The Restorative Artist

by Cecil Fenn

An embalmer haunted by the death of his lover pulls apart his relationship and his funeral home to escape the pain of grief. Queer literary fiction meets gothic horror in this debut novel from a former funeral professional.

Graham has built his life around the dead. He's a talented embalmer, the devoted director of his own funeral home, and the guiding hand behind a small but respected team. After a corpse-carried illness forces him to reckon with his own mortality, Graham struggles to confront the lingering pain of a recent loss. Grief, he finds, is not so easily diagnosed, dissected, and named. It is not so easily cured.

Betrayed by his body and unable to accept the pain death has caused him, Graham loses faith in his profession and the person he's become in its service. The past – which he imagines as a story of love and self-acceptance – becomes Graham's refuge. But in the present, influenced by increasingly gruesome visions of the deceased, Graham withdraws from his funeral home with devastating consequences for himself, his new girlfriend, and his colleagues. As his life, and even his sanity, starts to fragment, Graham struggles to rediscover the importance of his work and the history that haunts him before he loses everything and everyone close to him.

The Restorative Artist is a dissection of memory and embodiment, set against the morbid decadence—and sterilising secrecy—of the US funeral industry. Through Graham's confrontations with the spectre of his deceased lover, the horror of his work, and his uneasy relationship with his own transgender body, it dares to ask how anyone can continue in the face of loss.

Genres: Horror, Queer, Literary Fiction, Fiction

329 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2026

About the author

Cecil Fenn is a writer, designer, and former funeral professional. Originally from New York, he apprenticed in embalming before moving across the Atlantic and retraining in theatre technology. Now, he lives in the UK with two cats and a small vinyl collection, but his work still centres grief and the body.

Cecil’s short fiction has appeared in Scrawl Place, Canthius, and The Dread Machine, among others, and has been shortlisted for the WEM Aurora Prize. In 2019, he was a writer-in-residence at Islington Pride and the ruckus! archives. The Restorative Artist is his first novel.

Reviews

[Teru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might not have been the best pick for my recovering mood, but what an incredible effort for a debut novel - and so very personal, I’m willing to bet.

Graham is a successful funeral director and an embalmer, a trans man in his thirties, in a new relationship with his girlfriend Ava, when he gets diagnosed with an advanced case of tuberculosis he probably contracted from one of the bodies. His physical decline and a close brush with death trigger a mental spiral into despair, awakening a latent grief over his ex-boyfriend he never dealt with. The grueling recovery and Jackie’s ghost make Graham contemplate his job, purpose, and his past, while the future gets put on hold - either until the past is dealt with...or for good.

Told in dual timeline in third-person POV, Graham’s story is a slow-burn, character-driven journey through existential dread, grief and guilt over a lost lover and broken promises, identity and self-expression, and what it means to look death in the eye and come out broken with a lost will to live. I would classify it as literary fiction with some horror elements set in a funeral home, with a gruesome and heavy atmosphere. No joke, reading this book felt like trudging through mud, like watching a person’s decay in real time (complimentary for this kind of story). By the end, I was pretty sure the title hides a double meaning - Graham might be a restorative artist, a term he prefers when mentioning his job to strangers, but all in all, the book is about the art of restoring one’s life despite the odds.

My god but do I have so many notes! There’s so much to talk about, making The Restorative Artist a perfect book club pick. Besides the aforementioned themes, the author brushed upon body dysphoria, internalised transphobia and some toxic views on masculinity that affect Graham’s perception of himself. The prejudice and misunderstandings against people working with the dead in any capacity - the society might not outright ostracise anymore, but the looks are still there (and with the looks come the thoughts - if they can have a job like that and be fine, surely there must be something wrong with their heads. What else would they be fine with doing?).

Getting to know Graham so closely, I can safely say I’ve never met a character so obviously not okay as him. His crippling anxiety when it comes to death and mortality quiets only during his work embalming the dead. He never dealt with his trauma and loss, constantly pushing everything away from conscious thought, until only the work and increasingly vivid intrusive thoughts remain. Intent on making himself invisible, he’s like a ghost in his own life. Floundering between craving love and connection and not wanting to be a bother so people won’t leave him.

