What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix

 By: Tasha Suri

Location: FIC SUR

Genre: Re-Tell. Wuthering Heights. Historical Fiction

My favorite of the Remixed Classics series thus far!

I wasn't a fan of Wuthering Heights when I read it some years ago. There was too much tragedy, and the characters were all awful people. But I still jumped at the chance to read this because Tasha Suri is a fantastic writer, the synopsis is intriguing, the cover is stunning, and I have absolutely loved every installment of the Remixed Classics series thus far. Shilo

In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. Two British Indian teens cut off from their heritage find solace in each other in this gothic Wuthering Heights YA remix that subverts the default whiteness of the original text.

Sometimes, lost things find their way home...

Yorkshire, North of England, 1786. As the abandoned son of a lascar―a sailor from India―Heathcliff has spent most of his young life maligned as an "outsider." Now he's been flung into an alien life in the Yorkshire moors, where he clings to his birth father's language even though it makes the children of the house call him an animal, and the maids claim he speaks gibberish.

Catherine is the younger child of the estate's owner, a daughter with light skin and brown curls and a mother that nobody talks about. Her father is grooming her for a place in proper society, and that's all that matters. Catherine knows she must mold herself into someone pretty and good and marriageable, even though it might destroy her spirit.

As they occasionally flee into the moors to escape judgment and share the half-remembered language of their unknown kin, Catherine and Heathcliff come to find solace in each other. Deep down in their souls, they can feel they are the same.

But when Catherine's father dies and the household's treatment of Heathcliff only grows more cruel, their relationship becomes strained and threatens to unravel. For how can they ever be together, when loving each other―and indeed, loving themselves―is as good as throwing themselves into poverty and death?

Review by A Mac

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.