The cover art drew me in and also the reviews I've read raving about it. It had an interesting plot and characters. I did not expect this to have a sapphic romance but it did not spoil much of the story tbh.

the cover immediately intrigued me and the nerd in me had to have it! It is a mixture of historical fiction, dark academia and true crime that had me sucked into this story! I loved reading all the medical terms as we follow James in medical school! It is a little gruesome and has some vivid descriptions, so if you’re squeamish, it may be best to skim over some parts! The writing is truly exceptional, and so atmospheric. I could visualize exactly what the author was portraying. The author did such an amazing job of staying true to the story of serial killers Burke and Hare during this time, and keeping the setting historically accurate while adding fictional story to create an entertaining story!

A solid historical fiction debut and I’m always here for a queer historical fiction. I didn’t realize that going in but was pleasantly surprised with it.

Thank you for the ARC.

YA Coming of Age/Dark Academia Historical Fiction set in mid-19th century Edinburgh with a M/M romance sideplot

James Willoughby has recently decided to become a surgeon and to study at the University of Edinburgh. An excellent decision for the son of a noble family if it wasn't for the family lacking in funds. In order to afford his position in an anatomist's course, the resident resurrectionist Aneurin offers the naïve James a job as look-out. With his financial situation getting worse, James has to join the resurrectionists himself.

I liked this story better than Schwartz's Anatomy: A Love Story. For one, the main character's speech and behaviour fits the historical context - down to the point that he thinks his sister Edith is better off than him, because she doesn't need to find her place in society, she has the advantage of only having to marry well and produce an heir and a few spares. Then there is the love-interest, Aneurin, street smart butcher's son who became a resurrectionist and anatomist's assistant, and took James's measure within seconds of meeting him.

Since the story is set at the time Burke and Hare were 'working' as resurrectionists, the addition of a mystery/true crime element to the plot didn't come as a surprise.

The writing, like the pacing, is a bit hit and miss. There are paragraphs with period appropriate dialogue or apt descriptions, but also rather bland phrases that reminded me of fanfiction.

I liked the dark atmosphere and that the author kept the novel as historically and thematically accurate as possible.

I love love love this excellent book. From the opening lines to the very last image of the anatomic drawing of the human heart on the wall, this book kept me glued to the pages. The main character’s voice, the historical setting, the love interest—all contribute to the suspenseful unfurling of the story. Excellent writing, compelling plot and subplot and so very hard to put down. New student of medicine James arrives in Edinburgh and meets Charlie, a brilliant and charismatic medical student. Charlies also introduces James to the world of the resurrectionist—they get paid for providing cadavers to the schools for dissection. But when the living begin to disappear under mysterious circumstances, James and Charlie are compelled to investigate.
Highly recommended. I’m hoping for more from this author.

Dunlap crafts a narrative that is both chillingly atmospheric and deeply human. The story is a masterclass in blending historical detail with an exploration of morality, love, and ambition. It doesn’t just engage your mind or heart but draws you into its world with a visceral intensity that lingers long after you’ve turned the last page.

The Resurrectionist presents itself as a gothic mystery, but at its core, it’s a richly character-driven historical fiction with a compelling queer love story. The backdrop—19th-century Scotland's grim world of grave-robbing and medical studies—adds an eerie tension, but the heart of the story lies in the relationship between its two protagonists.

Told through the first-person perspective of James, a young medical student navigating the morally murky waters of anatomy studies, the writing feels both intimate and authentic. The narrative style, slightly formal but confiding, creates an immediate connection to James and his world. His journey feels like a conversation, drawing the reader in while keeping the propriety of the era intact.

Aneurin, James' unlikely companion, is equally captivating. Their bond develops naturally, creating a poignant counterbalance to the macabre subject matter. The emotional depth in their connection gives the story its warmth and heart, making their relationship the centerpiece of the book.

However, while the central characters shine, the supporting cast occasionally fades into the background. This lack of depth in secondary characters means that some pivotal moments don’t land with the emotional weight they might have otherwise carried.

The climax weaves historical fact and fiction seamlessly, delivering a conclusion that feels both satisfying and thought-provoking. It’s a testament to the author’s skill that they bring such a unique historical setting to life while exploring universal themes of love, loyalty, and the lengths we go to in pursuit of our dreams.