I found admirable how, even after about fifteen years in the industry, Graham still viewed the dead with great respect and treated his job more as a service instead of a business. It’s why the eventual loss of purpose in the job he so cherished and perfected over time actually hurt.
Cecil Fenn masterfully portrayed the loneliness of someone constantly surrounded by other people’s grief, while their own got locked in a box and shoved deep in their mind’s crevices.
And while in the thick of it, Graham wasn’t even suicidal in an “I want to die” sense, but the more passive “I’m not interested in living anymore” way...and that just ached on a deeply personal level.

While Ava was Graham’s current partner, it was Jackie that got my mind spinning more. He’s someone I still can’t fully form an opinion on. No spoilers, but their past relationship was a big mess both times they started something over a decade, and maybe his POV would have helped me decide, but I couldn’t help but find Jackie to be a deeply selfish person. And honestly, I’m glad we didn’t get his story because this book was about Graham; and it was a high time HIS voice was prioritized for once in his life.

I did have some issues that dragged my experience down a bit. First of all - the lack of an actual embalming process!! Come on, it was the main reason I even requested the book; I wanted the nitty-gritty details, from start to finish! I guess I’ll need to pick up some mortuary science books instead cause the information I did get has me interested 👀
The pacing near the middle could’ve been tightened up and shortened; those 40-60 percent sure made the book feel longer than it was. The writing itself is undeniably great but for some reason didn’t inspire a truly emotional response in me, for the most part.
And finally... I know that recovery is different for everyone, but Graham’s shift into it, getting back on his metaphorical feet, was quite sudden. Given the overall slow pacing it felt rushed, his life on the mend during the last few percent of the book. Felt a bit like a magical fix after one honest talk, you know? I realise Graham’s journey probably won’t be linear, but the ending pretty much was that, and it left me slightly underwhelmed and sceptical.

Ugh, there is so much more I could discuss, but I would rather you read the actual book. If you’re easily bored or need a more external plot to drive a story forward, or find the themes triggering, The Restorative Artist wouldn’t be for you. But if you’re eager to let a story sink its claws into your brain and muddle it with heaviness that feels inescapable...here’s a book for you 🖤
Now, excuse me while I go spend a few hours watching videos of cute baby animals.

(One more thing - imagine my utter delight when I found the most perfect ambience on YT - “Old Embalming Room After Hours | Thunderstorm, Rain, Piano & Dark Ambient Music” 😳)

Huge thank you to Lucent Dreaming and NetGalley for this e-arc! The Restorative Artist is set to come out on September 17 2026.

[Matt Tiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I came across several stories from the past few months, it occurs to me very seldomly to encounter stories that make me reflect on grief, feel exactly the dreaded yet familiar depressing emotions, and go inside my psyche to analyse the haunting mindset I have inclining towards self-sabotage and negative thoughts.

Since I also prefer stories that dwell on the characters rather than the plot, and with certain tendencies to value more the literary prose and artful execution of narration, The Restorative Artist achieved all those qualities that I’m looking for a book.

This follows the story of Graham, a professional that deals with the somber realities of the deceased by preparing them before they were finally laid beneath the ground. Since death and the health risks arising from his job carry such weight of dealing with negativity, our protagonist still was able to function as a normal person who has a thriving relationship.

Everything changed when a health risk endangered Graham’s stability and health, which led to the harrowing narration of the things that troubles him. In introspect, readers can expect realistic depictions of how a people who’s living in his head went spiralling towards the pit of negativity, devastating heartbreak, and contemplations of a person’s untoward circumstances.

What I liked about this book is that the multi-layered discussion of mortality, queerness, love, grief, empathy, and resilience were handled carefully without complicating the plot. The author also masterfully set the gloomy tone of the premise without overdoing or introducing too much elements. At the end of the story, I was rooting for Graham to experience salvation which he truly deserves. It was hard to dismiss the thought that, at the core, the whole story is a cry for help, especially coming from a character who tends to bottle up his emotions and problems.

