"𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐲: 𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲" 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
Edinburgh, 1817. A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living.
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.
just like synopsis says - it's a gothic mystery tale set in 18th century Scotland. and this alone was enough for me to pick up the story.
and i must admit, i truly felt that feeling of crisp autumn air mixed with the smell of rain. it was easy to picture the gloom and fogginess of the setting. and you can definitely sense it from the very first pages where we're already met with peculiar occurrences.
the read is pleasant and easy, quiet fast paced and logical (however we'll get to that point a little later). in addition to that, i must give a heads up to the beautiful writing skills of the author, and the ability to clearly describe all the actions given.
when it comes to character building, i very much liked Hazel. determined, brave, curious. she sees a goal and she's ready to find any way to make it happen. even to go against the "normalities" set by society of that years. she's a strong person, given the circumstances she had to go through in her past and presents.
this story engages pretty much every aspect of your emotions - which is good. we feel the heaviness of serious topics and doubt of the future, as well as we get to share funny and heart warming moments with main characters.
as i said before - in the very beginning of the book, we get introduced to a series of mysterious phenomenon's.
as well as a couple of resurrection man, many other people disappear here and there. and some of them happen to be Jack's friends.
it would be thought, that with every turn of the page more questions should arise, as well as intrigue. however the level of mystery holds strongly in the first 1/2 of the book. but later, what previously seemed like a perfect pacing - the rhythm of the events suddenly speeds up, creating a feeling that author wanted to finish this story as soon as possible.
what was supposed to come out as a shocking turn of events, became confusing. all the secrets were uncovered rather fast (faster than i could even try to connect all known to me dots of information together, to build individual theories).
Jack's friends are missing. but he suddenly forgets about it when he meets Hazel.
i myself, found growth of the relationship of these two rather rapid. (however, taking a note that both of them are teenagers, such rush of falling in 'deep' love might be understandable to some). although it would have been even more understandable and even logical, if both spent more time together than it was actually presented.
would i read this story again? probably. cause it's still a perfect autumnal story to enjoy, when you want to read something relaxing, with sparks of intrigue here and there.
would i read the sequel (yes, there is a sequel)? no. i feel like one book for this story is very much enough, taking to consideration that the second part follows a new path in the story that i believe is unnecessary.
but when talking about this part specifically- i would like it to be a little longer. so sudden turns of events would truly feel sudden. so there would be place to fit all the investigations and possible events that could have taken place in plot. as well as more realistically paced romance trail.
in other words, if you enjoy reading YA books, you might as well like this one.
| “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.”
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