⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Spoiler-free review:

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK. Whether it’s the storyline, characters, or pacing Heather Herrman NAILED it. I honestly didn’t expect it to be what it is but it has definitely exceeded my expectations. It’s so beautifully written you feel like you’re right there with the characters which makes it all the more enjoyable. You could feel and relate to Molly's anguish. Despite that Molly is such a badass, clever main character. In the end regardless of everything she's one of those characters that says “I choose me” which is so admirable. All the characters are so realistic and I love every single one of them. The romance in this book while not a lot IS THE SWEETEST THING. Overall this book is absolutely amazing, and definitely my favorite standalone right now. It’s also PERFECT for the spooky season. I highly recommend it, but do check the trigger warnings first!

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an arc of this book!!

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⚠️SPOILER WARNING⚠️

I am in love with Tom😩 “when I kiss you, Molly Green, it will be because you asked” consent is so hot 🥵 THE BANTER TOM AND MOLLY HAD WAS EVERYTHING THEYRE SO CUTE. But also the way they’re always there for each other 🥺 I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Usually, I wouldn’t be a fan of the ending where the main character/love interest don’t end up together but for Molly and Tom, it seemed so fitting. I just know Tom would wait for her until she’s ready and it’d be so beautiful 😭

Ginny and Hans and everyone at the Red Carousal ARE THE BEST

SOMEHOW I GUESSED LAVALLE WAS THE KNIFEMAN FROM HIS FIRST APPEARANCE?? AND I WAS RIGHT??😳

I honestly think the real plot twist was Ava actually being Molly's mother and the way she died was so heartbreaking 💔

I am DYING to know if Molly actually visits her uncle in London because that seems like it would be such an interesting meeting💀

Wow. This book was everything. It reminded me a lot of Stalking Jack the Ripper as far as the aesthetic goes, but still a totally different story. I usually don’t care for historical fiction, but the ghoulish aura of this book intrigued me. The ending had me SHOOK. Still has me shook. There’s so many twists and turns that kept me on my toes. The alternating timelines got a little confusing at first, but I just had to really pay attention.

I will 100% reread this one next Halloween and recommend this to literally everyone. Fantastic job!

This Young Adult novel is a perfectly atmospheric read to add to your future Spooky Season TBRs! The premise of an orphan girl getting adopted by her long-lost body collecting aunt who teaches her how to rob graves seemed fabulous. However, the novel was lackluster for my liking. I found myself easily bored by the writing, the characters, and the predictability of the storyline. Nonetheless, I believe young readers will get a lot of enjoyment out of this. Considering they are the target demographic, I would still happily recommend this to them and anyone interested in the synopsis!

After living in an orphange for years, 17 year old Molly Green has finally been placed with family. Aunt Ava welcomes Molly into her home, ready to share her wealth for a price. All Molly has to do is collect corpses.
Bodies of young women are building up all around town. Molly not only has to fear the ruthlessness of her new job, but the killer hiding in the shadows. Its too late to walk away from her new life. Once you work for the Corpse Queen, you can never leave.

I liked this book way more then I thought I would. Historical Fiction is not my thing, but this book hooked me. I've always been fascinated about the pioneers of medical science. I have heard of corpses being used for experiments and teaching back in the 1800s, but I never knew the dark side of it all. Where did those bodies come from? Apparently there was a whole underground system on retrieving and sales of corpses. Sounds like a very macabre business to be in, but one that seemed extremely necessary.
Outside of the dark hook of the story, Molly is the bright light that kept the story going. I loved her take charge, no bull attitude. Her drive to advance women in the medical field is inspiring. As a YA book, I feel this is a great attribute for other young women to see. Molly proves that women can make it in a man's world, and that goals are reachable. I really loved her character.
The Corpse Queen is an exceptional dark thriller. A little mystery, vengence and romance are sprinkled throughout, adding more to the meat of the story. Overall, this was an excellent YA thriller, and a great read for adult thriller readers.