It would be an understatement to say that this book changed my life, because it doesn’t simply challenged me as a reader, but it also offered me moments to reflect about mortality, life, and grief in general. So for readers who prefer a slow yet contemplative narration of the human condition, I’d highly recommend this book. This book deserves 6 out of 5 stars rating due to the life lesson, impact, and contemporary relevance it holds in today’s times.

Many thanks to Lucent Dreaming, Cecil Fenn, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Dara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was SO beautiful. So tender; so gentle yet hard hitting.

Graham owns a funeral home and is a very talented embalmer, but when he falls ill and is diagnosed with a corpse-carried illness, shortly after the sudden death of his lover, he is forced to face his own mortality and how much of his life he spends surrounded by death. Swipe to the last pic for the full blurb ➡️

‘The Restorative Artist’ is a stunning yet heartbreaking exploration of grief, but it’s so much more than that - there is subtle commentary on the funeral industry, memory and embodiment, identity; there’s so much in there but it’s so delicately and unobtrusively woven into Graham’s story.

I had the pleasure of meeting the author @cecilfenn at their immersive book launch and I think knowing that they used to be a funeral professional really enhanced my experience of this book. I bought it thinking it sounded really interesting, but I could never have imagined just how much of an impact it would have on me.

I saved ‘The Restorative Artist’ to read around Halloween and whilst there are definitely some spooky and unsettling moments, I’d say it’s perfect for those slow periods at either end of winter - November and February kinda vibes; when it’s dark and cold and the world seems to move more slowly, but you can feel the cusp of change in the air.

[Sayd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is about an embalmer as he deals with his own personal loss, illness, depression, grief, guilt, and losing his sense of purpose.

Death is frightening. So is losing our loved ones, but we’re going to have to face it one day. This book isn’t a confrontation of that fear, which was my initial worry. At least not for me. It soothes that fear in a lot of the ways that hearing ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ doesn’t.

I attended a funeral recently. It was unexpected. Someone young. I was physically sick about having to face it and it was a hard experience, but it helps to understand more about the professionals involved in the process. Something that bothered me was thinking about how impersonal it seemed to have a stranger look after a loved one, but those strangers I met at the funeral home weren’t impersonal nor were they intrusive. They knew when to offer comfort, silence, space, or words. It’s a far more nuanced field than I realized. This book portrays that nuance and emotional sense extremely well.

This is a horror novel, but not at the expense of the dead. The horror of this book is more of a body horror. You’re put in the perspective of someone dealing with illness, depression, and loss. Someone going through the motions of debilitating grief. It is about self isolation and self sabotage and the paralysis that comes with being unable to do anything about it even when you recognize it. It’s about that debilitating fatigue.

It’s also about relationships, connections, and allowing someone to help you out of the pits of sorrow when the time is right. All of the relationships in this were as nuanced as the subject matter.

I haven’t read a book about someone being so unwell in their body and mind in a while, and it’s frighteningly relatable whether you’ve gone through struggles of illness or mental health. It did those things very well too.

It’s hard to say who I would recommend this book to, because it does deal with heavy topics and some moments are very dark. What I will say is that the subject matter was portrayed tactfully and while I found it emotional, it ultimately brought me more comfort than it did anxiety. Being able to relate to the main character is in itself as comforting as it is uneasy, but that may not resonate with everyone and I do think this needs a specific, self aware type of reader. I’m sure it could be triggering for some.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lucent Dreaming for providing me with a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. It has earned a place on my physical shelf, and I preorderd it after only a few chapters. My instincts were absolutely correct.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savoured this book from start to finish and, along the way, it cemented itself not just as one of my favourite reads of this year, but also as one of my favourite books full stop.

The character work and language throughout are exquisite, the settings vividly rendered and fully realised. It's reminiscent at times of A Little Life in terms of the prose and the depth of feeling portrayed - a lovely reading experience for someone who adores Yanagihara's work. As the two narratives unfold, the story becomes both immersive and atmospheric without ever feeling sluggish or bloated, as literary fiction often can; there's a vitality that carries through the whole novel. This is an author with a voice and real talent in terms of craft - as a reader, you can relax into the book knowing you're in safe hands. Fenn's experience and care are woven into the meticulous details at the heart of it.

