Reviews

Speakers of the Dead by J. Aaron Sanders

mwgerard's review

3.0

In the muddy, soot-blackened days of early Manhattan, a tiny cabal of scientists pushes for the advancement of medicine and anatomical understanding. A smaller group runs a dangerous underground business in procuring dead bodies. And the general public is disgusted by them all.

Read my full review here: http://mwgerard.com/review-speakers-of-the-dead/

cspiwak's review

4.0

interesting ploy with a bit of Whitman lore thrown in and some comic relief from Edgar Allen Poe. Will definitely try the next one

ashleybwells's review

2.0

I feel like I'm always complaining about books being too long and overwritten, and this is one of the rare cases where I think a book is too short and underwritten. The author's note at the end explains that he wanted to explore how Walt Whitman went from being a journalist and temperance writer in his early 20s to one of the greatest living American poets in his mid-30s, while also positing solutions for famous unsolved mysteries Whitman would have been familiar with. This is an EXTREMELY ambitious project, the kind you spend years researching so that you can get the historical details exactly right. And perhaps the research did happen, but the writing feels very rushed to me, more like a promising first draft than a fully realized novel. I don't know if the author was on a deadline or if this book was rushed into production for some reason, but I would have loved to see what this author could have done with more time to let his novel breathe. Whitman is extremely likable as a protagonist but his milieu isn't fleshed out. Important plot points get summarized instead of described, like when a disaster occurs and the character simply "breaks down." I really do like what the author was going for here and I hope he can invest the time he needs into his next novel, but this one never quite comes together for me.