Firstly thank you to Netgalley and A. Rae Dunlop for the opportunity to read and review this E-ARC of The Resurrectionist.

The author has done an amazing job with the way this book is written. It's about a very dark subject but it flows really well.

It's set in 19th Century Scotland and is an historical fiction tale.

We follow the story of James and his journey to medical school to become a surgeon. After learning that his rich parents can't fund his schooling he takes a job as the professor's assistant. The down side to this being the job is body snatching. James is Horrified at first but soon sees that taking the bodies helps medical science.

I really enjoyed this book and will look out for future work from this author.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book being such a dark subject.
And it was a bit slow to start with (but boy does this get good!)

The writing in this is poetic. It honestly was what first caught my interest and made me want to keep reading. It's written so well.

Nye is definitely a favourite in this book. He really owns who he is but does show in vulnerable side through out. Plus he's funny as.

James really grew on me as he grew with the story.

It is a story about body snatching but it's really good. And told the right way.

Thanks to NetGalley for this EARC. This is my honest review of The Resurrectionist.

4.5 ⭐️ I really enjoyed this debut novel from A. Rae Dunlap. She has a beautiful, almost lyrical way of telling the story of James Willoughby, an aspiring surgeon in 19th century Edinburgh. I loved that it was told from James POV because you could really feel the emotion that he experiences throughout the story.

James comes from a well off English family but wants to be a surgeon which was unheard of for someone of his stature. He moves to Edinburgh to attend medical school since it is the premiere city for surgeons.

While James is there he learns that his family can no longer pay his tuition and he has to get a job. His professor’s assistant, Aneurin offers him a job to help snatch bodies for the medical schools. James was horrified at first but over time he realizes how much he enjoys working with Aneurin and his crew.

As time goes on they notice that things are changing in the body snatching business. James and Aneurin are determined to find out who or what has caused the problems for the various body snatching crews.

I loved the entire story and the how it was based on fact. I also loved James and Aneurin and their relationship. They are such an odd pair but it totally works…kind of like Sherlock Holmes & Watson.

I’m hoping there is a lot more stories for James and Aneurin…I didn’t want their story to end!

"The resurrectionist" is a historical fiction with a romance subplot following a naive, noble protagonist who, when studying to become a physician, found himself involved with the business of corpse snatching for surgeon students. The book dives into the realm of true crimes with the case of Burke and Hare and explore moral complexities quite well.
The story is well written, fitted for its era, slow to allow the reader and the protagonist to think and reflect. The author's research and care can be felt throughout the book and add a nice touch, with medical details and real sense of the historic setting, from the social layers of the society, the evolution of medicine and overall tone.
The characters are nicely enough developped and carry the story in a satisfactory manner, complex enough to feel grouned. The romantic sideplot is present but not in a way that overpowers the main story, it's a fine balance to find, one that Dunlap managed to find. It took it's time but moved quickly enough, like the rest of the book.
Overall a great read, entertaining and enriching if you are not familiar with the story of medecine and its need for bodies in the 19th century.

This book was such an intriguing tale, with such lovely characters. It really made the reader feel, see, smell, touch this image of Edinburgh. The descriptions of the city enthralled me completely. I'm terrible with directions, I never know where I am, and yet I felt like I knew this city, I could place the locations, I recognized the mental image I had conjured before - just brilliant. The relationships were so tender to the point of making me tear up. Something I would change is the way the villain is described. This is to say, while I searched about the character and realized how very real his disfiguration was, I did feel like the way it was described is harmful, since there's a lot of this idea of monstrosity (the description felt that intense) that adds to the awfulness of the character's flaws, in a way that can be see as an ableist trope. I'd recommend reading Amanda Leduc's Disfigured, since it's a very decent study on disability in stories. Finally, I need to mention that the plot twist was extremely unexpected to me, even though it made perfect sense. it caught me off guard and I had to close the ebook and text a friend who was buddy reading with me in absolute shock! super well done

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
I absolutely loved the idea of this story!! I didn’t realize it was based off real life events. Also, after doing some research and reading some other reviews I found out that some of the characters where actually real people!!

Our main character James, abandons his life in London to pursue his dreams of becoming a surgeon. When he falls into financial troubles and in order to peruse his schooling he ventures into grave digging/body!

The character development for James was great, but my favourite has to be Nye. The romance between James and Nye was really great!!

The book was a little slow for me, entertaining but not really mind blowing. However, the plot twist really set the pace for the rest of this book and had me reading as much as I could.

I just loved the idea of this book!! Tons of death and humor and darkness!! I loved it!!

This was SUCH a great read! I loved it from start to finish. Dunlap did a great job building up the narrative and I was hooked. Although this story was completely different, it gave me the same vibes as The Alienist, which is one of my fave books/shows.

