About This Book:
Dana Schwartz’s Anatomy: A Love Story is a gothic tale full of mystery and romance.
Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.
Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, Beecham will allow her to continue her medical career. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books―she’ll need corpses to study.
Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets, and the dreaded Roman Fever, which wiped out thousands a few years ago, is back with a vengeance. Nobody important cares―until Hazel.
Now, Hazel and Jack must work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.
*Review Contributed by Olivia Farr, Staff Reviewer*
ANATOMY: A LOVE STORY is an intriguing historical fiction read that follows a young woman, Hazel, whose dream is to become a surgeon. At this time in history, physicians are considered tolerable and surgeons are butchers, so for someone of her station to even be considering it seems far-fetched, much less for a woman. Hazel wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry the cousin she has been informally betrothed to since birth – something that seems shocking to the gentry.
After witnessing an incredible surgery by the grandson of the renowned Dr. Beecham, Hazel sees a path towards achieving her dreams and enrolls in a surgeon’s class taught by Beecham as a boy. When she is found out and kicked out of the class, she is told that she will get the apprenticeship she needs if only she passes the exam on her own. To pass the exam, she will need access to cadavers for her study.
A bustling career of sorts, young men known as resurrection men dig up fresh graves to bring the bodies for medical student classes. Hazel hires one such man, Jack, to bring her bodies for her study – and also to help study the fever that killed her brother with the hopes of discovering a cure. Seeing the state of the poor and their medical treatment, Hazel eventually opens an unofficial practice. After hearing some strange stories about disappearing poor people and surgical oddities, Hazel begins to realize that something sinister is happening – but as she investigates, she will also have to decide just who she will be when the dust settles.
What I loved: The mystery of the story really kept me engaged in the plot, as we learn early on that people, particularly resurrection men, are disappearing in a sinister way, but not what is happening to them. Hazel was both a compelling and a frustrating character – she knows what she needs to survive and thrive physically and financially, but she cannot bring herself to worry about it enough to deter her from her, at times, morbid path. It is easy to want her to succeed, but hard to understand her motives and ability to move beyond the bounds of her role so smoothly. There are some interesting themes around poverty, healthcare inequalities, historical views on women, and grief after loss of a family member (particularly her mother’s reactions around this).
What left me wanting more: Hazel’s single-mindedness is not completely clear, and it was hard to understand why she was so set on being a surgeon (especially when a lot of what she does is in the physician vs surgeon arena, and physician seems to be more accepted). Why she is so different than the rest of the gentry did not really get adequate explanation. Her methods and limits often seem arbitrary. I was also surprised at the amount of independence she is given over finances and living alone with control over all the servants, as well as her knowledge and independent application (for example, in one of the first scenes, she stitches up a cook’s hand perfectly using a thread that she grabbed from her dress and a sewing needle on the fly). Many of her choices are of someone who takes their whole lives for granted, and I wanted to understand better why she was so willing to leave everything and every comfort behind. The book got close to discussing these financial means/inequalities/choices in places, but it did not quite go there fully.
Based on the title, I was definitely expecting more of a romance. It often felt like an afterthought here, and more build-up/scenes with the two of them would have helped in really pushing this one towards that category. It was hard to really buy into their romance with the sparse scenes of them together, other romantic interests, and surface-level/transactional conversations (they mostly dealt in the medical student related stuff). It felt a little forced. As-is, this felt more like a historical fiction read.
Final verdict: ANATOMY: A LOVE STORY is a fast-paced historical fiction read with an intriguing mystery and light romance.
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