And it's the care around death, the dying, and grief that is really, really going to stick with me. I don't think I've ever read anything this attentive in that respect. Beyond my admiration for the craft, the story, the characters, etc., on a personal level, finding this book just after my grandad died and carrying it with me as we made it through his funeral was incredibly moving and an enormous comfort. I cannot wait to see what Fenn writes next - this is a phenomenonal debut.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book beautifully and poetically explores grief, mortality and love. It’s very well written and the main characters are fairly realistic. However, I found myself wanting more of an exciting plot. It is definitely more of a slowburn ‘gothic horror’ love story as opposed to traditional horror, which is more my taste. I struggled to finish this book as quickly as I usually would.

Graham’s past with Jackie was the most interesting part of this book, whereas his battle with TB took up way too much space. I expected more gory and gritty details when it came to the embalming process and was left disappointed considering I picked this book based off Graham’s profession being a mortician. The ending was quiet and tied up pretty neatly. Overall, I really wish I enjoyed it more but it was too much of a slowburn for my taste.

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!

If you're looking for the trans lovechild of Shirley Jackson and Donna Tartt, this book is for you.

I didn't know what i was getting myself into when starting this novel. I expected something kind of Frankenstein-y, maybe some Hannibal thrown in. And was instead face to face with my own mortality and the cost of sickness. Genuinely feeling like I just got bitch-slapped by the mental toll of chronic sickness.

Typically, I go into books that are sadder with a different headspace, with walls up. I didn't expect that with this, and so I experienced it in an entirely different way that I would have in any other scenario. And I'm glad for it. It allowed me to really feel for Graham and, at moments, feel as if I was there with him. A spectre of a spectator to Graham and Jackie's illnesses. There were moments during Graham's worst of his sickness where I could almost feel what he was going through. The cold ceramic of the toilet bowl, the tiles of the bathroom floor, the cotton feeling in your head. The description felt so vivid and real, it was hard to remember I was merely reading words on a page.

One of the stand-out aspects of this novel is the scientific details of embalming and the mortuary where Graham worked. It did a fantastic job of being detailed and painting a vivid picture without feeling disrespectful or the ever-popular 'gross to be gross.' I was completely enthralled. There was such clear care and love for the profession that really sold it all.

Another stand-out for me was the inclusion of a second chance at love. Losing someone you were in love with, but it not stopping you from finding someone new. What a beautiful and rare trope in queer media, ESPECIALLY when the first partner is a different gender from the second. Absolutely obsessed with this representation that seems so small but is so rare.

The way relationships (platonic and romantic) are explored is phenomenal. Between Ava and Jackie to Graham's coworkers. The realness behind it all, down to Jackie and Graham's argument when they were younger to Graham meeting Ava's parents when he was sick, it was both decidedly not sugarcoated but also not enveloped in pure tragedy and devastation. A perfect mix of both that left me staring at my ceiling for... a while when I finished at 3 am.

This is getting quite long so I'll allow this to be my last bullet point, so to speak, but I really loved the trans representation and how it was written. I love books with trans characters that are about them being trans. That will never change. However, sometimes it's nice for a book to have a trans character where that isn't the focal point. It's a part of him just like a peanut allergy would be or having blonde hair. It was refreshing but still real. There were still thoughts that I've felt often, worries I intimately understood. But it wasn't all he was.

There were a lot of hard topics in this novel that weren't shied away from, so I do implore future readers to look into content warnings before reading. But it is so incredibly worth it if you do. I spent an entire therapy session discussing different part of this book and how they made me rethink parts of my entire being. It was a sad read at times, tense at others, and yet it was hopeful, too. And when I finished it I felt lighter and like I finally understood that it's often more detrimental to relationships to not accept help than it is to. And wow was that a revelation.

What an absolutely gut-wrenching and beautiful story of everything grief and love have to offer.

