Review: Paul Scheuring digs up quite the thrill with ‘The Resurrectionist’
The author’s second book is Gothic fiction at its finest.
The art of body-snatching ripped through 1820s London. Grave robber Job Mowatt wanted more for his 17-year-old daughter Ivy. Trapped in squalor, her future amounts to nothing more than a life unfulfilled and malnourished. Her inquisitive nature and hunger for books are not lost on Job. With the possibility of escape upon a ship, bound for the States, he’ll do almost anything to save his daughter—even if it costs him his life. In Paul Scheuring’s second novel, The Resurrectionist, these characters pounce from the page with all the vitality and fervor they can muster. Scheuring paints his characters with a delicate brush, often times charcoal sketches and other times with sweeping colorful palettes. He masterfully envelopes the reader in the dark underbelly of 19th Century London, each word carrying particular weight. It’s exemplary.
The smorgasbord of characters—also including anatomy student Cager and his professor Percival Quinn, as well as slimy resurrectionists Beauchamp & Gray—possess their own wants, desires, and ambitions. And their morals are called into question when a socialite named Mrs. Beddoe dies and her body becomes quite a costly prize. Job sets his sights on her corpse as a way to scrape up the money for Ivy’s freedom, and Cager just wants to prove himself—that he has the wherewithal to undertake such grim endeavors. For his part, Quinn wants to save his wife, who is with child but faces what could possibly be her demise, and seeks a pregnant body on which to experiment.
The Resurrectionist grips you by the soul and never let’s go. A tale about the furthest recesses of human existence, Paul Scheuring’s second novel dissects class and status and how death comes like a thief in the night. Ultimately, we’re all maggot-infested carcasses ready for the taking. With striking, Gothic imagery, Scheuring also explores what it means to be desperate and the lengths to which someone will go to fend for those they love. From start to finish, The Resurrectionist is the sort of release that defines careers. It’s that good.
The Resurrectionist is out now via One Light Road, LLC.
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