I loved this read! I’m a sucker for any novel featuring women in history refusing to fit into the mold society tried to force them into. I also got major Audrey Rose and Thomas vibes which I LOVED because SJTR is one of my fave series! Also, the spooky vibes in this were perfect, enough to be interesting, but not too much that I couldn’t handle reading it, because I’m a whimp! Lol. I highly suggest this one for any fans of YA historical feminist fiction!

THE CORPSE QUEEN was not what I expected, although a more careful reading of the blurb would have helped me but whatever. I will say that I enjoyed the darkness in this novel, the morally grey characters, and strong-willed women who have to decide how far they are willing to go to achieve their ambitions and get to the truth. This book's plot and its setting in 1850s Philadelphia lends itself to a creepy sense of atmosphere that I was 100% here for. I also adored the feminist and class themes that permeated this novel as Molly must prove herself to a world that would dismiss her for her gender and her social class. It is an interesting murder mystery that is a great choice for spooky season. For me, though, the plot itself felt like it was just all over the place. There were so many different threads and characters and it was just felt really messy. Some of the characters got on my nerves a bit which also effected my enjoyment. There were some plot development towards the end of the novel that just felt like they were thrown in there without any subtext or foreshadowing too. So while I found THE CORPSE QUEEN to be creepy and macabre, it just wasn't a home run of a read for me for these reasons.

Enjoyable read that will be interesting for students unfamiliar with "body snatching" history. Growing up in Scotland, I have read many books and taken tours related to the infamous Burke and Hare's. I wish the sense of place had been stronger-- I had to keep reminding myself while reading that this book was set in the States and not Edinburgh. This will make an excellent addition to the Spooktober display.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book surprised me in so many ways! Most of them were good, and some of them were just slightly...shocking. Molly was such a fascinating character to follow, for so many reasons, as was her aunt. She'd been through so much trauma, and managed to persevere through it all. This entire story gave me many "Stalking Jack the Ripper" vibes, but definitely more adult, which threw me off just a little bit.

I enjoyed the characters and the story, and it was a great spooky October read, because I'm enough of a chicken that I got occasionally creeped out when I read it at night. I was a little surprised at the graphic gruesomeness of some scenes, most notably the extremely horror-like graphic descriptions of the dead bodies, and the incredibly explicit childbirth scene. This definitely was more of an adult read, new adult at the absolute youngest, and I would say it verges more on historical horror rather than just historical fiction.

Overall, I did really enjoy it and would like to move on in the series, to see where everyone ends up! I ended up giving this a four out of five stars.

This sounded like a great spooky season read and I was intrigued by the premise. But the delivery was just off for me. There was little action or interesting plots to keep me engaged. It was different from most books I’ve read and had great potential.

A great feminist spooky season read!

Really enjoyed this creepy historical mystery by Heather M. Herrman. Herrman creates a moody world and Molly is a worthy heroine to take on this deadly and brutal world of grave robbing.

Perfect spooky horror read for October!

A great read for the season, perfectly macabre and a little bit disgusting! Halloween read at its finest.

I wasn't too sure I was going to enjoy this one, but I really did. There are plenty of strong women gracing the pages, and the story moved at exactly the kind of speed that I enjoy. I was intrigued by the mystery elements, the identity of the 'knifeman' in particular. It had me hooked in a way I hadn't expected.

I do think there are probably a ton of content warnings needed as there is a heck of a lot of gruesome/unpleasant contents. So tread lightly if you are someone who might be affected.

All in all a fairly grotesque tale, that was a wild ride.

The Corpse Queen is a dark and broody YA historical mystery/coming-of-age tale filled with death and dead bodies and is perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper.