I’d recommend The Resurrectionist to fans of historical fiction, gothic mysteries, or anyone drawn to morally complex characters and atmospheric storytelling. It’s a hauntingly beautiful read that lingers long after the final page.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Resurrectionist was such a fantastic story. I loved everything about it. This has it all, from the creepy atmosphere to the budding romance between James and Nye. The plot moves along quickly as we traverse alongside James in the body-snatching profession. The atmosphere in these scenes is perfect, chilly, damp, dark, and cold. The tension rises when rival gangs creep into their territory and along come the notorious Burke and Hare. The romance was a pleasant surprise and I found Nye charming after he dropped his arrogant exterior. I got sucked in pretty good and did not want this one to end. I hope the author revisits these characters, there is so much potential for more stories. Loved this one!

The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap takes you on a wild ride into the underbelly of Edinburgh when medical advancements were truly being made.

James has found himself finally away from his family and following the passion of his life, becoming a surgeon. Edinburgh is the place to be for that education, but on top of University it is also a grand idea to be part of a private school doing dissection this bringing James to Maelstrom's school. Here though he finds that after his father's ruinous adventures with the family funds he can no longer afford either places and must find another way to pay for his education and board.

He finds himself employed by Aneurin The Assemblest for Maelstroms and he quickly learns where the corpses are procured and realizes he just join these so called Resurrectionists if he is to afford to continue his education.

I want to thank #netgalley for the chance to read #TheResurectionist by #A.RaeDunlop in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Dunlap strikes a balance here of something that feels otherworldly yet very grounded in human emotion, connection, and centering of the human body. It is an exercise in craft to not only make a reader feel things in their brain and heart, but down to their fingertips, which I can say the Resurrectionist absolutely does. The characters are engaging, the plot is full without feeling overwrought, and the mysterious nature of the whole thing keeps the pages turning.

Marketing itself as a mystery/thriller or a gothic horror is doing this story a disservice. It is actually a fairly straight historical fiction that features a queer love story. It’s heavily character driven and, for a huge proportion of the book, the grave-robbing/Burke and Hare storyline features only in the background.

With it falling so outside of my usual genres I should not have enjoyed this, and yet I really did. There is something about Dunlaps writing style that really appealed to me. It is told in first person pov (James, our young university student) and reads a lot like you are being told the story after the fact. It generates this feeling of being pulled into his confidence, whilst also remaining slightly formal and proper for a man of James’ station, and it immediately warmed me to his character.

Our second character, Aneurin, is also instantly likeable and watching the friendship between him and James develop is what makes this such a great read.

Unfortunately, so much space is given to their development that any side-character development suffers as a result. This leads to at least one moment where the scene unfolding did not pack nearly as much as an emotional punch as it should have done.

The ending was very well done and it was fun to see how the author weaved together fact and fiction in a way that really worked.

I don’t regret picking this one up and would definitely recommend it to fans of historical fiction, true crime, and/or queer love stories.

After seeing it compared to Anatomy: A Love Story, I could not wait to get my hands on this book! It’s a perfect read for those grey days and stormy nights of winter to help immerse yourself in the setting and mood of the story. Where do I even start, from beginning to end, the story had me hooked. The characters were so compelling, the plot was engrossing, and the writing was seamless.
I will be keeping my eye out for more A. Rae Dunlop titles in the future!

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing | Kensington books for this ARC for review. This book is based on real-life serial killers Burke and Hare in 19th century Scotland and how many medical students were able to get bodies for their anatomy studies— body snatching and grave robbing. A medical student, James Willoughby gets caught up in grave robbing as a part time career while attending medical school and studying surgery. But as there is a lack of human cadavers to practice on, and the chances of getting caught whilst robbing graves, he gets caught in with serial killers bringing the fresh bodies.

What a weird and wonderful book! I wasn't sure what to expect from a queer romance between grave robbers, but I really couldn't put this down once I started.

The Resurrectionist is a fantastic debut novel of historical fiction riddled with true crime centered on the serial killers Burke and Hare.

The extent of research into the characters, the crimes of Burke and Hare as well as the city of Edinburgh is very clear throughout the book but does not overpower the great writing of Dunlop. The characters she wrote were well-developed and I was eager to see where the story took them. The balance between fact and fiction is well done.

The romance was a surprising factor for me, but it entirely made sense as it developed and I enjoyed reading about the two main characters growing romance and the challenges of it in this period.