The good: Pretty much everything! The characters, the story, the vibes.... I'd read this again in a heartbeat; and definitely recommend! It was a nice length and there were no boring, mundane parts.

The bad: I can't remember every plot detail- which, in hindsight, is quite common for me! However, I liked it enough to read more than once and I'm sure I'll remember all those plot details eventually!

Overall, I really enojyed the story, highly recommend, and it makes me want to desperately read more by A Rae Dunlap!

4.5 stars

“The resurrectionist” is a historical fiction that deep dives into the true crime surrounding the murderous duo Burke and Hare

The book is full of real life people/characters and you can tell the author took a lot of time to do thorough research prior to writing the book.

I enjoy reading thrillers with a medical component such as medical students and autopsies and you get plenty of that in this book.
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There was also a little side plot including romance themes between the protagonist and a love interest which gave the plot an extra layer but didn’t go to overboard or overshadow the rest of the story.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing, Rae Dunlap and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: December 24th

A fascinating take on the seedy underbelly of the origins of modern medicine. Body snatching, romance, and murder mystery. Highly recommend.

The Resurrectionist by A Rae Dunlap is a historical novel that includes the true life crime of Burke and Hare. I’d never heard of this murdering duo before, so unravelling it with the author was an incredible experience. I found myself researching the murders after I’d finished the novel because I read the author’s note and found out they really existed! And so did a lot of the other characters in this book!
The topic of body snatching for the medical field has always been fascinating to me. What I love is this author really did their research as to all the little things they needed to remember. The collar around the neck meant that they’d have to split the body and sell it in parts instead of whole. The author could have gone down the gory route and tried to make it disgusting, but instead really looked through the lens of these medical students and how they would see and relate to a body. While some things like a smell might still curdle their stomachs, they maintained a professionalism around the bodies.
I loved our protagonist, James, and his blooming romance with Nye. It was one of those moments that was woven into the story neatly without taking the focus off anything.
The ending was great, where if this remains a standalone, that’s great! But there’s an opening for a sequel if the author wanted to.
If a sequel came out, I’d buy it in a flash. If the author chose to write another story, I’d definitely give that a go as well. Very well written and interesting story!

This was a really cool and interesting book. I loved the writing style, it flowed beautifully and felt as though James were writing a long letter to you as the reader about his time in Edinburgh.

Nye was my favourite character, hands down. He was complex, bright and charismatic. At times I found James, the protagonist of this story, quite bland. But, his adventures quite made up for it.

The reason I gave this a 3 star rather than anything higher is that towards the end of the book, I found myself drifting off and not paying much attention. I was weirdly more drawn to the start and James’s adventures as a Resurrectionist. The historical drop ins were fantastic and I loved that Burke and Hare, who were prolific during this time period, had a place in the tale.

4.25-4.5⭐

WOW this was so cute! There was so much gross stuff in there, since it is about the science of dissection and the study of corpses to develop an understanding of human anatomy, BUT really somehow it's still very cute. And stupidly romantic, honestly.

I'm so picky about my romance storylines, and I'm a huge hater regarding romance because I hate cringe romance. "kill the part of you that cringes" No! I don't want to. LUCKILY, this romance is great. No notes on the romance. I loved watching James & Nye interact. What I truly LOVED about the romance was how Dunlap perfectly paralleled the romance storyline with the dissection and grave robbing plot. Yes, you heard that right.

She perfectly paired the gory, disgusting yet miraculous, raw openness of dissection specimens with the experience of socially unaccepted queer love. James and Nye cut open bodies during the day to study their insides, and at night they unconsciously yet eagerly crack themselves open, offering each other an opportunity to take a good long look. At night, James & Nye upturn the natural, God-sanctioned social order by stealing corpses out of their graves-- but for a cause they truly believe is for the greater good of science and humanity. In the light of day, they must grapple with the fact that the love they feel for each other, which to them is as natural as breathing, is considered blasphemy, sinful, an unnatural. UGH it was wonderful for Dunlap to emphasize this juxtaposition, and it was exactly what I was hoping for when I picked up this book.

The characters were great, I loved James' narration, it was sufficiently goofy, sufficiently freaky, and sufficiently gay. Huge win!

I'll add further discussion to this review closer to the publication date: December 24, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Picture it, Scotland 1828…A little history with romance, I’m here for it. I loved that as dark and macabre as the subject matter is, the author has crafted a story that had me laughing out loud and smiling as the romance blossomed. I highly recommend. So glad I was given the opportunity to read this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Thank you also to the author, A. Rae Dunlap, for sharing your stories with us.

Content Warnings: Gore (Dissection, Corpses), Homophobia (historical)

I enjoyed this novel as someone who enjoys true crime and Victorian-era England and Scotland. I also enjoyed James, the book’s narrator, and seeing how he developed over time. The time period and differences in how people approached medicine and dissection, the overall gray morality of the topic and situation, was well encapsulated in his personal struggles. I also thought Dunlap’s layering of James’s homosexual identity, and relationship with Aneurin was well done. It’s a key aspect of their lives, and its historical danger is presented, but their homosexual identities are simply part of who they are.

