The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher – Doug MacLeod

REVIEWED BY LYNDON WISE

The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher is a fantastic book. Doug MacLeod ensured that there was a lot of suspense throughout the book in order to keep the reader fascinated. As I am a very fussy reader I was surprised when I found myself reading this book all the time.Thomas Timewell is a 16 year old smart, fearless, gentleman. Being a doctor, Thomas’ grandfather’s last wish before he died was for Thomas to dig up his body and sell it to science. Thomas, wanting to fulfil his grandfather’s wish, in the middle of the night goes to the cemetery and starts digging. Little does he know that he has company. When Thomas meets Plentitude, a professional body snatcher, his whole life changes. They go on many adventures and encounter the unimaginable, this includes a tattooed gypsy with a meat cleaver, cutthroats and even the Grim Reaper. Thomas finds out secrets and facts about himself that he had never known and was never meant to know. I would describe the plot as a “quirky black comedy that is very interesting and funny at the same time.”
The title of the book, The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher, definitely suits the book because in the shortest way possible it describes the whole entire book. As well as the title suiting the book, it is an enticing, peculiar sort of title, which makes you really want to read the book. I know that when the school librarian mentioned this book to us, I straight away put my hand up and asked if I could read it, just because the title and blurb sounded so interesting and different to anything that I’ve ever read before.
In my opinion the message of the book is: always expect the unexpected.
In the words of Doug MacLeod (author) the message is: “terrible events can occur when you try to do the right thing.”
On the 25th of March I was very fortunate to have Doug MacLeod come to my school to speak. I found him very interesting and I think that he took a liking to me (as he gave me a free signed copy of this book.) I had a bit of a chat to him and I was very excited when I asked him if there would be a sequel to this book and he told me that he is working on one. All in all I loved this book and would recommend is to anyone and everyone!