they only have one another, however, in Suri's version their mistreatment goes beyond Bronte's original story. They are forced to lose their language and heritage and are dismissed based solely on their looks. This makes their attachment to each other have so much more meaning. I can understand why you would hang onto someone who treats you poorly in this case. I can see why they continue to think about one another because they are literally alone together in England.

I really loved this book and if you enjoyed the original you'll enjoy this one too. Suri is a wonderful writer who brings a perspective to this book that 1. makes it make more sense, and 2. is often ignored or intentionally forgotten by some.

Thanks to #partner @netgalley and @macmillanusa for the digital ARC of Tasha Suri’s What Souls Are Made Of. The book is out today!

I’m a long-time fan of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights—I first read it in high school and fell in love with the Gothic setting, with the brilliant frame structure as housekeeper Nelly tells the multi-generational story to a random traveler, with the doomed love stories that plague the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

I’m also always in for a retelling, so Tasha Suri’s What Souls Are Made Of, a YA retelling, was an easy sell for me.

I can’t share a full review of the book since I want to avoid spoilers, but here are some thoughts:

Suri zooms in here on the time after Heathcliff has overheard Cathy saying that she couldn’t be with him because, essentially, he’s beneath her. In Wuthering Heights, he leaves without hearing the end of her declaration or giving her the chance to explain, and he doesn’t come back (to Wuthering Heights or the narrative itself) until years later. I love the idea that we find out what is happening with Heathcliff during their separation, filling in that narrative gap.

I enjoyed Suri’s decision to alternate points of view so that we see both characters’ self-discovery through this period of time. Suri also brings in some clever revelations about Cathy and her older brother Hindley that illuminate some elements of the story. Overall, though, I found Heathcliff’s half of the book to be more engaging, a real addition to the original, and I thought the new characters who Heathcliff meets in Liverpool were great. Since Brontë’s original novel centers on Nelly’s storytelling, the shift to two, first-person points of view that reveal Cathy and Heathcliff’s inner thoughts is a big change.

Suri makes clear from the beginning that, while Heathcliff doesn’t know all of the details of his background, he does know that he’s the child of immigrants, and that heritage is a large reason why Hindley—and Hindley and Cathy’s mother—treats him poorly. His growing knowledge of his heritage also informs the coming of age story centered on his time in Liverpool, offering insights into colonialism and into the prejudice that he faced. (These decisions echoed, for me, another Wuthering Heights retelling, Maryse Condé's Windward Heights, set in Guadeloupe.) As Heathcliff learns more about his past, some childhood memories become clearer, as does his understanding of who he is now.

Cathy’s sections hewed more closely, of course, to the original narrative, and Suri doesn’t truly depart from her original arc until later in the novel. (Many reviews/synopses I’ve seen give away a lot of Cathy’s revelations, so I recommend picking up the book without too much background reading.)

While What Souls Are Made Of didn’t quite capture the magic of Wuthering Heights for me, I do think that it’s a thoughtful and compelling book that is perfect for its YA audience.

Myth: 5/5

I loved the way that this story was retold. Alternating perspectives between Catherine and Heathcliff, giving voice to spiraling thoughts during a time of separation. The alternating chapters weren’t letters but in a way they felt epistolary, part progressing the story, part confession to the other half of their soul.

Breathing a new history into the characters, Suri gives both Catherine and Heathcliff histories relating to England’s colonization of India. The novel also brought hope to the characters, so it easily won me over there.

Magic: NA

This isn’t a fantasy, but like Wuthering Heights the language is illustrative of madness and the haunting of ghosts. This remix leans in hard on the gothic moor vibes and I was definitely here for it.

Overall: 5/5

I lived for the chapters where Catherine and Heathcliff evaluated potential choices. Each thinking through decisions that could have led to futures much closer to the characters we know from Bronte’s novel. These were magical, seeing the character’s futures play out in rapid flashes and scenes, yet giving them space to choose different paths.

All this to say, if you every just wanted Catherine and Heathcliff to make better choices, read this book. And if you’d like a little more of the realities of British colonialism in the 1800’s in your gothic romance, also read this book.

