THE RESURRECTIONIST

In the 1880s, a teenage girl seeks out the secrets of the dead.

When 17-year-old Dilly Rothbart’s father dies, she and her twin sister, Deirdre, are left to survive on their own, their mother having died in childbirth. Despite her physician father’s disapproval, Dilly has always dreamed of becoming a surgeon, and she still hopes to attend medical school. Deirdre, who’s more traditional in outlook, simply wants to find love and marry. Shortly after Father’s funeral, Dilly meets Benjamin Sinclair, a mysterious gravedigger, who also happens to be a medical student. Their encounter draws Dilly into a hidden world that exists behind the doors of the medical college and beneath the cemetery grounds. She soon learns that her father was a resurrectionist, searching for the secret to eternal life and engaging in alchemical experiments. As Dilly begins to follow the same path, her ambitions border on obsession—and following a tragic accident, she’s forced to confront the grim reality of her choices and the monstrous aftermath of her decisions. The story starts off at a slower pace, building into a gripping narrative filled with secrets, science, and death. Dilly’s determination to claim a place in a male-dominated field adds a compelling feminist layer, though some of those themes would have benefitted from deeper development. Still, this dark and atmospheric novel is sure to leave readers unsettled and eager to keep turning the pages. Main characters are cued white.

A twisty, haunting debut.