I would recommend for fans of:
-The Haunting of Hill House (2019) as well as Shirley Jackson's books in general
-Donna Tartt/when Richard Papen almost died of hypothermia for what felt like 300 pages but was actually like 20 maybe
-Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
-CG Drews
-the grief of The Summer Hikaru Died
-the vibes of Jon going crazy in the archives thinking all of his assistants were trying to kill him in The Magnus Archives
-Down Low (2019) with zachary quinto and lukas gage
-Adam Silvera but wished he wrote adult horror
Hannibal
-trans people (i heart trans rep)

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

In ‘The Restorative Artist’ we follow Graham who is a funeral director and embalmer who has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. We first meet him when he’s ill and see how resistant he is to going to hospital and how determined he is to minimise his own needs. As we move backwards and forwards through his life, we get a picture of someone who has become accustomed to making themselves as small as possible, struggling with depression, anxiety and the fear of being a burden to others.

The prose in this is absolutely beautiful. I also enjoyed seeing the world from Graham’s unique perspective as someone who is medically trained and works with the dead with this medical and professional knowledge shaping how he views and describes bodies. You can also see the author's experience of working as a funeral professional coming through in the details about the business itself, which I found fascinating. I also found the depictions of physical connection between Graham and Ava and Graham and Jackie tender and affectionate.

I found Graham's character quite heartbreaking. He's so closed off and unassuming, seemingly afraid of taking up too much space or even being perceived, and he's clearly been neglecting his own needs for a long time. The descriptions of his illness and fatigue are particularly effective, and I could understand how his fear of being a burden contributed to him allowing his condition to progress so far. We start to see changes in Graham as he has to navigate a change in his role and identity, moving from someone who works around death and is incredibly restrained to someone who has to confront his own vulnerability, mortality and lack of control.

I was particularly interested in the idea of the mortuary as a liminal space, existing somewhere between life and death. Graham seems to inhabit that same space in his personal life, too. He's alive, but he's not really living, caught in a state of depression and disconnection, largely due to grief he’s been unwilling to work through thus far. As his illness forces him to confront the fact that he can no longer continue as he has been, I found myself hoping he'd finally allow himself to take up some space, start living for himself and begin processing some of that grief.

Graham's experiences as a trans man are also handled in a way that captures the anxiety surrounding disclosure and the uncertainty of how other people might react. The earlier sections of his life, particularly his relationship with Jackie, convey how much emotional energy can go into anticipating rejection and trying to protect yourself from it.

There are also some subtle hauntings throughout the novel. At first I wasn't always sure whether I was supposed to interpret these as actual hauntings or something more ambiguous. This became clearer as the novel progressed but I found myself wanting a few more instances of these events throughout.

Ultimately, this is an absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking story with lyrical prose and a gothic atmosphere, about grief, illness, identity and learning to live rather than simply exist.

I received an eARC from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving this review.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Lucent Dreaming for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own and subjective.

3.5/5. While my rating might indicate a less than stellar reading experience, I'll say that I'm ultimately glad that I read this. This is a story about Graham, a trans man, struggling with his own grief and the emotions that come with it, how he feels as if he's not allowed to feel the way other cis men would, that his own identity combined with his personality not allowing him to allow himself to just be. It is something that resonates with me, also a trans man.

While I can appreciate the author's perspective, as well as writing a protagonist of with an occupation less seen (a mortician), this was unfortunately a drag for me. The majority of the book was spent focusing on Graham's struggle and downward spiral, and as much as I sympathize with his pain, it felt like it just went on and on and on about pretty much the same thing.

Graham got sick, things became bad, things happened and then better, and then something would trigger him to spiral again and it didn't let up until the very end, where his grief was resolved almost too quickly and neatly for me, even if the situation was anything but. I can understand that the point is that Graham thinks men like him only deserve the worst, and he was miserable partially because he kept himself there, but for me, I wished this was a hundred pages shorter.

I will say that I'm mostly to blame for this, the blurb led me to believe that this would have more horror than there exists in the book, and there really isn't much of that. The 'horror' moments were more mellow and tragic than they're visceral.

Also, formatting wise, sometimes two characters would talk within the same paragraph, and it took a bit of work to decipher who's saying which line.

Don't let me dissuade you from giving this a try. This is very much a slow burn, deep dive and character study, and I can see this being an easy 5 for someone else out there, possibly you!. That someone isn't going to me, though, at least not with my current interests and psyche.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Restorative Artist follows Graham, a Trans embalmer and funeral home director whose life begins to unravel after illness, loss, and unresolved grief collide. What starts as a story about mortality slowly becomes something more personal and unsettling as Graham questions his work, his relationships, his identity, and even his perception of reality.

