‘Wilson expertly conveys how a trauma lingers and taints the brushtrokes of life, like a once-vivid sunshine-yellow pen marked forever with smudges of dark ink.’
‘Weaved throughout the story are moments that demonstrate Ivy’s struggles in a neurotypical world – again, something that will resonate with many readers.’
Mortal Bodies opens with a tragedy, one that will haunt the reader and protagonist throughout the novel: Ivy’s best friend drowns in the sea. The ocean was once their closest friend, the third in their trio, but is now something that looms at the edges of every interaction Ivy has in her life. Wilson expertly conveys how a trauma lingers and taints the brushtrokes of life, like a once-vivid, sunshine-yellow pen marked forever with smudges of dark ink.
Many people will relate immensely to the character of Ivy, especially with regard to their teenage selves, that ride alongside with us always. Ivy is someone who carries something heavy with her, and hopes and hopes and hopes she can leave it behind and be accepted into a new friendship group, be cool, have fun. And for a while, at her new, highly prestigious university, that is exactly what happens. Despite most of the other students having grown up with skiing holidays and fee-paying schools, and Ivy’s heightened awareness of her difference there, she manages to become an integral part of a new trio, and dates the most eligible bachelor on campus.
We as readers wait with bated breath for when it all collapses around her ears, but we are no less devastated when it does. Weaved throughout the story are moments that demonstrate Ivy’s struggles in a neurotypical world – again, something that will resonate with many readers. Trying to navigate all that Ivy has to – losing a best friend, leaving home and its structures, managing new expectations and friendships, being markedly different from your peers in terms of wealth and experience – and adding in neurodivergence on top of that, is staggering. Wilson deals with the neurodivergent experience empathetically and astutely throughout, and when Ivy does rise up again and takes back her friendships, schooling, and everything, we are so proud.
What elevates it above your usual first-year-of-uni-experience is the presence of secret societies and their links with witchcraft. Each chapter opens with a paragraph from a diary of sorts, kept by women from centuries before as they detail their activities as a coven and subsequent persecution for their activities – harking back to the realities of women in those time periods, dealing with accusations and executions, with links to the present-day experience of a young woman.
These Mortal Bodies spans a multitude of themes, all packaged and delivered across a single school year, giving the audience a place to root themselves as they are taken along on the journey.
These Mortal Bodies is out on 17th July 2025, published by Simon & Schuster.
