Hazel Sinnett has been breaking all the rules of 19th-century Scotland by being a “lady doctor” for Edinburgh’s poor. But now the King-regent of England wants her to deal with a mysterious illness that only she can cure.
Hazel Sinnett has been breaking all the rules of 19th-century Scotland by being a “lady doctor” for Edinburgh’s poor. But now the King-regent of England wants her to deal with a mysterious illness that only she can cure.
In some ways, Hazel Sinnett’s life has been a privileged one. She’s a young noblewoman from a wealthy family who has been given all the advantages that her family’s money can afford.
But, frankly, 17-year-old Hazel hasn’t ever taken an easy path. She hasn’t simply relied on her attractiveness and position to help her find a suitable husband and start a suitable family. In fact, she has run determinedly away from suitable at every turn.
The idea of healing the human body has always consumed Hazel’s attention. She’s wanted nothing more than to become a doctor. A surgeon, in fact—though she is forbidden to do so in 19th-century Edinburgh. She has lied, deceived, disguised herself as a boy and worked diligently to absorb every shred of medical knowledge she can.
Of course, if I’m being absolutely truthful, that’s not the only thing Hazel has ever desired. There was also a young man.
Their meeting was, shall we say, unusual. In an effort to procure human corpses to autopsy and learn from, Hazel turned to young Jack Currer, a desperate sort who stole freshly buried bodies from the graveyard for a living. During their secret interactions and late-night conversations, they fell in love. And then everything else fell apart.
Hazel nearly lost her life. And Jack … likely did.
Now Hazel’s world is turned upside down. She is alone.
Amid losing Jack and any chance of accreditation, her clandestine work treating the broken bones, torn flesh and rotting teeth of the poor caused her great trouble. One case brought Hazel’s activities into the public eye. And it got her thrown in jail for murder.
Hazel is currently wasting to skin-and-bone in a filthy jail cell. She has no one there to help. No one to care. But even as her life wastes away, there is hope. For Princess Charlotte in London is mysteriously ill. And she won’t let her male doctors touch her.
Hazel, however, is no male doctor. And even people in the royal court are, lately, whispering about the “lady doctor” in Scotland. After losing nearly everything, Hazel—who can never be a doctor—might just be called to doctor a royal.
Hazel emotes a light disdain for the church and its Christian rules. When treating a woman who was raped, Hazel wonders if it might have been by a clergyman since “that wasn’t an uncommon thing.”
That doesn’t mean she thinks nothing of the spiritual, however. While pondering the blood and organs of the human body, she notes, “the human soul exists somewhere in that putrid, writhing soup.”
The systems everyone believes in here are those of science and humanism. And Hazel is drawn in by both.
Someone has concocted a tincture that produces immortality when consumed or injected. And a small group of brilliant, famous people use it to create a group called the “Companions to the Death.” They hope to keep their immortal bodies functioning long enough to benefit mankind with their “genius.”
These people are completely amoral and Hazel—who feels constricted by the patriarchal rules of the day—believes that amorality will lead to an “entirely new future.” She wonders over the fact that “here, the women drank openly and swore. Women were not objects on a shelf.”
With a few exceptions, almost everyone around Hazel is self-focused and unpleasant. The Companions to the Death are all brilliant people from history such as Lord Byron and Voltaire, but their immortality has pushed them toward amoral choices with no care for right or wrong.
Hazel also gets a letter from her mother after Hazel asks her for help. Her mother is cold and distant, caring only for their family name. Hazel notes that her mother sees her as “a lost cause, a willful waste of a daughter.”
On the royal front, King George, when we meet him, is quite insane. The king regent (who rules on behalf of George) is a selfish narcissist of a man. And Princess Charlotte is repeatedly deceitful because of her own hidden secrets.
[Spoiler Warning] The few good and caring people around Hazel are a court doctor who works to help her and falls in love with her. And then Jack shows up once more. He is hesitant to draw Hazel into his own problems, but he works diligently to help her with hers. Hazel herself is often selfless in her care for others. She repeatedly gives money to those who come to her for care but who can’t pay. She does, however, lie for two illicit lovers and deceive a group of people with someone else’s corpse.
There is no profanity, but people do consume alcohol at a royal ball.
The visceral and gory side of things here is quite prevalent. Hazel is called upon to work on lots of people as a doctor and surgeon. For instance, she cuts open a swollen arm and lets a stream of pus drain. She re-breaks and resets a badly healed arm. She removes rotting teeth. She helps a poisoned pregnant woman who is bleeding profusely.
We hear of a man who is hung and wakes from the hanging with a broken neck. He also is part of a storm at sea that breaks his legs, rips open his torso and jams a wooden pole through his eye. People are shot and left bloody; a woman’s arm is ripped off; a man has his foot cut off and resewn on; a man is said to remove his own heart.
People gather for a mass execution and watch a man killed by a guillotine. They dip their handkerchiefs in the blood spill to keep as a souvenir.
Hazel is manhandled and threatened. She goes through what amounts to drawn-out torture in a prison cell. And she and Jack, dig up a grave to get a recently deceased corpse.
[Spoiler Warning] Hazel and Jack reunite, embrace and kiss. They eventually end up in bed, caressing each other’s body (not overly descriptive) and then making love. Hazel and the royal doctor kiss as well. Hazel also walks in on two women passionately kissing and caressing each other. The women are naked from the waist up.
None.
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Whereas the first book, Anatomy: A Love Story was something of a gothic horror mystery with romantic vibes and a strong support for womanly independence, this sequel takes things in a broader historical fantasy direction. Immortality: A Love Story reimagines famous individuals from the past with an eye toward promoting the progressive benefits of contemporary amorality and celebrating gay romance.
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Review by Bob Hoose