Overall, a great book. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed this! It's an immersive entertaining story. I like the writing style and the pacing is good. The characters are well developed. I would recommend this! Special Thank You to A. Rae Dunlap, Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Against his family’s wishes, James Willoughby has abandoned his education at Oxford and come to Edinburgh to pursue studies as a surgeon. The city is the center of the New Enlightenment, a place of discovery and advancement, and James is thrilled to be a part of it all. He quickly learns, however, that much of the action is happening not at the university, but at the private medical schools at Surgeon’s Square where they have actual cadavers for the students to use. James enrolls in one of the schools and he knows he has found his calling.

However, when his family’s fortunes fall, James no longer has the money for either school’s tuition. Out of desperation, he approaches Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, an assistant at his medical school, to see if there is some way he can work off his fees. Nye opens James’ eyes to the secret world of the Resurrectionists, body snatchers who dig up corpses from fresh graves to be used in study. At first, James is horrified by the very idea of stealing bodies, but he soon comes to recognize that it is the only way to facilitate all the scientific advancement that is ushering in a new era of medical knowledge. He also finds himself getting an unexpected thrill out of being part of a dig crew, staying one step ahead of the police in the dark of night.

As James gets more involved with the body snatching, he also grows closer to Nye and the two begin building a relationship. James seems to have everything he wants: excelling in his studies, a romance with Nye, and an exciting secret life. But the competition to lead the body trade in Edinburgh is fierce and new players seem to want a piece of the business — and are willing to do anything to get it. As the fight for bodies heats up, James and Nye find themselves with their own lives on the line.

The Resurrectionist is a fascinating historical that combines fiction with real-life characters and events. Author A. Rae Dunlap does such a nice job creating a sense of time and place here, and I felt like I was getting an inside look into the secret underbelly of the city. I found it all really fascinating, and Dunlap gives such wonderful detail to really show how the dig crews worked, as well as what was going on at these medical schools. There is just such a well developed setting here and I think historical fans are going to enjoy this a lot.

James is our POV character and he has a strong voice that worked well for me. James is a younger son of a titled family who have fallen on hard times. He has been raised in society and has an upper-class perspective on life, but he doesn’t want the typical younger son careers of military or clergy. What he wants is to study medicine, so he walks away from his education at Oxford to live a much more down-to-earth life above a pub in Edinburgh. James is a little naive and out of touch with the real world, as one would expect of a young man in his position. He serves as the perfect entry point for the reader, as James starts to explore this new life and the seedy underbelly of body snatching. Nye, on the other hand, is street smart and much more savvy. He is James’ guide into this new world and the two become sort of an odd couple pairing that just works.

The story takes place in 1828 at the time Edinburgh is the center of medical study and discovery. At first, James is appalled when he learns people are digging up fresh corpses for the classes. Of course, he never once wondered how the medical schools got all these bodies, how they can manage to have cadavers for each student while the university cannot. But slowly, James comes to not only understand what is going on behind the scenes, but embrace it. The Resurrectionists are digging up bodies, giving them a new life for study, and James starts to see his role as noble rather than criminal. Of course, they are still breaking the law, something that gives the posh James a thrill as well.

The story combines fictional characters with real life Edinburgh history. Some of the side characters are real people who lived at the time, including the story’s antagonists, Burke and Hare. While the blurb does disclose who they are, I somehow missed it, so I didn’t realize they were real people or what their role was until after I finished the book. I actually think that benefitted me, as it kept some mystery as to what was going on that folks who know the history (or read the blurb) will already know. This is the only place the book stumbled a little for me, as I don’t think the real life characters were integrated as seamlessly as they could have been. I found myself confused about some of what was going on toward the latter part of the story. There is a gang of body snatchers that comes into town who are threatening the existing gangs and no one knows quite who they are, but even when Nye and the others find out, the answer was not totally clear to me. Then, separately (I think?), we have Burke and Hare, but those two storylines sort of interconnect and I just didn’t completely understand who was doing what. In hindsight, it seems like maybe the real-life story just didn’t quite blend with the fictionalized portion quite as smoothly as it might have. I also didn’t feel like we get a solid resolution to the conflict that comes with James’ family, who want him to return home and make an advantageous marriage. The plan for how to resolve that seemed sort of nebulous and, for the seriousness of the situation (as it ends up threatening Nye), I wanted a clearer resolution. That said, the story is suspenseful and exciting and we get a really intense ending overall.