This book was a hauntingly beautiful blend of literary fiction and horror. The horror isn't necessarily constant or in-your-face, but there is something deeply unsettling about the way death and the dead linger throughout Graham's story. The visions he experiences added this eerie layer to an already emotionally heavy story.

Graham is a complicated character, and I found myself feeling so much for him even when I didn't always understand his choices. His grief felt messy and painfully human. It affects how he sees himself, the people around him, and the life he's built, and I thought the author did a beautiful job showing how grief doesn't follow any neat progression.

I also really enjoyed the exploration of Graham's relationship with Ava and the people he works with. His personal struggles don't exist in isolation, and watching them spill into his relationships made the story feel even more heartbreaking.

The funeral industry aspect was another huge draw for me. I've always been fascinated by the world of funeral homes and embalming, so I really appreciated getting that perspective woven into the story. It added an extra layer to the themes of death, mortality, and the complicated relationship we have with the people who care for the dead.

This is a book about grief, but also about identity, illness, memory, love, and what happens when you can't keep compartmentalizing the things that hurt you. It can be uncomfortable, disturbing, and heartbreaking, but that's also what made it so memorable.

Thank you so much, Cecil Fenn, for the #gifted earc. All opinions are my own.

[Stormie Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that leaves you haunted yet hopeful.

In The Restorative Artist, we follow Graham, a trans funeral director and embalmer, who is navigating his life after the loss of his boyfriend.

The story begins with an incredibly ill Graham who never stops coughing. Eventually ending up hospitalized with a life-changing diagnosis, Graham has an identity crisis.

At the same time, he is trying to get a footing in his new relationship with a woman named Ava who came out of nowhere in an unexpected, yet very needed way.

The illness, unprocessed grief from the loss of his boyfriend, relationship problems with Ava, and inability to perform at his job has left Graham completely despondent.

Then Graham starts seeing the specter of his loved one. As his sanity slips away from him, he feels more terrified than ever and watches the life we worked so hard for slip through his hands like sand.

This book hits really hard on unprocessed grief and its impacts on identity and the ability to form meaningful relationships. I let this sit with me for a minute and really grew to appreciate how the author wrote about Graham’s grief. While disturbing, haunting, and at times frustrating, are all of those emotions not what grief is capable of?

Illness and identity are explored on a continuum as relationships are tested romantically and professionally. The author describes Graham’s illness in the terrifying, yet modern tone it deserves while describing the up/down emotions that come with such a diagnosis.

The funeral business has always intrigued me ever since the movie My Girl. I even wanted to be a mortician and have my own house/mortuary combo. This book gave a nice birds-eye view into what that world might look like.

[mary ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to collect my thoughts and write this review. I had to really sit with the story for a multitude of reasons.

The story is about Graham, an embalmer, who catches a contagious bacterial infection and suddenly his whole life crashes down on him. As it was advertised as a horror book, I expected there to be ghosts. However, the element of horror was brief but that doesn’t change the fact that he was haunted. Graham was haunted by grief.

I love Graham so much. I love Ava so much. I loved all the characters in the book actually and I had so much empathy and compassion for each one of them. The book deals with very dark themes, which is to be expected as Graham is an embalmer. He also deals with depression, shame, and grief revolving his transness.

I honestly don’t know where to begin praising this book. I loved Graham and Ava’s relationship so much. I like how forgiving and resilient it was. Towards the end of the book, when Graham hits a very low point, I couldn’t help but relate to his thought process. In my opinion, the themes of grief, death, memory, and mortality were all dealt with in a very good manner. Loved this book from start to finish. I cried. Have I said I love Graham? I love Graham. A new favourite book. 3

I definitely recommend this, but it deals with very dark and tense themes so I advise caution!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Lucent Dreaming for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Doe Is Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC on Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.

