“…the world wounded us both, maybe long before we were even born. And whatever wounds we had, they’d shaped us to fit each other.”


I’m now officially obsessed with Tasha Suri. I picked up WHAT SOULS ARE MADE OF: A WUTHERING HEIGHTS REMIX almost exclusively because of my love for Suri’s Burning Kingdoms series, and also because the cover is so damn moody and romantic. I was hoping to enjoy it; I wasn’t expecting to be swept off my feet by this stunningly beautiful retelling of Heathcliff and Catherine’s love story.

I don’t think I’ve ever read the original (or if I did, I certainly didn’t retain it), but that wasn’t a barrier to being utterly transported by this tale. Suri reimagines her lead characters as South Asian and through their different histories and childhoods, she tells the story of South Asians in Britain in the late 1700s: of colorism and passing, of dehumanization, of colonialism and empire, and of people on the margins coming together with a different vision for their lives.

I loved the parallels between Catherine and Heathcliff’s journeys as they both learn more about themselves and their pasts, with the ghosts and wounds that follow them still, and turn their eyes towards a more just and hopeful future. Their deep affection is palpable and compelling, and written in the most gorgeous prose. The isolation they both feel in a white-dominated world that robs them of identity and belonging is certainly still relevant, as is the comfort they find in each other.

I really can’t rave about this book enough! Also, the audiobook is exceptional: the narrators, Alex Williams and Becca Hirani, absolutely go all in and it’s riveting. Thanks to Feiwel & Friends and Macmillan Audio for the review copies!

CW (from author): abusive family dynamics, including physical & emotional abuse, child endangerment, and forced family separation; depictions/references to racism, famine & hunger, slavery, parental death/bereavement, alcoholism, and mental illness

This was so beautiful especially for someone who hasn’t read the original I didn’t feel like I missed out on that. The writing was poetic, the characters well developed. I love the remixed classics so much!

Thank you Net Galley for an audio copy of What Souls are Made Of by Tasha Suri. This is aretelling of Wuthering Heights. I thought it was done well.

This was such a great read!! The narration was 10000!! I don't remember anything about WH but the characters here were just written very well, the longing was BREATHLESS, and I really enjoyed the way the author weaved things like race and family into the story and romance. And the found family vibes! Definately a recommend

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I honestly don't recall how long it has been since I've read Wuthering Heights and so really do not remember much of what happens, so this wasn't so much a retelling for me as a whole new story! Very interesting perspective, and the different POVs were well done I thought. Overall I enjoyed this, and the narrators were good!

As someone who was mildly ambivalent & underwhelmed by Wuthering Heights, simply because Heathcliff is actually the worst, this was a very fun retelling! I would happily read a full wuthering heights retelling by Tasha Suri, since this only covers the period where Heathcliff leaves Catherine and she considers marriage to another. Unlike the original Suri actually made me believe there was unfortunate circumstances AND love between our characters, rather than just the former. The added layer of South Asian representation and colonial powers/influences at work was also a breath of fresh air. This was my first introduction to the Classics Remixed series and I cannot wait to read more!
A note for the audiobook: narrators Alex Williams and Becca Hirani were FANTASTIC.

Zero shade against the author or the book, but I'm calling it and DNF'ing at 32%.

Wuthering Heights was not a classic that spoke to me, and I was hoping this might change that for me. Sadly, this is not getting me excited at all. While I deeply appreciate the remix in making Cathy and Heathcliff BIPOC and adding new nuance to their struggles, the pair of them remain so over the top dramatic in everything they do and say that I cannot get into this.

"A fresh reimagining of the story behind one of the most renowned couples in literature."

Author Tasha Suri takes the literary classic, "Wuthering Heights," and reimagines the backstory of Heathcliff, Catherine, and her family, breathing new life into this polarizing tale of gothic trauma. The story is set when Heathcliff has fled 'The Heights,' and Cathy has been left behind to agonize over where he's gone and what's happened to him. Events from the original tale are recounted and take on new life and meaning with the telling. Suri's story is presented from Catherine's and Heathcliff's points of view, giving an understandable heft to the reasons for their sometimes-murky relationship in the original. If you were left wanting after reading Brontë's story, this envisioning might give you some satisfaction.

