Title: The Resurrectionist
Author: A. Rae Dunlap
Publication: February 24, 2024
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, LGBTQIA+
Pages: 352

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to work on a human cadaver.

For that he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he cannot afford. In desperation he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help James gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain… Nye is a body snatcher—and James has unwittingly become his accomplice.

REVIEW:

I am fairly certain that I found this book on BookTok sometime last summer.  I am pretty sure I ordered it for myself as a way to go gift to myself for passing my licensing exam for my Paramedic Degree.  It caught my eye due to the nature of the story as well as the time frame as being Victorian Era ie Historical Fiction.  I wanted to read it soon and knew I could probably sneak it in soon since it wasn’t a super thick book. So when I got my Kindle up and running after being dormant for over a year, it was the first one that I read.

James was born into status and wealth.  He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life but he knew he wanted to do something.  After trial and error at Cambridge, he decided that he wanted to do go to Edinburgh to Medical School.  However, his father passed away and as a result, things surfaced that they had no clue about.  Such as his father gambling away all of the family wealth and they were left with very little, but still enough to pay for his schooling so off he went.  Things were looking up for James; he finally found his calling. He has a knack for the medical arts.  However, all his dreams crash down when he finds that his family’s financial situation is beyond dire and he is left with no money.  He turns to something he has only heard of and was judging a friend for…… body snatching or grave digging, depending on who you talk to.  This sets an adventure into the works as well as discovering some things about himself that he never knew.  This book honestly had me gasping several times at the twists that I did not see coming and chuckling at the humor, dark or otherwise, that the author twisted into it.

First, this book is considered a YA book.  Second, the book does have LGBTQ+ romance in it so if that is something that really bothers you then this might not be the book for you.  I absolutely loved this book.  I loved reading about the medical school aspect back in the day and how much or little it cost for an education.  I learned about how they did the dissections, especially with how they did the hot wax into the artery or vein systems and letting them cool and removing to see how they split and such.  I learned that, oddly enough, body snatching, if done well, could be a very lucrative side hustle; the fresher and better the body the more money they would receive for it.  I loved how James just seemed to mature and bloom as the book went on.  At the beginning, I was a little hesitant, and by the end, I loved his story.  I was so happy that things worked out for him the way that he wanted.  The way families swept things under the rug in those times was shocking; they only cared for money and not for the happiness of others, which was rather eye-opening.  Everything was about a dowery or what could be made in a year.  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a sequel to this book to see if James got his happy life.