All that said, if anyone came to this book expecting a mystery, I’m not sure they’d be happy. There’s no real mystery to the book if you have any familiarity with the historical Resurrectionists. As a thriller, it’s not tense until maybe three-fourths of the way into the book. None of that bothered me as I enjoyed the Watson-esque feel to the narration and overall flow of the plot, but others may not like it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this --- it certainly exceeded expectations. my only qualm with the description is that it perhaps gives away too much, so that we are in a state of knowing more than the characters, but not by the author's design.
the two main characters are very engaging, and make for a fun duo / comedy teams mismatched characters. their best moments are when they are knee-deep in each other's worlds. I want more of that. and the new-fangled science does wonders too -- I wanted more of that too.

Right out of the gate, Posh boy, James captured me with his dry humor. All he wanted to do is become a surgeon even though his family had other plans for him. So James sets out to follow his ambition without his family's financial support, which leads him to do what he has to in order to pay for his education.
This book held my attention with romance, lots of alcohol and a true crime.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#TheResurrectionist #NetGalley

A posh-boy and a Scotsman with a Welsh name walk into a kirkyard... 📚

Entering this ARC with zero expectations, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the thrilling adventure that unfolded. 19th century Edinburgh? Historical fiction? Count me in! But what truly captivated me was the blend of coming-of-age, self-acceptance, true crime, and romance woven seamlessly into the narrative.

I devoured this book voraciously, finishing it within ~24 hours. The setting, from the scholarly exchanges of university students to the gritty streets of Edinburgh, was utterly intoxicating. James, our protagonist, serves as an excellent guide through this world, navigating the contrasts of his upbringing and the underworld with authenticity and growth.

While the romance felt slightly rushed to me, lacking some depth in its early stages, it didn't detract from the overall enjoyment. If anything, it left me yearning for more insight into Nye and James's relationship.

Incredibly addictive and satisfying, this book has left me craving a re-read already! 📖✨

If you don't like lgbt+ type books then sorry that sucks. I really liked the characters of this book but the "naive" personality was a bit much sometimes. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend

This was so much fun. I was incredibly excited to discover this book on Netgalley due to my long-lasting obsession with surgical history & resurrectionists, as well as my time lived in Edinburgh. And it’s gay! Truly a book written for me.

James came off as a bit insufferable at first - I found the writing style to be a bit annoying with all the italics and exclamations, and his general poshness seemed a bit overdone. But I feel like this got better very quickly. I got used to the writing style, and really ended up loving this book.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the city as James moved through it - I was able to conjure up the city from my time spent there. The descriptions of the actual body snatching & surgery were great too, and the book built up the overall atmosphere very well. I liked Aneurin from the first moment, as well as his interactions with James and the rest of the crew. The book was quite funny in parts - I found myself laughing out loud a bunch of times. The inclusion of historical figures like Burke & Hare and Knox was also fun.

Also honestly it was kind of refreshing to see a closed-door gay romance? I enjoy erotica as much as the next guy but these days everything has explicit sex in it lol. Though I do wish that the tension between the two had been built up a bit more before they got together - I prefer a bit more of a slow burn.

Tl;dr: at first I was a bit sceptical about the writing style and James as a character, but I ended up loving the book very quickly. I think I’ll even buy myself a hard copy of it once it comes out.

"It is the story of how a rose can blossom from even the bloodiest soil, of how light can grow from shadow, how love can grow from despair."

The Resurrectionist was a delightful novel full of heart, passion, a bit of a humor, and a whole lot of moral ambiguity. I had a lot of fun following the narrator James is this story of pursuing medicine and his awe of science. Somehow, he ends up in the middle of the world of body snatching - torn between the instinct to label it immoral and the recognition that the bodies are useful to the pursuit of science.

The cast of characters was thoroughly enjoyable and the story arc was well-developed. Nye was my favorite character of the bunch. Rather chaotic at times, always conniving, definitely hilarious. At one point he says to James, "I can't tell whether you're stupider than you seem, more naive then I'd come to believe, or so intentionally obtuse as to be a rare and volatile combination of the two." I loved his humor and snark he brought to the book.

I had no idea this book was based partially on a true story! I really appreciate the amount of research that went into telling this story. I also appreciate the author making this book queer rather than queer coded as they say in the Author's Note. I do wish we'd gotten a little bit more of their romantic development though. Sometimes I wondered why they even liked each other?

I struggled with the way this book was written and I think if the author had used more modern language then my rating would be higher. I enjoyed the story but the historical language was hard to interpret sometimes and came off as overly flowery rather than current to the time. Overall I rate this 3.5/5 and look forward to other books the author publishes.