HarperCollins Publishers | February 2017 | 368 pgs
Source: Library
The Possessions is an extraordinary story of a woman named Eurydice "Edie" who has an even extraordinary profession that allows her to reconnect with her clients' lost loved ones. Known as "bodies" among their profession, they wear discarded belongings of the dead and swallow pills they called "lotuses" to summon the spirits. Edie has been with the Elysian Society for five years, which is an unusual record for her. In this field, she finds success with her careful detachment and avoidance of personal contact with her clients while she seeks refuge in the lotuses' anesthetic effects. She has had no problem channelling into the dead world until Sylvia Braddock.
Sylvia is believed to be drowned in a lake and her grieving husband, Patrick, goes to the Elysian Society hoping to find a "body" so as he could reconnect with his deceased wife. Edie should be aware of the rules set by the society, but for some reason she is drawn to the mystery surrounding Sylvia and then there is that tube of lipstick passed on to her by Patrick; an object belonging to Sylvia and that it might help to bring her closer in channelling Sylvia. As the days go by and the more Edie knows Patrick through the sessions they have had, she finds herself drawn to him and his history with Sylvia. What happened to the Braddocks couple and is there more to Sylvia's death?
Part mystery, part supernatural and part love story, at its core of this story it is about one's desire and obsession and how it changes not one but several people's life as the situations arise. Sara Flannery Murphy has written a very unusual tale in The Possessions; I find her writing and the premise absorbing and most of all, the profession of being a "body", in which one could communicate with the dead and this reminds me so much of one of the Chinese beliefs that it is possible to contact the spirits of the deceased through a medium among others.
Although I found it to be a little creepy beneath the premise, surprisingly there are also moments which are filled with hearts and melancholy despite the darkness/morbidness of death. The Possessions was an original and an unforgettable tale indeed and I look forward to this author's future release.
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