Review: PolyCorpse by Jarrett Poole

Rating: /10

No one escapes their Final Obligation. Theo hunts those who try.

Within the walled city of DehantaPolis, all souls are destined for incineration. The governing power corporation calls it divine duty. The spiritual call it sacrilege. But one thing is certain: no citizen escapes their Final Obligation. Theo scours the wilderness for those who try, finding anyone who died outside city limits and wrenching their essence from their cold flesh. Retrieval is grim work, but her options are limited, and rent is always due.

Nearly a year after her terminally ill husband fled, abandoning Theo and denying the city his spirit, Theo picks up his trail. Armed with her soul-rending musical instruments and a volatile grief, she sets out to claim his soul for herself.

As Theo presses further into the wilds than ever before, she unearths something far more sinister than her husband’s decaying corpse. Torn between love, revenge, and a truth that could collapse her city, Theo must decide between what is right and the retribution she craves.

This book needs a playlist. I mean that as one of the highest compliments I can give.

PolyCorpse takes place in DehantaPolis, a walled city fueled by the energy of the dead, wrapped in 90s technology, and soaked in the kind of atmosphere that reminds me of Final Fantasy VII. It’s a world where necromancy and live music coexist, where soul-rending instruments are literal tools of the trade, and where the vibe of late nights in smoky bars with too-loud bands pulses through every chapter. Poole has built something genuinely unique here, a setting that is equal parts dystopian and nostalgic, morbid and magnetic.

At the center of it all is Theo, a soul retriever hunting down her terminally ill husband who fled the city and denied it his spirit. She’s armed with grief, rage, and her instruments, and she is fantastic. Every great fantasy story balances its fantastical problems with more personal, human ones, and PolyCorpse nails that balance. Theo feels real. Her pain feels real. The way she carries her loss and her anger through this strange world made me reflect on who I used to be when I was more broken, and who I’ve become since. That’s a rare thing for a book to do.

Sarika is equally wonderful, and together she and Theo feel like people I’ve actually known. The entire cast is thoughtfully constructed, full of strengths and weaknesses and faults that make them relatable even when the world around them is deeply strange. Poole understands that characters don’t need to be likable to be alive. They just need to be true.

The plot is full of unexpected twists and turns that kept me guessing, and the ending brought everything together beautifully. All those small details and quiet moments throughout the story converge into an emotional payoff that genuinely moved me. The thematic throughline can get a touch heavy-handed at times, but the delivery is strong enough that it never undercuts the impact.

The dialogue deserves special mention. It has this lived-in quality that transported me back to my early twenties, hanging out in bars, listening to live bands, staying out way too late with people I loved. Poole captures that specific nostalgia with remarkable precision. The prose itself is clean and serviceable, never flashy but never in the way, which is exactly what a story this atmospheric needs. The world does the heavy lifting, and the writing is smart enough to let it.PolyCorpse is emotionally dark but also light in beautiful ways. It’s a story about grief and retribution and the space between what is right and what you crave, and it made me feel good about how far I’ve come while honoring how hard the broken times were. If you loved Gideon the Ninth or The Invocations, you’ll feel right at home here. And seriously, someone make the playlist, or a musical.