ninaprime 's review for:

My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

4.0

---

4.5 Stars for this strong historical fiction - well-researched, with a striking combination of fictional characters and actual people as well as a gruesome realism about battlefield medicine. I felt like I learned a lot from a different perspective on the Civil War (doctors vs. soldiers), but was deeply engrossed by the plot as well. The writing style, jumping between viewpoints, was slightly jarring at first, but this technique paid off at several points later in the book to heighten the drama. The romance was low-key but still riveting and the relationships (familial and otherwise) were well-developed, probably because the individuals involved were so well-rounded. My other minor complaint was that several of the peripheral people dropped from the story towards the end, and so it felt like there were a few loose ends; however, I was overall incredibly satisfied by the ending, both with the factual information presented on the evolution of medical practice and about the personal storylines.