This is an amusing read with a winning hero and some convincing period detail(it is set in England in 1828. I enjoyed it but the ending felt rushed and tacked on. As if Mr. MacLeod's imagination (normally capable of great flights of fancy)has suddenly deserted him. ( )

When I think back on the events in the book, wading through a pool of heads, being attacked by a meat cleaver it sounds like I should have been on the edge of my seat, but I just wasn't. There were certainly plenty of unsavoury characters around while Thomas was trying to do the right thing, but by the time the mystery was solved at the end, I still hadn't realised I was meant to be trying to solve one. I think because Thomas wasn't trying to solve it either, it didn't seem like an important aspect of the book. Not a bad book by any means, just not a favourite. ( )

About the resurrectionists in London, drug use, bullying. ( )

With the inevitable guilt that comes with not finishing a book, I have to confess I abandoned this 3/4 of the way through. I appreciated the humour (I love Thomas's mother), but a little too grim and unrelenting in parts for me. ( )

Fantastic novel that is very similar in it's black humour to Neil Gaiman. Thomas is a 16 year old boy in 1828 who wants to be a doctor like his grandfather. His grandfather has just died and the book opens with him visiting his grandfather's graveyard to dig up his coffin as his grandfather wanted his body left to science. While there, Thomas meets Plenitude, a "resurrectionist" who digs up fresh corpses and transports them to the London medical schools so that the students can cut them open and learn how the human body functions. This leads to all sorts of very dark yet funny adventures with wonderful characters and settings.

There is Thomas' younger brother John, the 14year old Lord of the manor who trades with the East India company and is worried that his brother is being defamed as a nancy boy. There is best friend Charlie who is picked on unmercifully by the sadistic teacher Mr. Atkins. (until Thomas unfortunately causes his death.)
There is the pompous author Aubrey Wilks and his alluring companion Victoria Plum and the rival body-snatchers Clemency and Tolerance. There is the mad tattooed gypsy woman following him everywhere and finally, Thomas' laudlaum addicted mother who swears Thomas' father was a banker who died when he was 2 and has two hilarious lady friends - one a drunk and the other letch that provide quite a few chuckles.

Parts of this book are quite gruesome and there is discussions about prostituion but nevertheless it is a very good read. ( )