Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
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 Royal Edinburgh Anatomists' 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, he 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.
Luckily, she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living.
Bu 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.
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This book was a great read, but it’s not exactly what I expected. This YA novel centres around a young couple in 1800s Edinburgh, Scotland. So you can expect it, due to society and class etc, to be a slow burn. However, given that “a love story” is LITERALLY in the title, I expected….a love story! This was more of a mystery/light thriller that happened to have a bit of romance between the lines. If I’d known that going in, I’d have been a lot more satisfied with how it went, but, having gone in expecting a super morbid love story as the FOCUS, I was a bit disappointed with how it turned out. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it was a cute story that focused very importantly on class discrimination and early medical learnings which was fascinating especially the mysterious element, but I went in thinking it would all be about stolen kisses in between body snatching. This was not the case. Hazel was a great character but I wish we’d gotten a bit more emotional depth, and Jack had a lot of potential, but we rarely got his POV so it was hard to gauge his character well at all. I’m hoping these things are further explored in the sequel.
Hazel is a survivor of the Red Death or Roman Fever while her brother did not make it. This makes for absent and neglectful parents as they mourn the loss of their son. Due to the inattention, Hazel escapes into books and education and finds a kinship and fascination with the anatomy books of Dr. Beecham, a famous surgeon. After finding a way to attend some of Dr. Beecham (the III) lectures, she decides to become a surgeon but to pass the exam, must get some “hands on” experience with autopsies. Enter Jack, a resurrection man who sells bodies to doctors for a small sum to stay off the streets. They have an instant connection but we don’t get a whole lot of interaction between the two. Yes there’s a spark, but I don’t feel it’s well enough explored. As we get more into the mystery of why all these lower class people are disappearing, the story becomes very intriguing and somewhat frightening and we get to see more of how Jack and Hazel navigate their different social standings while overcoming an intense mystery.
Hazel felt very one dimensional to me. She had a lot of promise, and I liked her and respected her, but I feel that even though we got a deep dive into her interests and insecurities, we didn’t get much character development or insights into how she thinks. It feels like we glossed over her in a lot of instances where it would have been very beneficial to the plot to dig deeper into her reaction and her thoughts on some of the outlandish things she experienced in this novel. Jack also had a lot of potential but given we only got 2-3 snippets of his point of view, we didn’t learn much and what we saw of him through Hazel’s eyes for most of the book was that of a slightly attractive business partner…. when that viewpoint shifted, I’m still trying to figure that out. Overall, the surface level of these characters that we got to see, they were fascinating and easily likeable. However, I feel we could have really LOVED them if we’d gotten more emotion from the two. I’m hoping characterization is stronger in the sequel.
Overall premise was fantastic. Who wouldn’t want to read a book about a man who digs up bodies and the surgeon who opens them up? That sounds like the absolute BEST recipe for a fantastic love story. I loved the mystery and the foreshadowing. After I’d finished, all the little hints throughout made me really happy. Yes the mystery was predictable but that made it somewhat of a comforting read because I knew what to expect yet remained intrigued. My only wish was that it was not marketed so hard as “a love story” as opposed to being more of a historical mystery as I went into it with very expectations. I gave this 3 stars but feel it would have been a higher rating if I’d gone into it with the right expectations. Definitely recommend if you want a bit of cozy dark academia.