Suri explores the shadowy details of the period Heathcliff is absent from 'The Heights,' later revealed in the original story to be when he is amassing his fortune. The story follows him to Liverpool and into the seamy underbelly of the port city, where poverty and press gangs are all-encompassing. The author weaves the results of Britain's colonial history in India on its people into the story as Heathcliff comes to understand who he is. At the same time, Catherine also comes to realize her own hidden heritage as she and her brother, Hindley, attempt to lay the ghosts of their father's past wrongdoings.

The audiobook version is voiced by Becca Hirani as Catherine and Alex Williams as Heathcliff. They breathe life into these characters, imbuing each with a personality that gives the listener a fresh new perspective on what's driving their actions. The audiobook's cover is beautifully moody but depicts these two as older than they are during the story's events. As the story ends on a more hopeful note than the source materials, is this an additional nudge in the direction that things work out differently for them?

Touted as one of the greatest, most legendary love stories of all time, the enjoyment of "Wuthering Heights" often eludes and disappoints modern young adult readers. Like many classic works, it has both its fans and foes. Depending on the reason for their dissatisfaction, Suri's version may very well ease some of the latter group into the former, with its updated dialogue and delivery, more revealing first-person points of view, and its fresh underpinning based on the main characters' secret, hidden ancestries.

I recommend WHAT SOULS ARE MADE OF to readers who enjoyed "Wuthering Heights" or wanted to but were left disappointed and those who enjoy YA historical fiction, especially that featuring a portrayal of the immigrant experience in 18th-century Britain.

The thing about a Tasha Suri book is that once you know her pacing style, you know exactly what to expect for the flow of each of her stories. As a reader who appreciates fast-paced books best, this consistency across projects allows me to go into each of her works expecting a slower paced story towards the beginning that speeds up as we near the end. This bodes true for Suri’s most recent release What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix, which is an exercise in making the familiar fresh across many aspects.

As you would expect from Feiwel and Friends classic YA remix series, What Souls Are Made Of starts off very reminiscent of Wuthering Heights, the classic it is based upon. Readers are reminded of the staid rules of polite 1786 society that holds the genocidal colonists who have made their wealth through the brutalization of other humans while denigrating those they’ve colonized by imposing racial systems. In the case of Heathcliff, much like the original character, he is othered not only because he is adopted into the well-to-do Earnshaw family without being a direct relation, but also because he is conspicuously of South Asian descent. As teenagers he and the daughter of the house, Catherine, have shared secrets and understandings about surviving in a community that quietly considers Catherine to be ethnically ambiguous while she is socialized to disregard evidence of her being anything but white herself. This denial of identity in order to assimilate into a world that brutalizes melanin in any form is a strong component of this remix—from its examination of the pressures put on teenagers to conform, to the levels of consideration given to the romance between Catherine and Heathcliff. Thankfully, the story provides details about this dynamic from both of their perspectives, which is particularly necessary when Heathcliff strikes out on his own in a new city.

I am a major fan of mutual pining and angst in romance and have tried to read Wuthering Heights several times because I know it is the classic best posed to deliver on these tropes. Yet, there has always been something about the writing that has kept me from engaging with this text which I find rectified in What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix. Far too many so-called classics uphold the tenets of white supremacy—presenting the English/European way as superior and civilized—by failing to examine the morality governing the accrual of wealth by the titled class. In this novel, Suri infuses critical questions about the meaning of heritage and assimilation through social pressure, which is much needed in a genre imposed on teenagers in school curricula. This title shines as an example of how a critical lens on historical events can inform our understanding of the world.

“I don’t need to understand the language to know what grief feels like 🖤”

I’ll be the first to admit that I do not always enjoy reading Classics. Since I never felt connected to the characters as a POC.

This Remix of The Heights gave my brown heart joy! The narration was amazing and I loved how the book flowed.

It was dual POV and that kept me engaged. As well as the settle hints that something was off. There is a theme of being haunted by the pass throughout this that I really enjoyed.

Heathcliff and Cathy were definitely my favorite. But the side characters always held their own and gave the story dimension.

I was so wrapped in the story I didn’t want to stop listening. I picked it up as soon as I could the today.

My Favorite Quote:

“You’re the night sky that holds the stars up “ - Cathy

Go grab this!

Thank you to @tasha & @NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review 🔥

What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix
by Tasha Suri
A different view of the Wuthering Heights, showing the problems and difficulties for the immigrants of England at the 18th century. The press gangs and other offences of being immigrant from the lower classes of English society. Its an eye opening story of history that has been over looked. The audible is very intriguing and beautiful.