Thank you to Fierce Reads and Netgalley for the arc of this book.

In this retelling of Wuthering Heights, Suri focuses on what might have happened while Heathcliff left the Moors and if Cathy and he had learned new things about themselves during the absence and found their way back to each other.

It has been a while since I've read the original Wuthering Heights, but I really enjoyed this reimagining! I thought both Cathy and Heathcliff were much more respectable characters in this one than the original and I feel like the readers of this story will probably have an easy time relating to them and having empathy for the situations they found themselves in.

I was more interested in the Heathcliff chapters and what was happening in the city and how he got together with other Indians to turn things around.

This was beautifully written and very interesting to read! I still really love these reimaginings of classics!

Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Racism
Moderate: Misogyny and Gun violence

Rating - 4 stars
★★★★

I adored this book and I think this is the kind of book that you slowly need to savour through, not the fast paced ones, because there really is a lot to digest about! Tasha Suri creates a wonderfully gothic atmosphere while also reimagining Wuthering Heights and showing the plays on colonisation!

Thank you NetGalley, Coloured Pages Tours and Publisher for the review copy!

I consider What Souls Are Made Of a slow burn that has a thoughtful look at colorism, classism, and identity in the early 1800s. Heathcliff is a darker-skinned Indian boy who came from nothing and is constantly reminded daily of his nothingness and blight on the family name. The only thing that keeps him rooted and living are Catherine, his step-sister, who may also have an unknowing past that could affect her future.

While each protagonist had their challenges, I think one of the biggest hurdles they had to overcome was figuring out their identity. I thought it all had to do with colorism and classism, but as I kept reading, I noticed that it isn't just about skin color. It isn't just about having power through money. It's also about knowing your roots. As truths start to spill from each character, they begin to figure out who they are as a person by uncovering their origins. If anything, the takeaway from this story is that you never know who you really are until you learn everything about yourself.

Overall I rated this book 3-stars. I wish I had read the original Wuthering Heights before delving into this retelling. What Souls Are Made Of stood on its own, but at the same time, I feel like I would have understood the concept of this story better if I knew the original.

I really enjoyed this book! I liked how Suri made changes to the story and put a more positive/hopeful spin on it. I found these characters slightly more likeable than Catherine and Heathcliff in the orginial story. I also enjoyed the added element of their shared heritage. The writing was excellent and had many beautiful passages.

I haven’t read Wuthering Heights (only SparkNotes level knowledge that I hastily googled) but I will read everything Tasha Suri writes so when What Souls Are Made Of was announced, it was immediately on my radar.

sheds light on south asian history
First thing I loved about this novel is how it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of colonialism and the rule of East India Company on Indians. Heathcliff is a lascar’s son and Catherine is a daughter of an Indian mistress and the Company’s officer and throughout What Souls Are Made Of, we see them struggling to understand their origins and the bond with their homelands. It addresses the immigrant experience, the treatment of Indians in Britain during that time, the injustice in India as well as juggling being related to two cultures. If you’re reading this book, make sure to digest the author’s note, Tasha Suri lists out the novels based on these themes used for research as well as the South Asian history with Britain. There’s so much more depth to this book, a retelling of a classic on that note, because of the glimpse into those times and the discrimination people faced.

And of course, apart from tackling history, reading What Souls Are Made Of was an experience as a South Asian reader. Gothic vibes, intense longing mixed with desi feels, this book is the best package.

retells the classic through a new voice
Like I said, I haven’t read Wuthering Heights and only when I read the author’s note did I realise that Heathcliff and Cathy’s story are told by a third person. In What Souls Are Made Of Tasha Suri gives voice to these two and their deep rooted feelings. “In this book, I wanted to give them both the chance to speak. And I wanted to give them roots” as she says so herself.

