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| Final Rating: 3.9/5 |
Pulls the reader straight into the dark heart of London in the early 19th century...
For those readers who may have morbid curiosity about certain topics and love a clever mix of genres, here is a treat just for you. Mr. Weir has created a tale that plays with the unknown and the macabre details straight from the dark side of human nature and history that pulls the unwary into a tale of combating and debatable topics and messages. Is Will Starling a story of miracles or simple coincidences? A tale that pulls details from Mythology and Theology and invites further questions concerning the delicate balance between life and death after the reader has finished? Or is this a collaborative narration with events that are shrouded in superstition or can be simply explained by advancements in medicine? Fellow readers Will Starling is all the above.
Will Starling is the reader's "wery umble narrator" as he weaves a twisted recollection of events by a guttering candle and leads his audience into an underworld of life and death that played out in early 19th-century London and on the battlefields beyond. Our narrator is a surgeon's apprentice who has a remarkable mind and keen interest in his benefactor's profession who loves nothing more than a large word he can mimic and a fledgling actress named Annie Smollet who only seems to see his diminutive status and his other unfortunate physical flaws. Despite imperfections and personal history our narrator welcomes his readers and takes us into a gritty realistic world that concerns advancements of the medical community and the old wives tales that pose unrelenting negative views and fear of the unknown concerning physicians, surgeons and primarily what goes on behind closed doors at the anatomical colleges. Events are further built upon and threads of a dark mystery are sewn into a shroud of speculation that enfold a fascinating cast of characters that takes us into the vary twisted bowels of Will Starling's adoptive world and opens our minds and eyes to the horrors and sometimes benefits of science.
In the end, Will Starling is a book that is a little difficult for me to fully describe but was a haunting entertaining look at medical history and held so many different facets that appealed to this reader and became a title I would gladly recommend. Will Starling is so much more than a grisly story about resurrectionists or doomsday men and the consequences of playing God with the unknown or a sinister literary mix of Dickens and Shelley. Mr. Weir has created a tale that brilliantly pays homage to the advancements of medicine and science during the 19th century and even a few cameo appearances are made by those who pioneered the way for future professions that have become respected in our current era. As a Nurse I am always fascinated by these stories and am in awe at the advancements we have made, but Will Starling is still much more than a story about progress and sharing of macabre historical details. This story has so many different facets and the narrator is ideal for this tale and the dialogue is delivered in a perfect believable tone and pulled this reader straight into the dark heart of London in the early 19th century. Although this is certainly a paced read and the sometimes haphazard events strung together by the narrator caused me distraction to reread a few passages to only realize these were cleverly hidden threads to the mystery this novel was still a treat that I savored and I couldn't ask for more. Bravo!
* I would like to thank Steerforth and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and enjoy Will Starling: A Novel
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