So the reason I wanted to read this is genuinely because I saw it on Netgalley and the description sounded like it'd be something right up my street. Friends, I was right. This story was so incredibly beautiful, jarring, and heartbreaking. This is described as both a "literary fiction" and a "horror" on Goodreads, but this for sure falls more into the literary fiction catergory, as the horror elements of this story felt more sad than horrifying. Which also means we've finally found a literary fiction I like! This book truly was filled with a heartbreak that I don't think I was ready for. The way that this character dealt with their queerness, them being trans and their grief was both beautiful and devestating at the same time. I genuinely found myself tearing up throughout this book and just wanting to jump into the story and give our main character a hug. I would absolutely recommend this if you want something that's going to tear your heart out and put it back together again, but please note there are some triggering topics throughout so please look up the trigger warnings before you read this book.

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content warnings were clearly stated by both the author and the publisher. But regardless I started reading The Restorative Artist by Cecil Fenn after my best friend died. Then I got sick with bronchitis, not tuberculosis like the main character in the book. I was reading the book and feeling the same physical symptoms; coughing, fatigue and grieving. Constantly grieving. The main character Graham wants to give up his work as an embalmer and funeral home director after his lover dies. He can’t stomach it anymore. His home and office are in the same building. He is confronted by death every day and believes he’s being haunted. I think this book helped me confront and face grief. I cried a lot. Nothing is a cure and I know that only time passing changes the contours of grief. I will always think fondly of Graham, Jackie, Ava and Daniel. I understood Graham’s hesitation to not share his transition with everyone and keep this part of himself to only the people he trusted. There’s a lot of heart in the funeral industry. It’s not all horror. ARC was provided by Lucent Dreaming via Netgalley. I received an advance reading copy for free and I am leaving this feedback voluntarily.

[Halema · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-thought-out story of working with the deceased and confronting your own mortality in that industry. This book makes you feel for the MC, Graham, in many ways through his own insecurity about being transgender, his grief over his past lover, and his sickness. Grief affects people differently, and for Graham, it caused him to neglect his physical and mental health. I have personal experience with that type of neglect; it takes alot of time to recover. Alot things can also affect it, like the people you have around you. I did like the relationship of Ava and Graham; it felt realistic, on their careers and the time they spend together. It shows the realities of being with someone when they are going through illness and grief. This book also makes you think of the funeral industry and how people view that career choice. The writing in this book was well written and poetic. This book's tone is melancholy but shows light from acceptance of oneself.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Lucent Dreaming, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Flo Wiedenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many books have brought tears to my eyes, but this one has now joined that precious list.

Cecil’s writing is beautiful and feels effortlessly (almost mundanely) poetic.
The Restorative Artist feels like a vivisection of a simple life; showing us the effects of unattended grief and the importance of closure (are we ever even “done” grieving?), or moving on.

The book has good pacing. Not a single sentence or paragraph feels like a waste of ink. If anything i wished it was longer! One of those writing styles that makes you forget time and place, pulling you fully into the story, making you smile or cry whether you’re at home on the couch of on the bus to work.

Lastly, I really I loved the subtle queer and trans elements of it; always in the background but never the centrepoint: a more accurate depiction of how queer & trans people exist in the world; how we think of ourselves, our bodies, and relationships, wether those be personal or professional.

I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to feel… alive.

[D Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quiet and devastating novel, meditative without being solipsistic or bogged down in philosophy. Graham is precisely drawn, his grief and struggles with both death and illness are acutely communicated, and impressive feat considering the extent to which he responds with avoidance of both the feelings and the care he is offered as a result of hardship. While this book spans more than a decade in time, concentrating primarily on the beginning and end of that decade, it is not a high action novel, and it does not need to be. There are multiple illnesses, a loss and recovery and the daily work of a funeral home and The attendance to grief that requires. there is the experience of queerness, and experience that shapes these characters, but is not centered in the story and there are comforts if not answers and it is all written in clear, quiet and beautiful language.

[L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't an easy book, emotionally, but I couldn't stop reading or thinking about it. The characters are so well written, so three-dimensional. The setting is so clear, and unusual for the reader but natural for the POV character, and when the POV perspective starts to warp through illness it twists everything with it. The queerness was bedrock to the story, not an afterthought or scaffolding; there would be no story without it, but it isn't THE story. It's in everything. At its core, it's about healing - unevenly, with great difficulty, against your will maybe, both physically and emotionally. And love, of course. There's no loss without it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

[kienn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queer gothic horror litfic about a grieving embalmer, with trans rep! Very excited to read this author's debut, he has experience as a funeral professional.. Thank you for the ARC!!

