Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Anatomy: A Love Story

Anyone who says “Don’t judge a book by its cover” has never met a reader. I bought this book because I absolutely loved the cover. I didn’t read the description or anything. Just saw the cover and immediately added it to my cart on Barnes and Noble. It is absolutely without a doubt gorgeous but maybe I’m biased as someone who works in healthcare and has always loved medicine.

The book is a gothic romance set in the 1800s in Edinburgh where modern medicine was definitely not as its finest but we were trying our best and women were not allowed to be surgeons. The poverty is vanishing, people are sick with the Roman fever. Times are not looking great. Hazel wants nothing more than to be a surgeon but when the renowned Dr. Beecham kicks her out of his class, she strikes a deal with him. If she can pass the Physician’s Exam without his help then he will allow her to be a surgeon and he will allow females join the class from now on. From there, she teams up with Jack, a resurrection man, who digs up the deceased and sells them to doctors to do an autopsy on and they try to figure out what the hell is going on in the town of Edinburgh.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a little harder to get into for me as most historical fiction set in the 1800s are but I was hooked about halfway through. After all who doesn’t love a book about a woman breaks society’s norms? I know it’s only the 9th day in 2023 but this book will definitely be in my top reads of the year. If you love a quick gothic historical romance read, go check this book out!

Content Warnings

sydn3ycx's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I read for the feminist and gothic aspects, not the romance. I’m also not big on history. However, I do appreciate the amount of research the author did and I find that the story was adorable, at least in the middle of it all. The pace seemed too slow for me and I used quick reading techniques to bulldoze through it after about page 80. The reflections on class are wonderfully written. I did feel that the feminism fell short at the end of the book with a certain life-saving method, and found myself on the villain’s side, despite the protagonist being a genuine hero, regarding a choice that she’d made that concludes the book. I feel that both that and the pacing are what are putting me to 3 stars. I’m interested in the sequel, to see how things go in relation to women’s oppression and medicine within Hazel’s story and further exploration of class issues with a person close to her.

Content Warnings

itsalina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

abookdork's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

clockworkstars's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

"Qu'était-ce un miracle sinon un phénomène scientifique que l'homme n'était pas encore en mesure de comprendre ?"
4☆|5

Ce livre est particulièrement sublime. Que ce soit au niveau de la plume ou bien de l'ambiance qu'il dégage. Il est absolument sublime et fascinant et j'ai adoré m'y plonger.

Dès le départ, nous sommes plongé•e•s dans cette ambiance aux allures dark academia avec un léger aspect macabre. Nous sommes de retour au XIXe siècle, avec la médecine de l'époque et la société qui va de paire avec l'époque. Cette société où la femme ne sert presque qu'à décorer.

Et puis il y a Hazel. Hazel, 17 ans, aristocrate, dont on attend qu'elle épouse son cousin et se montre durant la saison mondaine. Hazel dont le seul souhait est de devenir chirurgienne et qui va tout faire pour le devenir. Et on s'y attache. On s'y attache terriblement. Elle est forte, elle est déterminée mais elle a des doutes, elle est humaine. Et elle rencontre Jack, résurectionniste. Et vous l'aimerez aussi, autant que vous aimerez Hazel.

Ce livre est sombre et mystérieux. Fascinant et sanglant. Ce livre nous emporte, la plume s'empare de notre cœur pour ne plus le lâcher. Ce livre est frustrant, parfois. Mais il emporte, alors on lui pardonne.

Si je devais formuler un point que j'ai moins apprécié, ce serait sans nul doute la fin. Elle m'a semblé peut être un peu précipitée, abrupte ? Mais elle nous laisse le souffle coupée, ce roman est plein de mystère et cette dernière révélation en est une très bonne. Alors évidemment que j'ai apprécié ce roman, évidemment que j'attends désormais la suite, et j'espère que si il vous tente, vous l'apprécirez également.

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