Overall, I found this one a fascinating blend of fiction and reality. Dunlap gives the story a really great sense of time and place and I was really intrigued by both the medical world and the body snatching schemes. I think historical fans are going to find a lot to like here and I really enjoyed this one.

I really loved this book. As soon as I started reading I was immediately drawn in by the atmospheric and immersive writing. I loved the characters, especially James and Aneurin, and their dedication to furthering science no matter the cost. This book is dark, gritty, a little violent, and little gory, but it’s also full of light, hope, love, and discovery.

My only complaint is that I personally felt like the ending was a bit rushed. After everything with Burke & Hare I felt like many things were just told instead of shown. I wish the last 20 pages had been a little more fleshed out. Otherwise, this book is amazing and I really loved reading it!

4.5 stars

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Resurrectionist: A Twisty Gothic Mystery of Dark Scottish History by A. Rae Dunlap from Kensington Publishing via NetGalley. The book is available now!

The Resurrectionist: A Twisty Gothic Mystery of Dark Scottish History by A. Rae Dunlap takes you into a history of medical science that some people don't realize existed. In order to make advancements in medicine, doctors and medical schools needed bodies. But for religious reasons, many people were not willing to donate their body or the body of a loved one to the medical community. This led to body snatching. It seems like an unsavory profession, but it was a necessary evil. This story delves into that world and the cut-throat competition for corpses. It is also a love story. Didn't see that coming, did you? If you like dark history, check this out!

The title and cover drew me in, the description was intriguing, and I anticipated an enjoyable read. The short version of this review is that it is a well-written and objectively very good book; I just did not enjoy the reading experience as much as I had hoped to.

James Willoughby comes from an upper-class life where society and how one conducts oneself are very black-and-white. For this reason, James is a little insufferable and unlikeable at the commencement of the novel. He has been drawn to the world of science and medicine, though with his family’s money all but gone, he has to reevaluate his morals in exchange for the education he so desires. This leads him down the path of body snatching and entangles him in the Edinburgh underworld.

Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon is the dissectionist at the private school James attends and is the one who brings James into the body-snatching business in exchange for a discounted education. He is evasive to questions, a bit impulsive, and a bit of a madman, but he does grow to care for James.

I did not particularly like either of the main characters, which I believe is why I feel I struggled to connect to the story. The remaining characters are essentially extras in this story, only learning enough about them for the plot to work. One such example is Charlie, who would have to be my favourite of all the characters. I couldn’t remember or find if a surname was ever mentioned, but he was such a kind, supportive, and generous character that was only really used to help James when the plot demanded it.

As for the plot, it was well thought out, interesting, and had a somewhat satisfying conclusion. The pace was consistent and the story delivered on what was promised in the description, a macabre tale of scientific pursuit with a side of a love story. I feel this story would have been complete without the ‘love’ component, as I feel its inclusion was more of a convenient side story using available characters rather than a connection the reader could feel invested in. Still, it was nice to see some Queer representation in a story set in the early 1800s.

To conclude, a good book and I am glad I got to experience the story, but I did not enjoy the characters and, as a result, did not enjoy the book as much as I had hoped to.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded-up.

🪦 Grave Robbing
💀 M/M Romance
🪦 Macabre... but sweet
💀 Funny banter
🪦 A pinch of murder mystery

This wasn't exactly what I expected, but I had a good time.

This story follows a young man named James in Victorian-era Edinburgh who is studying to become a surgeon/physician, but hands-on work is hard to find...

So I kind of expected more of an atmospheric and gothic vibe from this book, but it's almost more of a dark comedy and historical crime read. I love learning about grave robbing and resurrection men, so the actual historical tie-ins were well done and informative but in a fun way.

It's at times grotesque but more in a humorous macabre way than overtly dark. The actual grave robbing and dissection portions earlier on in the story were my favourite aspects. I did find the romance element in this kind of took over the plot for me, but I still feel like I enjoyed the story overall. The m/m romance, however, was very sweet (it is closed-door). It was one of those stories where the first 1/3 packs a greater punch than the rest of the book, I did find I lost interest here and there, but it also has a very unique overall vibe.

I think it was a really good debut, but it's not as horror-esque as I was expecting. It's like macabre: but make it lighter & fluffy.

𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓸 𝓝𝓮𝓽𝓰𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓚𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓽𝓸𝓷 𝓟𝓾𝓫𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓐𝓡𝓒 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓫𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓲𝓷 𝓮𝔁𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝔂 𝓱𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀.