The Resurrectionist {by E.B. Hudspeth}

Title: The Resurrectionist

Author: E.B. Hudspeth

Publisher: Quirk Books

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Received from publisher

Philadelphia, the late 1870s. A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages—and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts—mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs—were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind? 
The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from a childhood spent exhuming corpses through his medical training, his travels with carnivals, and 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 anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.

First off, this book is super gorgeous under the dust jacket. Like, if you are ever in the presence of the physical book, just take off the dust jacket and admire it. Moving on...

This was super interesting. It's two books, sort of: the biography of Dr. Spencer Black, and then the Codex of extinct animals. It combines mythology, paranormal, Gothic horror. The book part of it was a very quick read, I read it in an hour or so. It was interesting and creepy. Although fairly short, it was still very entertaining.

The Codex, though, was probably my favorite part. These drawings were amazing. They were very in-depth and detailed, just like something you would find in a medical book...except for mythological animals. That's right: mermaids and minotaurs and what have you.

Now, I normally don't read horror/paranormal or the like. This isn't so creepy that it will scare you, but just creepy enough to keep you entertained. I actually think this would make the perfect gift book (but maybe not something you keep out on your coffee table).