I also loved the distinction between Heathcliff and Cathy’s chapters—Heathcliff who leans toward violence initially but grows to learn himself and Cathy haunted and chasing the connection she feels with Heathcliff. Their individual character arcs when they’re separated only add to the ferociousness and truth of their love.

of hopeful endings
While the original text is about tragedy and vengeance, Tasha Suri spins What Souls Are Made Of as a story of individual journeys, the impact of childhood traumas and ultimately of Heathcliff and Cathy finding their way back to each other. It blends fiction, history and the tragedy of the classic and adds the yearning of freedom, love and overcoming your own past to leave readers an emotional love story.

A nuanced remix, What Souls Are Made Of has a narrative sure to evoke feelings among readers. It’s about the exploration of the period Wuthering Heights is set in, about letting the characters hurt and heal and about how profound love can be. Whether you’ve read Wuthering Heights or not, be sure to check this out and let Tasha Suri’s writing sweep you away!

I think you need to be familiar with ‘Wuthering Heights’ in order to enjoy or even appreciate this. If you don't know the original story, then this may come as a disappointment as you might not understand the nuance and narrative choices TS uses. Her author's note at the end helps explain this, but I think already knowing the story will help more.

That being said, I like the changes TS makes to the story in terms of ethnicity and cultural identity. I think it suits Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship. Do I wish this retells more than just a brief section of the original novel? Yes and no. I understand the choice to only focus on a portion of the content material, but I feel like in doing so, the history of Catherine and Heathcliff is sacrificed a bit.

I will say that TS's writing is superb. It's really quite lovely and it does a great job at showcasing the passionate feelings between Cath and Heathcliff. Again, I just wish this didn't only focus on the portion of ‘Wuthering Heights’ where Heathcliff runs away and they are separated, as we only actually get to see them together the last like 2% of this retelling when Heathcliff returns.

So all in all, I understand TS's retelling choices and do appreciate the changes she made. I just wish this had retold more of the original story, rather than just a portion of it.

ARC copy provided in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changes my rating or review.

3 LYRICAL STARS

This was a really interesting book! It was beautifully written and had the most STUNNING descriptive language, and I absolutely adored the bond between Heathcliff and Cathy. I’m a sucker for any soulmate bond type thing – whether it’s fantasy and there’s a literal bond, or if two people are just so close that they must be soulmates – and this book gave me that second one in bucketloads.

“How can he love me if he can’t see Heathcliff? Heathcliff is me.”
(This quote may not be in the published version of this novel, it was copied from the advanced reader’s copy.)

Now two things you should know:
1. I have never read Wuthering Heights (of which this book is based off)
2. Going into this book I knew next to nothing about England’s history with India

For these reasons, I wasn’t very sure what to expect while starting this novel – I just saw ‘Tasha Suri’ and ‘desi retelling of an old classic’ and was desperate to read it instantly. And do not get me wrong – this book definitely held my attention, the storyline was interesting and I loved seeing the growth that both characters went through – but I do have to say that at times the story felt a little slow, and perhaps a little too lyrical. Also it did slightly irritate me how long the two mains took to reunite… though I suppose it was worth it in the end, as both their character arcs blossomed beautifully in their time separated. I also did definitely really enjoy learning about the history of the novel, and about English colonisation in India. There were lots of important facts spread throughout the book, and Suri wrote them in beautifully and very naturally, which was so wonderful. Also: biracial Asian rep! Woo! And white-passing biracial Asian rep, which hits even closer to home. I love to see it!

All in all, I did enjoy reading this and learning some new history, but at times the novel got a little slow. Nonetheless, I do recommend, and I thank the author, publisher and Colored Pages Tours for the ARC copy provided :)).

A beautiful and nuanced remix of Wuthering Heights that doesn't shy away from the deep horrors of the time period, even as it offers hope.

I’ve been a fan of Tasha Suri’s adult fantasy series ever since Empire of Sand, so I was very excited to see what Tasha’s first YA novel would offer. While I’m not overly familiar with Wuthering Heights, that didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this this.

What Souls Are Made Of is told from both Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s perspectives. I quite like alternating viewpoints in a story and in my opinion, I thought it worked really well in this – I loved that it gave an insight into both characters. Both Cathy and Heathcliff have grown up facing different challenges (despite growing up in the same household) and the dual narrative portrays the differences between them. It also really captures the yearning between the two, and how they are inseparable in so many ways.

