(Sigh…) Play it like you feel it.
A lot goes into this kind of setting. The aftermarket for dead bodies and all. It’s a heavy weight to deal with everything around it. From the grounded human side where grief can bring out the best and worst in people. As well as the services meant to help people grieve a little easier.
Selling a body to science just so the family can pay for the funeral is just the tip of the iceberg. Processes that could save lives aren’t a bad thing, but they can get ugly. Especially when a company representative acts pretentious around people if they feel they have a moral high ground. Even though the people they work for and with commodify just about everything involved. It makes them look as uncomfortable as the people they just chewed out.
That’s what the storytellers are saying here. This is not a story about good or bad, traditions vs. progress, etc. This is a story about the cold moral gray areas about trying to be better and the baggage that comes with it.
Between a brooding ex-con of a father looking for the strength to carry the weight of his past and company people trying to survive their cutthroat business, everybody’s got something that drives them. Enough to take a few wrong turns if they feel it’s necessary, especially when one side tries to get one over the other.
It makes The Body Trade a very suspenseful ride that grabs readers by the edge of their seats.
9/10