The Resurrectionist follows James as he enters the world of surgical schools and body snatching in this dark academia/historical gothic novel (with a side of romance)! Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for the eARC 🎉

Atmospheric in its depictions of 19th century Scotland! The writing style/language also adds to the story and makes the characters feel more realistic. This was an interesting look at the body snatching industry for the purposes of advancing medical/scientific knowledge, and the moral questions that come along with the industry!

It started off well but the last 50% was a total slog 🙃 The novel’s pacing was all over the place, the first 30% or so was great and the last 15% exciting, but the middle slumped and the main action is at the beginning and end of the novel only. 

The seriousness of the plot mixed with the funny, loveable moments between the characters was a great balance! But at times it felt like we were missing things as we got long slow burn depictions of the events throughout the book but then we’d skip weeks at a time, coming into a new chapter at what felt like mid scene. While I loved the cast of characters and the main romance, I felt like I was missing pieces of the puzzle for their relationship.

The synopsis talks about Burke and Hare but we don’t see them until towards the end so it led to feeling rushed in that respect of the plot and I feel like the execution could have been better if the novel stuck to the body snatching industry and anatomy schools’ rivalries as opposed to shoehorning in these serial killers into the mix. 

Finally, the chapters were too long for my taste so despite how interesting the story was, I often times set it aside because I didn’t want to sit through another 30 minute chapter 😭 Even if the previous chapter ended on a cliffhanger I was preferring to scroll on my phone than continue the book.

Overall it was entertaining and has made me want to research Burke and Hare, as well as 19th century body snatching further, but it fell flat in some areas as well making it a slower read than I anticipated.

Rep: achillean romance