The Undying of Obedience Wellrest

The Undying of Obedience Wellrest is a young adult novel written by Nicholas Bowling. Fifteen-year-old gravedigger Ned is a pariah in his community of Withy Bottom, due to his family’s profession. He is desperately trying to fend off gravediggers to protect the ‘residents’ he cares for when he meets Obedience Wellrest, a 16-year-old whose personality is in direct defiance of the name her parents chose for her. She is the first person to treat him amicably and he develops a little crush.

The short, fast-paced, chapters alternate between the perspectives of Ned and Obedience, giving us insight into their different lives. Throughout the novel, we learn that Obedience is obsessed with the experiments of her ancestor Herbert, and is determined to avoid her father’s attempts to marry her off to the two-faced scientist Phineas Mordaunt. The information that is drip-fed leads us to question who is the hero and who is the villain, how Ned can talk to animals, and why does Pa appear to be dying?

Overall, this is an easy and enjoyable read, which shares similar narrative threads to canonical texts such as Romeo and Juliet and Frankenstein. Thematically, this novel touches on themes of scientific ethics and the meaning of life and death.

Content advisory: Some slightly grotesque descriptions of rotting corpses and scientific experiments. Character death.