When Molly Green’s pregnant best friend Kitty is found drowned (murdered) in a river, Molly’s entire life is turned upside down. Kitty’s death — the way her vestigial tale was removed with two surgical strokes — does not let her go. Then Molly discovers she’s no orphan after all when a long-lost relative from Philadelphia sends for her. It’s Molly’s aunt who is none other than the Corpse Queen — the head of a body-snatching syndicate that procures cadavers for medical students. It’s not entirely legal, and competition is fierce because medical cadavers for anatomy studies are in short supply.

Ava (Molly’s aunt) wants Molly’s help in return for a life of ease and riches. Molly is willing to help, though she doesn’t care about riches, only about discovering who’s killing girls with anomalies. And what better place to go hunting than among Philadelphia’s medical students. Main character Molly is a fierce female lead, rallying against the sexism rampant in the century.

“A body is the only way a woman can making a living in this world. I just choose not to use my own.”

The atmosphere is eerie and deeply atmospheric. The Corpse Queen is a story about death, so prepare for a YA suspense read that’s high on darkness and shocking twists. But it’s not all dead bodies. In a way, The Corpse Queen is also about rebirth, about Molly finding her identity.

What’s more to love: the slow-burn romance is delicious and addictive; the lushly descriptive setting lets you feel the dampness of a nighttime graveyard; the ending hints at a sequel (pretty, please).

**3.5 Stars**
Molly has lived at the orphanage for years since her parent's deaths, her only solace being her good friend Kitty. When Kitty is found murdered and nobody seems to care, Molly refuses to let her friend's death go. What Molly did not expect was to be given by the orphanage to a strange wealthy woman who wants more from Molly than she ever thought herself capable of.

Wow this was dark and angsty and scary and pretty adult. The story focuses on death, be it of natural causes or from murder, the focus of the book was death- which should not come as a surprise since the title is Corpse Queen. The story overall was dark, not a lot of silver lining and even the end felt like a bittersweet goodbye. I found it to be a very interesting story with some great twists and I read it in just a few days, but the overall feel of the book was dark.

This is listed as feminist and that is 100% correct, the message of the book is basically women can't trust anyone and should only love themselves and strive for what they want, romance is for fools and will only hold you back. I would suggest this title for anyone who likes the science behind death aspect of the Stalking Jack the Ripper series- but without the romance.

This book follows Molly Green, who is adopted by a woman who claims to be her aunt but is known by a more infamous name: The Corpse Queen. The Corpse Queen steals dead bodies to sell to medical students and has Molly begin to do these tasks for her. Molly discovers there is a serial killer, or harvester, beating her to some bodies and tries to find out who it is while also continuing to do her duties.

I really really enjoyed this one until the end. It was great to see Molly participating in the medical classes and it hurt my heart that she was being discriminated against in her class for being a woman.

All of our characters were morally grey so it made it really hard to tell who to root for. This made me compelled to keep reading to find out what would be revealed about each person.

However, I found the twist to be a little disappointing in retrospect. I wanted something a little more surprising or high stakes.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC!

Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with an e-ARC of The Corpse Queen in exchange for an honest review!

Let's list the goods, yeah? & some solid aspects that really won me over.
- graverobbing
- dark historical fiction
- a strong-as-hell female protagonist
- serial killer
- more fantastic female characters
- v much love the atmosphere & characters of the nightclub

The Corpse Queen is perfect for spooky season; it's not necessarily a horror book, but has dark vibes & is so perfectly atmospheric. And, as usual, I love women & Molly is definitely an amazing & strong protagonist!

"'There are only three types of ladies, Molly--beauties, victims, and liars.'"

Molly Green is just about to get turned out of the orphanage when her long lost aunt Ava shows up. Ava is wealthy and a prominent member of Philadelphia society, and Molly never knew she existed. Ava has a strange partnership with a doctor that runs a medical school of sorts, teaching young man how to operate and autopsy corpses in the abandoned church behind Ava's house. And of yes, Ava's aunt is known as "The Corpse Queen", because she is the one that provides the bodies. And she has decided to make Molly her apprentice.

