??he entire body is the soul, and my knife cuts deep into the flesh; I vow to be always reverent with the edge of my scalpel.??/i>

?? have butchered many men. All are innocent and equaled when they are on the table. All are exquisite and grotesque."

Thus writes the passionate, deeply troubled and fanatical subject of The Resurrectionist - a man who lives up to such a title in every way, and is now ironically on display himself, the available fragments of who he is served up to the reader for dissection and analysis. And the story that unfolds is morbid yet fascinating. Dr. Spencer Black is the product of a time where medical knowledge was still in its youth, death had lost its sacredness and disabilities were popular shock-value entertainment. On the one hand, it might be said that these various influences combined to make him who he was; but on the other, how much was he predisposed to follow in his father's footsteps, the latter also being a resurrectionist with no thought of how his youngest child might be affected by nightly grave robberies? It's a nature-vs-nurture question that also comes up in Black's quest to prove the existence of mythical creatures, going so far as to construct them from human and animal components in a manner reminiscent of Frankenstein. And in doing so, he neglects to answer other important questions: Does the end justify the means? Do we have the right to manipulate nature and introduce things that don't exist? Where should the lines be drawn when your studies and/or experiments involve living creatures?

Unfortunately, though this is a work of fiction, these questions still remain highly relevant today. The history of ethics violations is almost as long as the history of science itself. And given the popularity of grave-robbing, "freak shows" and cabinets of curiosities in the 1800s, it's chilling yet not surprising to consider that someone like Spencer Black might actually have existed. I was thus impressed with the way this book was written - half a biography and half a codex of Black's "specimens" - because in my opinion no other format could have driven home how real this type of mindset was in our recent history.

Full disclosure, I normally avoid anything resembling a biography, but this one gives you the impression of piecing together a mysterious person's life from a variety of sources - and I love that amateur detective feeling that comes with it. A novel would have perhaps taken the vein of Frankenstein, with more insight into each of the characters, but I would have read it with the underlying knowledge that it was fiction, and perhaps wouldn't have sought out as much of the historical background it's based on. Also, the drawings of mythical animals in the Codex are done with such attention to detail, both aesthetic and biological, that I was struck by the author/artist's skill.

The only thing I wanted more of (despite it being a deliberate and necessary choice for the story) was more clues to the fates of Bernard, Elise and Alphonse, Spencer being a bit low on the list. And, perhaps, whether any of Black's "creations" managed to survive and make their own way in the world. Lots of unanswered questions, in keeping with any true historical personage you try to research, but I really hope there will be more to come in this creepy little slice of the late 1800s / early 1900s. A good reminder that even though every generation thinks they've reached the pinnacle of civilization, we are usually farther from that point than we think we are, and perhaps we're doomed never to reach it.

Some other quotes that struck me:

"It's clear throughout Black's writings that he thought of death as an abstract concept; he often calls death 'the phenomenon of the living' and even regarded the passing of his own father as more of a curiosity than a tragedy."

"He leapt into my father's grave with all his heart, chasing after death to seek out its hiding place."

"When one dies they neither ascend to the heavens nor descend to hell, they instead become cured - freed from an illness and healed from the suffering of mortality. Our consciousness, our awareness, is a symptom of our body and it is secondary to the mystery of our physical chemistry."

?? must know why five fingers are intended before I can discover the cause of six.??br/>
??ur consciousness, our awareness, is a symptom of our body and it is secondary to the mystery of our physical chemistry.??br/>
"Such evanescence; to emerge from the ground after such a long time and then transform, gaining wings. They are born once again from the womb of their own body, which is abandoned as an empty shell, and then they leave the world... After such a long time in darkness, we can live for only a short while." ( )

I was surprised by how much I loved this.
The first part of this book was written like a biography of the titular Spencer Black, a Victorian era doctor/scientist and his experiments. The second part are scientific plates of his creatures.

I'm not a big fan of horror, but I liked how this blended real taxonomy with disturbing Victorian imagination. With all the gothic horror and dubious scientific discoveries that the real Victorian era produced, a man like Dr. Black is not too far fetched.
The old writing style. The cold, wikipedia-style summary of Dr. Black's life. The use of real medical terms and taxonomy. The paragraphs and letters inserted into the text. The use of exact years. All of it makes for an immersive book about a mad scientist. ( )

There's no doubt that this book is fantastically put together. It's a gorgeous, high-quality book with impressive art and impeccable detail. Hudspeth's talent as an artist is on full display, as is Quirk Books' commitment to interesting, out-of-the-box books that require a different type of commitment from mainstream fiction. (I've loved every Quirk Books book I've picked up by the way...until...uh...this one.) So.

The thing is, this book reads and feels like more of an experiment than a novel or fully grown story by the end. It's as if the biography--the written part of the text--is just an excuse to show off the gorgeous drawings of Hudspeth, but the problem is that it reads like a biography, and leaves so many threads unanswered/unfollowed that, in the end, the book feels like an experiment vs a completed experience with real power and follow-through/impact. Part of me thinks that, put simply, the book needed a third part where some of those early threads could have been followed, but realistically, I'm not sure that would be possible. Because, looking back on the whole read, it does feel as if the biography is simply a way to justify putting all of the art into play without dealing with the burden of creating a full narrative that would really develop any sort of character and/or story arcs that could deliver emotional impact on top of more detached horror.

And perhaps the book was never meant to deliver a fuller story--it certainly reads as more of an art display, justified by lengthy text to develop horror behind the art--but at least for this reader, I ended up feeling less-than-satisfied with the book as a whole. It's possible I should be thankful for the brevity of the biography, though--if I hadn't flipped pages forward to know that the art was coming, and to know that there was very little biography left, I'd likely have given up on the book. The writing is fine, and interesting, but the story itself is so anchored into the tone of being a biography, and so summary-based and often vague, without the details of character to make the characters come to life in moments of non-horror, I had trouble getting through it, particularly at the end.

I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book to, beyond readers who want a non-traditional horror read. ( )

《I have butchered many men. All are innocent and equaled when they are on the table. All are exquisite and grotesque.》

RTC. ( )

I have never felt like such a fence-sitter as I do now, having completed this book.

The story of Dr. Spencer Black is fascinating, if light. The reader gets a brief 65-page write-up of the life of Dr. Black, every moment of it an amazing story. It leaves you REALLY wanting more. More depth, more details, more everything. This story could in itself fill a 400-page novel. Instead we get what we get, with so many of our questions unanswered.

The remaining 140-odd-pages are Dr. Black's Codex Extinct Animalia. Essentially we get a few entries of mythological creatures that Dr Black claimed were once real, and his anatomical drawings of them. At first glance, the drawings are interesting, but after about 3 creatures you realize that there isn't much substance in these entries. Readers that are well-versed in anatomy would find the diagrams lacking, and those without any anatomical knowledge wouldn't be able to make heads-or-tails of it (excuse the pun).

Personally I think this would have been a great sidepiece to an amazing novel of a mad scientist and his decent into the creation of these creatures. But it's not, so I just kind of don't know how to feel about it. ( )