The MMC, Graham, is an embalmer and a trans man fighting his own body.. cant have a gothic without a frail and sickly man with consumption and catholic guilt haunted by the ghosts of his past..!!
beautifully gothic writing full of rot and decay... i love clinical terms paired with a gothic appreciation...
a meditative slice into Graham's life and love and loss.. this slow gothic musing explores grief and interpersonal struggles to an intimately tender and absolutely devastating extent...
the sequence between graham and jackie was beautiful... ava is such a dear and daniel sweet...
the end is a bittersweet end that brings closure...
if you want a book that makes you cry.... wipe your tears with these pages....!!!!!!

⚰️ hauntingly beautiful gothic prose
🖤 grief and love
🪦 appreciation for art
💀 queer bodies
♥️ how do you capture life in the face of death?

[Mallory Ducatte · Rating 5 out of 5]

The courage of living while devoting one’s life to assisting in memorial and maintaining the dignity of death. When the unconscious life sustaining breath becomes to painful whether by illness or heartbreak. To keep going in spite of the unknown future while honoring the past, letting it hold a space for love, acceptance, peace. This novel is haunting in its raw fragility that resonated to my core leaving my heart racing, eyes teary, and at the end a smile on my face. I devoured this book and cannot praise it enough for such a beautifully tragic, real, and humbling story of what it means to be human.

[Nicola Blamires · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the author and publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.

The Restorative Artist is a story of grief in all its forms - loss, death, guilt, change, relationships, friendships, the future. It is written in such a brilliantly moving way that you feel deeply for each character even if they do not have a major role. Fenn's debut novel is subtle in its queerness and clearly has some biographical references which make it all the more heartbreaking and heartbreakingly beautiful.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

*thank you to net galley and the publisher for this arc*
While I was expecting more of a ghost story, this book ultimately ended up being about a much more literal haunting of grief. It was beautiful and heartbreaking, and even though death is waiting on every page you’ll be hard pressed to find a better example of the importance of staying alive

Perfect for fans of Andrew Joseph White, CG Drews, and NBCs Hannibal

[lfthndofdrknss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received as a NetGalley arc in exchange for an honest review

The Restorative Artist tells the story of queer mortuary artist, Graham, brought low by illness and grief. Graham's strained awareness of his transgender body is heightened as the physical toll of weakens him and threatens to break what control he has over his simple life. Cecil Fenn has created lyrical and haunting exploration of the living within the US funerary industry.

[spen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel about grief, wherein every scene exists for a reason, culminating in some capacity for memory of what you can build. I felt moved by portraits of despair expressed through the foibles of learned patience and rationalised compassion. I sensed my rote reflections on death and loss gently turning over in the hands of a skilled author. I can't wait to read more.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks ##NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This was dark and deep and very emotional. This really hits you as you read and makes yiu think about many darker aspects of life and death. The writing was interesting and engaging and clearly a lot of love went into this. Recommend you read!

[Stabigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was lovely and touched me in such an unexpected way. I cared so deeply for all of these characters and felt their pain and happiness and sorrow and frustration. The last hour of the book had me holding back tears and eventually failing. I was so worried this would fall into the trope of Graham just being with Ava to try to get Jackie out of his system and to quiet anything outwardly queer about him but I'm so pleased by their genuine and loving relationship. I could so VIVIDLY see every environment. I feel like I could draw a blueprint of Jackie's apartment, the funeral home, Graham's home, Ava's apartment. All of this made it so easy to see everything in my mind play out which is likely why parts of this hurt so much.

Overall this is a wonderful book and I highlighted a few lines that really jumped out at me.

[Eevee · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

The Restorative Artist is beautifully written and handles grief, love, illness and mortality with a lot of emotional depth. I appreciated the characters and atmosphere, but the pacing was much slower than I personally prefer. I went in expecting a stronger horror element, while the story ultimately felt more like an emotional exploration of relationships and grief.