About the Book -Anatomy
Edinburgh, 1817. 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, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.
Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.
A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.
“It was an impossible situation, a trick of society as a whole: force women to live at the mercy of whichever man wants them but shame them for anything they might do to get a man to want them.”
Quote from Anatomy
Our Review of Anatomy
For me, the book never picked up. I kept waiting for the book to escalate its pace or reach a point where it kind of becomes interesting. Either it was the audiobook or the pace of the book in general but the book kind of was too stationary for me. Well, a book with literally Love Story in its title will make you expect a stellar romance but for me, the book played on everything sans the romance. The book revolved more around the theme of women and society and science, especially in the context of the victorian era.
Anatomy, no doubt was a brilliant conception but I am not sure of its execution as it was tackling a lot of stuff. For me, the audiobook was a downer. The narration was so mechanical that it felt like the protagonist of the book was sleepwalking through the events. Somehow I couldn’t relate to the characters and with so many sub-plots that played hide and seek, it didn’t reach the mark. I feel that in theory, everything about the book is good. It has a substantial and relevant topic at hand. It has brought the historical references in the apt and required manner. Technically there was a good scope for the star-crossed lover’s angle. Even with every perfect ingredient, the dish didn’t come out as expected.
Conclusion
As I said, perhaps it was the audiobook or the general pace of the book that kind of sets a very melancholic tone but not in the nicest way. I couldn’t relate to the main character. In fact, None of the characters. So that’s why it wasn’t the best read for me. But then maybe this would be the perfect book for others..but just not for me.
Squirrel Rating
