Title: The Resurrectionists (The Salem Hawley Series)
Author: Michael Patrick Hicks
Page Count: 156
Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror & Novella
Rating: ★★★✯☆ (3.5 – can’t put a half star so you get something fancier)
I got this as a preview copy from the nice people at Netgalley . I will always be honest about a book no matter if I paid for it or not. There are also affiliate links in here, too 💜
Synopsis
Having won his emancipation after fighting on the side of the colonies during the American Revolution, Salem Hawley is a free man. Only a handful of years after the end of British rule, Hawley finds himself drawn into a new war unlike anything he has ever seen.
New York City is on the cusp of a new revolution as the science of medicine advances, but procuring bodies for study is still illegal. Bands of resurrectionists are stealing corpses from New York cemeteries, and women of the night are disappearing from the streets, only to meet grisly ends elsewhere.
After a friend’s family is robbed from their graves, Hawley is compelled to fight back against the wave of exhumations plaguing the Black cemetery. Little does he know, the theft of bodies is key to far darker arts being performed by the resurrectionists. If successful, the work of these occultists could spell the end of the fledgling American Experiment… and the world itself.
The Resurrectionists, the first book in the Salem Hawley series, is a novella of historical cosmic horror from the author of Broken Shells and Mass Hysteria.
Review:
Right. Let’s get one thing straight up front – I’m a massive wimp. I find squirm at gore and used to run from my bathroom to my bedroom as a kid because I was convinced that the toilet witch would murder me during a midnight pee.
HOWEVER. Horror books have always piqued my interest because you chose the pace. You can hide from the pages for a few days until you’ve mustered up your courage. It was time for me to brave the world of scary books.
The Resurrectionists caught my attention for a few reasons:
1. It’s a novella so a good way to dip my toe in without committing to a beast of a book.
2. It’s historical fiction. Enough said there.
3. It sounded bloody awesome.
So why only 3 ½ stars, Jen. WHY? Because I feel like it could have been so much more.
Yes I found myself wiggling around on the bus when things got gory
Yes, I tore through the book because I was gripped by the story.
Yes, it’s intriguing, brilliant and creative.
You follow the story of the baddies and the good guys through the cleverly twisted retelling of the 1788 New York Doctor’s Riots and, thanks to an impressive amount of character work for such a short book, you’ll find yourself wanting Salam to triumph over the evils that the resurrectionists unleash on the earth.
Side note: part of me wanted things to go completely tits up and for the weird tentacle monsters to just run rampant on the city, but a girl can’t have everything.
All sounds great, right? Here’s the downside – you’ll be right into the story and then it just ends. It’s a little too abrupt for my liking and it felt like the start of a bigger book. I get it. It’s part of something bigger and there’s more to come, but I just wanted more.
Two final things:
1. This isn’t for the weak stomach. It’s gory AF.
2. That cover is BEAUTIFUL.
The Resurrectionists will be released on 4th June 2019.