The Resurrectionist by Kathleen Allen

Dee Dee and Dilly are seventeen-year-old twins recently orphaned after their father passed away in an accident. For Dilly his death, while sad, is a doorway to freedom. With him gone, she can finally pursue her lifelong dream of being a surgeon just like he was. She knows that this will be a difficult path to follow but she is willing to do anything to follow her dreams. After a chance encounter with Ben the son of the president of the medical school Dilly is confident that she has just found a way to make that path easier after Ben invites her to a lecture at the college with a renowned surgeon who admits that not only is he searching for a way to bring the dead but that her father had paved the way for his own research. Determined to prove to herself, to the world, and the ghost of her father she will succeed she starts down a dangerous path that makes her realize there truly isn't a line she is not willing to cross. 

As we all know Frankenstein is my favorite book of all time and reading retellings of Shelley's groundbreaking work is a favorite pastime, so when this popped up on NetGalley I knew I had to read it. I also know that I would enjoy it but I did not think it would be like reading Frankenstein all over again! 

The thing that I love the most about Frankenstein retellings is that they really demonstrate just how differently everyone interprets the themes found in the original. For me just how far a human is willing to go in the single-minded pursuit of a goal has always been my favorite theme. Victor's obsession with bringing the dead back to life is mirrored so well in The Resurrectionist. With Allen's retelling, we have that obsession rooted in the misogyny of the Victorian age. For Dilly, this isn't just about playing god, it's about proving to herself and society at large that she is just as intelligent and just as capable as any man. Even as she recognizes that what she is doing, what she has done, and what she is willing to continue to do is not just morally corrupt it is just flat out evil she easily and with no remorse shoves those feelings aside and marches on in pursuit of her goal. Dilly is not a likable character and there is no way should could be. No matter how many times she tells herself she feels bad this is a clear lie to the reader. And so even though as the reader there is remorse for Dilly for being in this world who not only doesn't see her it actively and maliciously sets fire to her dreams, by the end that is not enough to justify her actions. 

This is a Frankenstein retelling so I am simply going to assume that you all know that someone is going to get brought back to life, now I am not going to tell you who so I think we covered it in the spoiler section for the discussion of Dilly's Monster. Unlike Victor Dilly did not need to slap together body parts from numerous corpses to bring her monster to life, she just needed a dead person (well okay two) so we don't have this malformed thing that Frankenstein created. We just have a person. Or something that perfectly resembles a person. What Allen has done is instead of making this monster a hideous creature on the outside, Dilly's Monster is horrible on the inside. As soon as they are resurrected it is quite clear that the monster has absolutely zero moral compass, much less a respect for human life. By dying, by being brought back to life something has broken in the monster, something they can never get back, because while they may have a "soul" it isn't right. It has been twisted by the process it went through to allow the monster to "live" again. However, no matter how horrible, how depraved, the monster is they are never worse than Dilly. Oh sure, they may have done some bad things but they weren't as bad as what Dilly did because why they were doing it simply made more sense. The monster simply wasn't able to determine between right and wrong, not only that but for all the Dilly says she didn't play god for herself, I think the monster inherently knows that's bs. Like I said earlier Dilly never convinced me that she actually cared about what she had done, and if she didn't convince me then she certainly wouldn't have convinced her creation. Not to mention Dilly has a choice throughout this whole book to *stop* she never does. I don't believe the monster ever had a choice because it couldn't reason and I think because it does have its memories it does recognize on some level that something is missing and what that is has changed it. That being said, I never felt sorry for the monster and I feel like that is completely justified especially once we get to the last few chapters of the book. 

Ben is an interesting addition to this story as well, to be fair I don't think he was necessary except to be Dilly's mirror. Without him, I do not believe that Dilly would have ever stopped but only because she saw herself reflected in him. However, even as she realizes that she *is* a shade of his madness, she is equally or just as upset that she would always live in his shadow. It's an interesting duality, which again reminds us that Dilly's concern is more with herself than anyone else. 

Finally, the ending throws this all back on itself and we start right back at square one. The ending puts this all into question. Is Dilly the actual monster or is someone else? Do we have to rethink everything I just wrote? How can I blame Dilly while leaving Dilly's Monster blameless? And yet we do have that one action that takes place that I mentioned earlier when discussing Dilly's Monster that says I can.

Here's the thing I could go on and on and on about this book. Even as I write this I find new things I miss, I pick up and examine a scene or a sentence in a different light and now I have to rethink my findings again, for the millionth time. And that folks is what makes Shelley's story timeless. What makes it something that we go back to over and over again? It's why we all interpret it differently. And why this is to date the best retelling of Frankenstein I have ever read. And oh yes I know I say that with every new one and yet I do not feel that will ever change. 

As always thanks to NetGalley and McMillan Children's Publishing Group!