The Corpse Queen is a macabre story that examines many facets of death. There are the dead bodies that Molly barters and steals for the doctor, there is the mysterious death of Molly's friend Kitty, who she is trying to avenge, and then there is the mysterious death of young women across the city by a serial killer nicknamed "The Knifeman". Although I enjoyed this dark story that was part Jack the Ripper, part Frankenstein, part historical mystery, I felt the ending lacked punch and I was able to decipher the final twists. Overall though it was enjoyable and worth the read and I will be looking into Herrman's backlist.

Between the mystery, and the GRAVE ROBBING...you can say I was a bit overly involved with this one. However, some of the history just made me roll my eyes.

4.5 stars. Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of The Corpse Queen in exchange for an honest review. THIS IS WHAT I WANT OUT OF YA HORROR/THRILLER BOOKS. It was MACABRE. There is a lot of death in this book ya'll (I mean the premise of grave robbing should give you a clue...and maybe the title) but just a heads up, you get some gnarly details. I really enjoyed the MC and her drive to be something that she's told she cannot be. The other female characters in this book were also very intriguing and I would have loved to have gotten to know them more. Just like the MC they were strong and able to carry their own. The plot moved along at a good pace and there was always something interesting happening. I will say the mystery/thriller aspect was a bit predictable (the only reason it lost 1/2 a star from me) but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Quick Stats:
Overall: 1.5 ish stars
Characters: 1/5
Plot: 2/5
Setting: 3/5
Writing: 1/5

This was a huge disappointment. Wow.

Marketed as a feminist historical thriller in the vein of Stalking Jack the Ripper, it quickly became one of my most anticipated releases. SJtR is one of my favorite series of all time! And while this book did have a similar premise (girl who does autopsies while trying to solve a crime in the 1800s), it did not live up to its comp title.
There was no character development or growth—not even with Molly Greene, the main character. No one had any personality. Molly was simply a vessel with a goal shoved into her and nothing else and the side characters were NPCs that slooooooooooooowly helped her towards (or in some cases hindered) her progress towards that goal. This book was PAINFUL to get through, and I definitely would have DNFed if not for the fact that it was an ARC and I didn’t want to lower my NetGalley percentage.
Now, I mentioned that Molly had no characterization outside of her goal—finding Kitty’s killer—so you’d think that, at least, would be something that the novel cohesively builds towards, right? Wrong. Molly gets distracted by being a doctor. Molly gets distracted by being a brat to everyone who cares. The plot points happen, but none of them move the story any closer to the resolution. If you took the first two chapters and the last 2-3 chapters and just pasted them together, the story would stay the same, because even though there’s like 2-300 pages in between, nothing of substance happens.
Instead of the plot actually going anywhere, the author relied on shock factors every couple chapters that didn’t always even fit in with the story. Grisly murders and body horror, a brothel, and Molly became a sex worker for an hour??? Nothing fit cohesively. Nothing happened. And half the things that occurred barely made sense in the context of the story.
And then we get to the end. We finally find out who the serial killer is. It’s not the red herring that literally didn’t fool anyone (shocker). And I’ll be honest. The conclusion wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. It was only like 75% what I thought it would be. But I wasn’t shocked, and even after reading the entire book, I really couldn’t have cared less. I was just happy it was over.
So, moral of the story? It isn’t worth it. Maybe you’ll like it. Everyone has different taste. But in my opinion, you’re better off just rereading Stalking Jack the Ripper.

My rating: 5/5 stars

Right off the bat, I knew this book was going to be so weird and wonderful. I loved it from the very beginning, but I have to admit you might not get where it is going for a while but just sit back and enjoy the ride. One of the things I hate in books is slow pacing and a slow beginning, and this was absolutely the opposite of that! The action started right away and set the plot in motion almost from the first page which I really appreciated.

