My rating: 2.5 of 5 starsA copy of The Resurrectionist was provided to me by Quirk Books for review purposes.'I have butchered many men. All are innocent and equaled when they are on the table. All are exquisite and grotesque.'Dr. Spencer Black is a controversial surgeon in the late 1870's who has developed a fascination with the deformities of the human body. It's a gruesome and at times shocking tale of the lengths the good doctor would go to in order to continue his research. This story definitely had potential to fascinate, especially regarding the aspects that Black believed deformities were actually 'evidence of a genetic code that was not completely eradicated'. The idea that mythological creatures were ancestors of humankind is really quite intriguing but unfortunately failed to stir any lasting interest. It all read like a Wiki page: informative yet dry and oftentimes tedious. I think it would have been much more interesting if written as an actual short story or novella rather than a biography. The best part of this book was the amazing artwork included in Black’s magnum opus: The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts. The artwork was incredibly detailed and Reading this book as an ebook would hardly do it justice considering this is very much a coffee-table type book. It's also a book that could be read through quickly (considering the text amounts to approximately 65 pages) but considering the style of writing it may be more interesting to read small bits at a time. Overall I found The Resurrectionist to be a macabre tale that will likely interest fans of Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau. The artwork is truly the most interesting part of this book and is worth checking out for that alone.