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A review by abrswf
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
3.0
I found this book very disappointing. The premise, the development of a determined woman seeking to become a doctor during the Civil War, is great. The historical details, including the abysmal gaps in medical knowledge and care, seemed on target and characters like Lincoln, Hays, and Stanton leapt off the page. (There are NO people of color as characters, however, which seemed beyond tone deaf.). But no one should write a Civil War novel with so poor a sense of how people at the time spoke and wrote. And then there were all the many times when the author simply abandoned sentence structure, for no good artistic reason I could appreciate. The pace is mostly deadly slow and plot points tend to be repeated endlessly -- though not always consistently -- with no additional elucidation. I must admit I warmed very little to any character, especially the central one, hard and guilt ridden Mary Sutter. Finally there is just too much martyrdom in this book. I'd skip it if I were you.