This work is a reimagining of Wuthering Heights and is set during the period when Heathcliff leaves Catherine behind.

I had no idea I needed this work in my life. I love Wuthering Heights, despite its darkness and despair. But I also love what Suri chose to do with this work. She uses it to examine immigration, racism, and the triangular trade during this time, and how people were displaced and taken advantage of for the sake of progress and trade. But she combines all these things to make a magical and more positive ending to the original story in a way that was enjoyable.

Reading this work was like reading something written contemporaneously to the original work. The author chose to explore the supernatural aspects of the original work, and the way they were incorporated into this retelling was wonderful. Suri also allowed Catherine to have a voice through this work, as her story has always been told through the eyes of others. The characters in this retelling didn’t feel close to the original characters to me at first, but the more I read, the more I saw the similarities and how they were actively being shaped into the traditional characters. That being said, I do feel that Catherine was portrayed as much sadder/depressed than her original descriptions, but it didn’t detract from the work for me.

The narrators did an amazing job with this work. Their voices were exactly how I imagined Catherine and Heathcliff would sound, and they brought such life into these characters. I think this work would still be enjoyable for those not familiar with Wuthering Heights, and maybe even for those who didn’t enjoy the original book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review a copy of this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is a great retelling/extension of the classic Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. It gives a look at what would have happened if other choices were made and gives us an option of some back stories for the characters were grew to love (or hate) in the original. I was left wanting in this one simply because I loved Wuthering Heights the way it was, the raw emotional and tragedy of it has stuck with me for years. This one tied up all those lose ends a little to well for my taste and dampened the appeal. For others who wanted more resolution this is the book for you!

I adore Tasha Suri's writing and I will recommend this book to everyone. However not even she can make me enjoy a Wuthering Heights inspired story. I was cautiously optimistic going into this book. Although it is based on a classic I hate, it is written by one of my favorite authors. I loved the way Suri remixed this story. Both perspectives were incredibly written and filled with intense emotion.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my time reading this book. Catherine got on my nerves and though I recognize that she is a flawed character, her way of thinking about the world was so selfish and infuriating. Heathcliff came across as very childish though I did enjoy his half of the story a lot more. The new additions and twists that Suri came up with get five stars. The similiarities to the source material lower my rating. This is the perfect example of its not you, its me.

what souls are made of starts a very interesting conversation regarding england's brutal colonization in India and what it means and takes to reclaim your heritage with suri's typical prose: stunning, smart and very gothic! but it reads more like wuthering heights fanfiction than it does a retelling, (remix?) which i hate. also very dull at parts, particularly heathcliff's chapters, and personally i found both his and cathy's characters unfamiliar and unnervingly different from the source material. and where was the wildness!! the feralness!!! the absolutely crazy unhinged dialogues and insane descriptions!!!! how can you call something wuthering heightsesque without people biting and snarling and yelling and digging out graves!!!!!!!
but overrall good! and even though i have a bitter dislike of retellings (or as suri calls it on the author's note, reimaginings), i did really enjoy it
(narration was also great! but i found that cathy's narrator, while lovely, was wayy too soft spoken for a character like cathy. suri's cathy is much more sad than she is feral, which i guess makes sense but goddamn did i want to hear some snarling)

This was Emily Brontë fan fiction and I thought it was very good. I personally love Whuthering Heights even though it’s quite depressing.
We’ll just like the novel everyone is on the struggle bus and it was still a haunting heartbreak of a story. I like what TS did and it really worked for me.
If you enjoy fan fiction then I highly recommend this one. It’s a though story but worth it.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and loved Alex Williams and Becca Hirani were perfect for this.
Thanks Macmillan Young Listeners via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this interpretation of the classic and enjoyed the cultural infusion and also enjoyed the note from the author in the back. This created some great dialog for comparison for teachers to discuss with students on the classic verses a modern take.

I so enjoyed this retelling of Wuthering Heights. The author kept the moody, lyrical style of the original while injecting her own unique voice. Suri’s characters were true to Brontë’s while pressing deeper into an often untold historical narrative surrounding British imperialism and India. The narrators were wonderful and immersive.

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 audiobook for free from NetGalley 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.

I alternated between the audiobook and the physical copy of the book. The narrators did a great job and I never felt taken out of the story. The voice actors have the accents of what I think would be those held by the region of England that Heathcliff and Cathy live in. This made it even more authentic to listen to and I appreciate that choice.

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.