The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth

The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from his humble beginnings to the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus: The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts—dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus—all rendered in meticulously detailed black-and-white anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.

What can I say? This book is a beautiful memoir fiction. The drawings in here are amazing. The way the author combines human anatomy and mythical creature anatomy is flawless.

But the story is also intriguing and a bit on the scary-side. We learn about Dr. Spencer's sordid fall into lunacy after trying to prove that humans evolved from mythical creatures.

I guess the one thing I could say that was negative was the use of the mad-scientist trope. But that's what the book was going for so it works but still a bit annoying that this trope is used so often in books and movies....

It's a sad tale where one looks for the evidence to fit the hypothesis rather than see where the evidence leads and then change the hypothesis. And his turned him into a madman....cruel torture and death.

It's a quick read and one I'd recommend on an eerie night with low-lighting...and one for the coffee table. The illustrations are amazing.

I received this book for free to review from the publisher.