THE RESURRECTION MAKER - BOOK REVIEW
- Kátia 💘
- May 17, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Title: The Resurrection Maker
Author: Glenn Cooper
Format: Paperback | Audio Book | E-Book
Pages: 400
Length: 10h24m
Published: 20 March 2018
Publisher: Harper Collins
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
First off, let me start by saying that the topic of this book is one so incredibly difficult to write about. We're talking about the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Grail, and everything that is held so dear in, some form or another, in many different Religions. As soon as you start including Religion into anything, I feel there's an automatic notion of failure - you cannot depict or try to explain Religion - someone will always either be angry, or disagree. However, with that being said, Glenn has literally blown my mind with The Resurrection Maker.
I won't lie - I picked up this book as filler in Indigo's 3 for $10 section when my friend and I were off doing a book haul for the month of May. We'd picked two of the same books from this self, and the last ended up being something neither of us could agree on, so we went our separate way - hence ' The Filler'. Well, this novel certainly ended up being anything but!
I decided to use this one to fill the book void because it did have some aspects that seemed appealing to me:
1. The proposed history (I'm a HUGE history buff and historical fiction bookworm - enough said).
2. the adventure that our protagonist was sure to embark on (I'm a travel junkie - you sold me as soon as three plus countries were mentioned), and
3. Why is the author called "The Indiana Jones Of Literature"? (Mind you, this is likely where I get booed, but I'm unfortunately not a big Indiana Jones fan [sorry George Lucas fans].
So why the intrigue? Couldn't tell you, but I definitely wanted to know what our author was creating that could be compared to such an iconic film hero, such as Indy).
Our story starts off in Jerusalem in 33AD, and quickly jumps to present day England- which Present Day is where most of our story will take place. But, don't think for a second that this is where we'll stay. We're transported in so many direction throughout the course of the book, with incredible and powerful writing, that it almost feels like you've had the ability to live a life in each time period. 15th Century England, 15th Century France, 5th Century Britannia, 19th Century Spain... it might seem dizzying, but it's beautifully pieced together in such a way that it doesn't feel out of place by going from one time to another, like many authors can at times struggle with.
We follow our protagonist, Arthur, the illustrious descendent of Thomas Malory (now, if you're not sure who that is, I believe it's fair to say you'd likely not have much of an idea at all of Camelot nor King Arthur, were it not for Sir Thomas Malory and his book - easily the most known and best piece of Arthurian Literature). Along side Arthur, we quickly come to the conclusion that he is more than just his day-job - he kind of has a secret-ish, adventurous side to him too, much like his ancestor. Following the death of a close friend, Arthur senses that he is being followed, and comes to the conclusion that the death of his friend has much to do with Arthur himself, putting his own life at risk. It becomes apparent that his friends murderer is after information that Arthur is believed to have. With a few gentle nudges from some of our supporting characters, he's sent off spiralling into a world of danger, passion, and history in order to piece together the reason for his friends death, and its link back to him. Thus beginning his adventure through his families lineage, it's connection with King Arthur, and to the Holy Grail itself.
Mind you, by the time I got to the end, I was so invested in the story that I hated the ended. How could our author just stop it there. Tell me what I'm witnessing in those last few paragraphs! PLEASE! After about 5 minutes of turning the page expecting to find some sort of epilogue that I knew wasn't there, I just as quickly came to realize that either
a) It's a brilliant lead into a possible second book, or
b) the perfect way to keep anyones personal opinions open.
Like I mentioned, religion is hard to write about. And there's no way that this book is any different. I believe this story needs a particular audience to truly appreciate its magnificence. So if you're open minded to the possibilities surround your beliefs - or lack there of... If you are a person who enjoys history, adventure, thrills, suspense, romance, drama - just an utter flux of genres melded tightly into 400 pages... If you're the type of person who can get lost in the fantasy revolving around the reality... this book is sure to blow your mind.
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