Not what I was expecting. A lot of superficial melodramatic teenage drama as opposed to the dark academia I was looking for.

I gave up half way through, to be honest. It's dull. Ivy is from a small seaside town and has gone to what I assume is Oxford (it's never named, but the colleges and phraseology seems like that), where she apparently s drawn to the place's witchy past. Which doesn't in any way seem to fit with real history, and also by halfway through has no actual hook. She has a mysterious past where her best friend drowned, but nothing is coming out about that in the half of the book I read.

I rarely give up on books but I got so bored and fed up I was reading almost anything else. It sounds fascinating but utterly fails to draw you in and was a real disappointment.

I was really excited for this book, I was promised dark academia, magic and self realisation. The blurb promised fast pacing and excitement, however I sadly found that the characters lacked substance, and their interactions felt juvenile. Sadly I don’t think this writing style works for me, as I found that I was left wanting more constantly, each interaction felt hollow, as though being acted out by characters who had no depth. I may try to return to this story at a later date, as I don’t feel comfortable leaving such a low review.

As an anthropology graduate // documentary filmmaker who studied an university with its own dark history, I was pulled in very close to the main character, Ivy, from the very start.

These Mortal Bodies is about contemporary witches who are part of a secret society, the Coven, and echoes with the story of the Saint Clair sisters, killed during witch trials. It explores the murky waters of « sisterhood » and questions whether the character’s relationships are virtuous, treacherous, toxic or a mix.

The book is a page turner, as the reader longs for the unravelling of kept secrets, although Cara’s plot line left me longing for more depth.

Ivy is an autistic coded character which was refreshing and enjoyable to follow; I wish she became more skeptical of the power of her friendships, as she does not seem to learn from the damages it has caused.

1.5
I really struggled with this. ☹️ I was looking forward to some atmospheric dark academia, but instead I got vapid teenage melodrama, little compelling plot, and an amateur writing style that didn’t work for me at all.

Characters and Relationships
• Characterization was weak: none of the characters felt unique, human, or compelling. They all came across as REALLY young (mid-teens maybe) and were entirely interchangeable and cardboard. Their self-obsession, fixation on “boys” and lack of life experience made for some pretty frustrating reading.
• Ivy was deeply unsympathetic: cold, abrasive, controlling, manipulative with an unpleasant desperate vibe. She was impossible to root for as a MC. Woe betide anyone who dares “slight” the horrid Ivy (example: George, Agatha).
• Most of the toxic friend group's reactions to the perceived slights were massive overreactions which not only made them come across as teenagers, but also made them impossible to root for because, well, every character sucked.

Setting
• Not naming the academic institution or the city it’s in (which is referred to as both a “city” and a “town”) is a confusing choice. This was then compounded by an underdeveloped sense of place throughout. We had no idea where Ivy lived, where the school was, nothing! We can infer Ivy might’ve been Scottish (references to Hogmanay) and the school might’ve been in Birmingham (city furthest away from water) but there was zero sense of place anywhere.

Writing
• Overwritten descriptions that read like a high school writing assignment. Some of the language choices were bizarre or words were used incorrectly.
• Should the references to “college” in the first chapter be “university”? I thought “college” was, like, high school in the UK? I understand the characters referring to their institution as *the* college [at a university], but the MC/her family constantly refer to the institution as “college” and I don’t think British people use college and university interchangeably like that. On page 142, the MC corrects a shopkeeper who asks if she “moved away for college” by clarifying “for uni” so there’s definitely inconsistencies here.
• There were clunky time transitions within chapters (also, wouldn’t term be well underway by October 3? But it says that’s “week one".)
• Terms like “bop”, “formal hall”, “swap”, “vac schemes”, “long essays” made zero sense to me. Is a “drinking society” a sorority? I may have not gone to British university but I did work in one and I’ve never heard ANY of these terms.
• I don’t want read Ivy’s pedestrian and naïve essay for “Introduction to Political Thought”.

Plot
• Way too much airtime spent on young women (who call themselves “girls”) pining after “boys” and getting ready for parties. Holy crap, I do not care!
• There was no hook to keep me reading. I plowed ahead because of a misplaced sense of duty in not abandoning an ARC but I was so bored and had nothing motivating me to pick this book (apart from guilt). The book took me a long time to slog through as a result.
• The references to Cara were a non-starter because that thread never went anywhere! Sure, it illustrates Ivy’s track record with intense and unhealthy female friendships but it’s blown into a huge thing that just kinda peters out.
• Poor pacing: Nothing interesting happens til 100 pages in and even that flops relatively quickly. I don’t know if British sororities are vastly different from North American ones but the Coven rushing was so boring! It was completely linear and over in about five minutes.
• One of the major plot points is about cheating "boys" which may appeal to eighth graders but I don’t care!
• Also I am sick to death of this “killing men is feminism” rhetoric.

Sure, I didn’t like this; but, even with books I don’t enjoy, I can usually understand why others might. Not this one. I genuinely think marketing this as an adult novel is a big mistake. It might fare better as YA? The writing style, age and lack of experience of the characters, and plot are well suited to a teenage readership more than an adult one. I think this book could be improved with further editing, deep reflection on the intended audience, and fleshing out the characters, plot, and structure.

I was privileged to have my request to read this book accepted through NetGalley. Thank you for letting me try this, Simon and Schuster UK.