Welsh, T.K. Resurrection men.
WELSH, T.K. Resurrection men. Penguin, Dutton. 224p. c2007. 978-0-525-47699-3. $16.99. SAfter his parents are killed right in front of him, 12-year-old Victor, from Modena, Italy, is sold as a cabin boy. His leg is shattered in a terrible fall on a ship and he is flung overboard, washing up on the shores of England. But all the danger and hurt Victor has experienced so far is nothing compared to the calculated cruelty he encounters as a crippled beggar in the mean, filthy streets of London in 1830, where bodysnatchers ("resurrection men") supply physicians eager to study human anatomy with not only fresh corpses but also live children for their experiments. Victor must risk his life to uncover the identity of a particularly evil doctor and save the girl he loves.
Based on the body-snatcher trials of the 1830s, this dark, atmospheric thriller by the author of the YA novel The Unresolved is an absorbing if often gruesome read. There are gory details of our hero cramming into an already occupied coffin and what takes place in a slaughterhouse and at a dissection, which will either thrill or appall readers. Like M.T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, this look at sinister events in history makes the era come alive and lingers in the memory.
S--Recommended for senior high school students.
Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT
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| Author: | Rohrlick, Paula |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Kliatt |
| Date: | Mar 1, 2007 |
| Words: | 228 |
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