Staff Pick
She hasn't really felt safe in London since the attack. So when she is offered a job teaching creative writing at a small university in the countryside, she takes it without hesitation. But she soon discovers that her new home isn't the escape she'd hoped for: the village is isolated, desolate when darkness falls, and her new job is a nightmare of inefficient bureaucracy. It isn't until she meets her students, however, that she feels that familiar old fear creeping back... Using the format of a classic psychological thriller, Baker subverts the misogynistic elements of the genre and exposes the quotidian tyranny of toxic masculinity. In keeping with the Jane Doe trope, our narrator remains nameless and only narrowly avoids the fate of her less fortunate fictional sisters. The men in her life can slide from protector to predator in an instant; danger seems to lurk in every assessing gaze, every lingering touch, every expectation and intrusion. How can she protect herself when she isn't sure who will hurt her next, when the threats feel implied and not provable? The book is a mystery and a vindication both. With the agonizing tension of a well-paced horror film, The Body Lies is a slow burn that scorches. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Baker pens a timely story of the female experience today, and it's unpleasant — the experience, not the story. After a violent attack, our nameless narrator can only express that she needs to flee, to get away from the man, the memory. But it's not long before her new situation devolves into something far worse than the attack she fled. Baker lays bare the underlying problem of male/female relationships: women are often seen only in reference to the men in their lives. They are not people in their own right — they are what men say about them, feel about them, believe about them, most of all. This is a psychological suspense novel, but the terrifying reality of what it can mean to be female in this society brings a heft to the story that truly stings — it is so accurate. Tightly wound, nerve-racking, and suspenseful, The Body Lies has something important to add to this conversation. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A dark, thrilling new novel from the best-selling author of Longbourn: a work of riveting psychological suspense that grapples with how to live as a woman in the world--or in the pages of a book--when the stakes are dangerously high. When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote English countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start, away from the bustle of London and the scene of a violent assault she is desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of her new life and the demands of single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative-writing class. When a troubled student starts turning in chapters that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognizes herself as the main character in his book--and he has written her a horrific fate. Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late? At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a layered interrogation of the fetishization of the female body, The Body Lies gives us an essential story for our time that will have you checking the locks on your doors.