I loved the mystery part of this book, but I loved the grave robbing plot even more. Molly, the main character, is definitely not your typical girl. After getting over her initial horror at being asked to steal corpses, she becomes fascinated with the study of the human body and quickly sets her sights on becoming a medical student. Which was not exactly normal for a girl in the 1850s. I loved Molly so, so much. She’s strong and smart and also kind. Despite being a body snatcher by night, Molly’s care for everyone around her, especially those in need, jumped off the page.

In between some chapters were little first person passages that told the story of another character, and while it does not come into the plot until the end, I greatly enjoyed trying to figure out who was narrating these parts. My notes for this book are littered with theories about who this was and whether they were in the future or the past compared with Molly’s main plot. It was a small thing, not after every chapter, but it added to the air of mystery around the novel and gave you the sense that Molly’s mystery was not the only one to be solved.

Besides our main serial killer villian, the Knifeman (is that not the most creepy name you’ve ever heard? Definitely scared me), there are also many other spooky entities we encounter throughout the plot. From Edgar, cocky med student and all around misogynist, to the Tooth Fairy, literally the scariest man ever who pries the teeth out of dead bodies, The Corpse Queen is riddled with enemies for Molly to encounter. And I loved it. What’s a happy ending without a little difficulty along the way?

Let’s talk about about our wonderful cast of side characters. First we have Tom, employee of the Corpse Queen, partner in crime to Molly, and our love interest. I loved Tom from the beginning, and let me tell you he has been drinking his respect women juice and it shows. While I was rooting for them to get together, I was also yelling at Molly BECAUSE GIRL YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR A CRUSH THERE’S A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE! *deep, calming breath*. Okay. Moving on we have Ginny, Tom’s friend and total badass. We meet her early on into Molly’s adventure when Ginny helps her steal a severed head. Gross, but trust me Ginny is a queen! I absolutely loved her. Next we have Ursula, a young lady in Molly’s aunt’s social circle. While I hated her at first, she slowly grew on me and ended up having one of my favorite lines in the whole book (which I won’t tell you because spoilers). Finally there is Ursula’s boyfriend and Molly’s only friend at school which is James. I did like him from the beginning but by the end he was a no from me.

Aunt Ava has to get her own paragraph because she deserves it. Ava is Molly’s aunt who sends for her at the orphanage and ultimately employs Molly in her new, um, career. Molly gets to live in Aunt Ava’s absolutely extravagant house and take advantage of all her luxuries, including her library which is some Beauty and the Beast style wonderful, in exchange for her service. Ava also teaches Molly how to be a society lady, which is how they meet Ursula. Overall, we don’t see too much of Ava, she’s kind of like a figure looming in the background, but she’s a busy lady so it’s understandable.

About 60% of the way through, everything hits the fan. While the first half was very enjoyable, this second half is an absolute rollercoaster so when you get there grab your tea and settle in because you are not going to want to put it down until you finish. The pacing near the end really speeds up and you are hit with twist after twist within just a few pages. It is a lot and I definitely had to stop reading and be like “wait what?” more than once.

My one complaint is about Molly’s character arc. I can’t say too much about this because of spoilers, but I felt that her character and morals go downhill very fast without much explanation. However, she also recovers from this exceptionally quickly. There is no gradual realization of her wrongdoings, only a simple few words and we suddenly have the Molly of before back.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can annotate it to my heart’s content. There were tons of amazing lines in there, especially about feminism and strong women, which I of course loved.

I would absolutely recommend this book, especially for this season. There are some gruesome scenes with medical students performing surgeries on corpses and an incredibly vivid scene of childbirth so maybe this isn’t the one for you if you have a sensitive stomach or anything like that. But if you don’t you should absolutely pick this one up ASAP!

I would recommend this if: you like horror books, you don’t mind or like being scared, you are in the mood for a spooky atmospheric book, you are a fan of Stalking Jack the Ripper

I would not recommend this if: you are squeamish, you do not like horror at all, or any of the concepts (dead bodies, surgeries, etc.) freak you out