A chilling book that tackles trauma and identity. The writing is very captivating and poetic. However, I couldn’t get into the story or warm to the characters

Wow, I was fascinated by the idea and by the story! I had a feeling sometimes that I was reading a magical realism novel. Grief is indeed a subject which gives readers the sensation that something isn't right with the story, with what happens and you feel a prisoner exactly like the protagonist.

I haven’t got the foggiest idea about what I just read. This book was so confusing that I even tried to make notes as I read to keep on top of things but that just detracted from the reading experience.

I was incredibly confused by this book.

The prologue, though filled with complex language, promised a macabre mystery, which was never entirely satisfied.

The bulk of the story then revolves around Marianne, grieving the loss of her younger and much loved sister. Consumed by her grief, unable to engage with her life in London, and suffering what she believes is the physical manifestation of that grief, she is adrift.

In addition to her grief, Marrianne is in a mismatched relationship with a partner who is entirely unable to cope with her emotional state. All in all, she’s in a precarious position, so when a friendly doctor offers her the opportunity to engage in some time for mental and physical healing at an exclusive health retreat, Marianne takes it.

At the Nede centre, Marrianne resents the strict routine, but ultimately something more sinister lurks within her.
I found The Weight of Loss to be a really interesting study, but for me it was over stylised. The style was sometimes lyrical, but ultimately there was insufficient structure towards the fantasy element of the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this book didn’t end up being for me. It started out great with a sense of unease and foreboding with a really interesting exploration of grief, but it just lost me as the plot went on and I found myself losing interest. Definitely interested to see what the author writes next though as she has some really unique ideas!

This book is an interesting look at mental health and shifting realities, with the main character and her sister both experiencing various episodes of ill health, both physically and mentally.

And for our main character, the build up of this- covering grief, breakdowns and work stress- starts to manifest in her body, with black hairs starting to grow from her back. These start off small but grow and grow until it feels like a chore for her. As this happens, her sense of reality starts to blur, and this book delves into some deep and difficult territory, which the author handles sensitively, allowing us to go down into the depths with her.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a mixed up read. At times, very lyrical, this literary horror has depth and ambition.

The commentary on health, our relationship with our bodies, and the complications of interaction with the medical profession was thought-provoking and insightful.

The family relationships were drawn in a profound and unsettling way challenging the reader to examine the good and bad in our individual and family lives.

But I couldn't quite complete my journey wholeheartedly on board with this book. The horror and magical realism didn't get fully shaped enough and I felt a lot of the themes and imagery were shoe-horned into the novel.

This was definitely interesting and compelling and will stay with me, but didn't quite ever reach a conclusion that grounded all the muddle of themes.

With thanks to NetGalley and OneWorld for this digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Whilst grieving the death of her sister, Marianne discovers a strange change taking place in her body: a line of long black hairs has started sprouting along her spine. After a visit to her doctor, Marianne is referred to a remote rehabilitation centre in the forest that seemingly specialises in her unusual affliction. Whilst undergoing the increasingly strange treatments at the facility, Marianne and her fellow patients soon start digging for answers to get to the root of their shared condition.

As a big fan of the concept of combining a story of grief with elements of magical realism and body-horror, I was very excited to give this book a shot. Unfortunately, what off as an interesting idea, quickly divulged into a convoluted mess that lacked the emotional depth I was hoping for.

The opening chapter is very strong and does a great job of setting the atmosphere and framework for what could follow. If only the story would build upon that framework in a structured way. Instead we get introduced to a bunch of new interesting ideas, none of which get developed quite enough, and all of which fell flat for me in the process. We never actually get back around to that intriguing beginning, and I’m still not completely sure as to where in the story it actually fit.

The Weight of Loss felt like a story with an identity crisis; it tries its hardest at being literary-horror but doesn’t quite stick the landing on many of the common tropes of the genre. It joins the trend of “breaking the stigma surrounding (female) bodies on page”, but instead of functional nudity we get being explicit and crude for the sake of. It also throws in some literary motifs that are so clunky, I wasn’t even sure they were intentional. [e.g. Why would you call your sibling-protagonists “Marianne and Marie”? Was it to indicate their “connection” and how symbiotic their relationship was? And was it a coincidence to have Marianne develop hairs on her back, as representation of her trauma of her sister dying of hairy cell leukemia? I genuinely hope so, because if not; that’s far too on the nose for me.]
After all that, the story strangely veers into a sci-fi/dystopian twist ending that came out of thin air, and confused me even more as to what the intended meaning of the story was.

Overall, a novel that gets an extra star of credit for the concept, but truthfully didn’t escape being a one-star-reading experience for me.

Thanks to Oneworld Publications for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Weight of Loss is available today in Europe, and will release on June 6th in American territory under the (more fitting) title of Garden of Earthly Bodies.

This is a book that enthralled me in the beginning. The opening chapter in intriguing and there is no indication to how it links to the rest of the story until very near the end because the next chapter is all about Marianne who is grief-stricken after the loss of her sister Marie, and this grief seems to be manifesting itself in a row of black hairs that are growing down her spine. Her doctor advises her to go to a centre, Nede, in a remote forest in Wales for treatment. Once there she finds that the therapy sessions are strange and seem to be causing some sort of change within her as she obsession with her sister's death threatens to pull her apart.

We have timelines from Marianne's child hood, her life with Marie and her life away from her family as well as the timeline that covers her stay in Nede. For me, I was engaged in the beginning and had sympathy for Marianne and her family, and their difficulties in dealing with Marie. Her parents seemed totally unable to cope with the situation, or their daughters. A dysfunctional family but not in the terms of a broken family, more a family that was not strong enough. Marianne is drowning in her grief and the glimpse of hope offered by the stay at Nede entices her. However it was at Nede that I felt myself drifting. Initially, I was as curious as Marianne, and some of the treatments caused me to physically shudder. But the final part - gory, bizarre and it took a long time to get to it. It sort of explained the first chapter but the ending/climax/conclusion, it just didn't satisfy me. Sorry.

A book that deals with the trauma of loss, grief and destructive depression in a very dark plot. Thank you Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for allowing me to read this.

3.5 stars

Some great scenes, and some not so great ones.
I really was torn on this book., at times it had me hooked, and yet it seemed to drag to get to the retreat.
For me the best parts involved Marianne and her relationship with her sister.
I'm definitely interested in reading more by this author.

Oh wow. What a fantastic book! I was totally hooked… I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It was full of tension, twists and turns that kept me totally engrossed… I read it in one day as I just couldn’t put it down. Definitely recommend this book! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Marianne is grieving the loss of her sister and her doctor refers her to an experimental health resort Nede. Basically the researchers at Nede are treating psychological trauma by drugging their patients so that they no longer remember the original trauma. Oliver keeps the reader hooked by slowly revealing just how Marianne’s sister dies. Unfortunately this storyline reminded me too much of Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers which considerably lessened the suspense.