Another way in which the multiple viewpoints works really well is in how it shows one of the main arcs of the story. There is a storyline in which both Cathy and Heathcliff reclaim their identities and acknowledge their family histories. By telling this particular storyline from both characters’ perspectives, you get see how both want to find somewhere to belong and by being together, there’s a sense of familiarity and belonging that doesn’t necessarily exist elsewhere. There’s also a shared understanding of having to suppress who you are in order to fit into society.

While exploring their heritage, both Cathy and Heathcliff learn so much about the society they’re in and the horrors that have been committed in India. Here, Tasha Suri doesn’t shy away from the horrors of colonialism and what happens to the people who are exploited. There is an extensive author’s note at the end of the story that provides more historical context, as well as a recommended reading list for those that wish to find out more. I know I personally will be!

Despite the horrors, there is a little bit of hope – the characters Heathcliff meets in Liverpool show him that there is more than the rage he feels and there can be a way to channel that rage to help others. For Cathy, hope comes in the form of her character development and the way she finally comes to terms with her father’s actions; she uses that knowledge to find a way to help others too. I also want to give a shout out to Mrs. Hussain – she is a woman with a quiet power and who does her best to help those that come to her. She’s awesome and I want to give her the biggest of hugs.

Despite not being a big fan of classics and having never read Wuthering Heights, this was a book that grabbed hold of my attention and didn’t let go. Tasha Suri’s writing in What Souls Are Made Of is just as beautiful as in her fantasy books. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve drafted this blog post, because I don’t quite have the words to describe how elements of this book made me feel (this isn’t a bad thing – this book made me a feel a lot of things!) This is a story that lingers long after finishing and I have a feeling I will be coming back to this again.

4.5, rounded up. I kind of missed the dirtbag Catherine and Heathcliff from the original novel, but I do appreciate that Catherine gets more of a voice here. The way Tasha Suri takes the themes of trauma, identity and feeling Othered and gives them depth is an inspired choice. Also, while the violence and sense of general malaise of the novel is intact (as are the ghosts), Suri gifts her characters a much happier ending. And, let's face it, with everything happening in the world, I could use an ending like that.

If you're a purist, skip this one. If you love the original novel and are open to an adaptation with more diverse characters, read it.

*Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an eARC
So I’ll be honest, I got 30% of the way through this book and just couldn’t go any further. I should preface this by saying, though, that I haven’t read Wuthering Heights, and many reviews say this book picks up, but I just don’t feel the motivation to continue the book at this time. It’s really slow-paced, from what I read, but I did really like the themes that were established about identity and belonging in the beginning of the book. The writing style of Heathcliff’s chapters was choppy, and while I think that fits his character, it wasn’t really for me. I think if you like Wuthering Heights, you’ll get a lot more out of this, so I may come back to this once I’ve read it!
*I’m giving it 3 stars since I didn’t finish it, I feel like it’s not fair to rate it badly

This book!!! Ever since we heard Tasha Suri was writing a riff on Wuthering Heights we wanted to read it, and it does not disappoint. Written from alternating POV chapters between Cathy and Heathcliff's perspectives, we explore the time in Wuthering Heights where the two are separated. (Spoilers for the Emily Bronte original follow.) In the original, Heathcliff is somewhere making his fortune and swearing revenge on the Earnshaws, while Cathy is marrying Edgar Linton. In What Souls Are Made Of, we finally get Catherine's voice and motivations.

Suri also takes the scant evidence of the source text (that Heathcliff is "dark" and could be the son of the "emperor of China and ... an Indian queen") and bases her retelling on the possibility that Cathy is the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his Indian mistress. The history is deftly woven into the text, with elements of Gothic horror from the original building on the characters' understanding of their pasts.

Note that while Suri's book unflinchingly presents the domestic violence, alcoholism, and racism from the original, it has a different (much happier) ending. If you are familiar with the original, you can recognize several turning points in the book where what would have led to tragedy are instead transformative moments for the text and the characters.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the book.

What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri is wonderful! It really honors the source material while standing on its own.