Sawbones by Catherine Johnson
Mar. 29th, 2014 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Medical science is flourishing, and in London the illegal trade in corpses has never been more … alive.
At the dissection table of his master, apprentice Ezra McAdam has learnt that each body tells a tale.
Magician’s daughter Loveday Finch, meanwhile, is suspicious of her father’s death – and looking for answers.
When the pair cross paths they unearth a tangled web of intrigue. And still the bodies are building up …
It’s 1792. Ezra McAdam is a former slave, bought by surgeon and anatomist William McAdam who removed the huge growth on Ezra’s face and made him his apprentice. Ezra’s job is to prepare bodies for dissection and assist in operations. His work’s taught him how to read a body to learn details of the person’s life and habits and hopes to one day become a surgeon in his own right and marry the spirited and intelligent Anna Boscaven.
When Ezra learns that Anna is to be packed off to the Netherlands by her family, he’s desperate to make money to follow her. Then he meets the spirited Loveday Finch who’s looking for the body of her magician father. Ezra agrees to help in return for 2 guineas but his investigation leads them both into a dangerous plot involving jewels, murder and an international conspiracy that threatens both their lives …
Catherine Johnson’s historical YA novel combines 18th century anatomists with international conspiracy in a story with an Afro-Caribbean protagonist. However, while Johnson has a real feel for period and I always look for books that have non-white lead characters, the story itself never really popped for me and I couldn’t take to the reckless and at times silly Loveday. Part of the issue is in the relationship between Ezra and Anna, which doesn’t have enough page time to convince and therefore didn’t work for me as a motivation, but in the main it’s because the plot is fairly predictable – not helped by an opening chapter that gives away a large part of the conspiracy up front. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly okay read but it just didn’t grip me enough to want to check out the sequel.
Ezra is okay as a character, hard working and diligent, he’s devoted to his master (although I would have liked to have seen him compare his apprenticeship with slavery). Loveday, however, was much less successful for me. Although grieving for her father, I never bought into this magician’s daughter who recklessly waves rapiers at people to try and threaten them to do as she wishes, nor was I convinced by the supposed friendship that develops between her and Ezra.
It’s not a bad book and Johnson does a great job of creating the geography, sights, sounds and smells of Georgian London, but this just never did it for me.
The Verdict:
Catherine Johnson’s historical YA novel combines 18th century anatomists with international conspiracy in a story with an Afro-Caribbean protagonist. However, while Johnson has a real feel for period and I always look for books that have non-white lead characters, the story itself never really popped for me and I couldn’t take to the reckless and at times silly Loveday. Part of the issue is in the relationship between Ezra and Anna, which doesn’t have enough page time to convince and therefore didn’t work for me as a motivation, but in the main it’s because the plot is fairly predictable – not helped by an opening chapter that gives away a large part of the conspiracy up front. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly okay read but it just didn’t grip me enough to want to check out the sequel.
Thanks to Walker Books for the free copy of this book.
At the dissection table of his master, apprentice Ezra McAdam has learnt that each body tells a tale.
Magician’s daughter Loveday Finch, meanwhile, is suspicious of her father’s death – and looking for answers.
When the pair cross paths they unearth a tangled web of intrigue. And still the bodies are building up …
It’s 1792. Ezra McAdam is a former slave, bought by surgeon and anatomist William McAdam who removed the huge growth on Ezra’s face and made him his apprentice. Ezra’s job is to prepare bodies for dissection and assist in operations. His work’s taught him how to read a body to learn details of the person’s life and habits and hopes to one day become a surgeon in his own right and marry the spirited and intelligent Anna Boscaven.
When Ezra learns that Anna is to be packed off to the Netherlands by her family, he’s desperate to make money to follow her. Then he meets the spirited Loveday Finch who’s looking for the body of her magician father. Ezra agrees to help in return for 2 guineas but his investigation leads them both into a dangerous plot involving jewels, murder and an international conspiracy that threatens both their lives …
Catherine Johnson’s historical YA novel combines 18th century anatomists with international conspiracy in a story with an Afro-Caribbean protagonist. However, while Johnson has a real feel for period and I always look for books that have non-white lead characters, the story itself never really popped for me and I couldn’t take to the reckless and at times silly Loveday. Part of the issue is in the relationship between Ezra and Anna, which doesn’t have enough page time to convince and therefore didn’t work for me as a motivation, but in the main it’s because the plot is fairly predictable – not helped by an opening chapter that gives away a large part of the conspiracy up front. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly okay read but it just didn’t grip me enough to want to check out the sequel.
Ezra is okay as a character, hard working and diligent, he’s devoted to his master (although I would have liked to have seen him compare his apprenticeship with slavery). Loveday, however, was much less successful for me. Although grieving for her father, I never bought into this magician’s daughter who recklessly waves rapiers at people to try and threaten them to do as she wishes, nor was I convinced by the supposed friendship that develops between her and Ezra.
It’s not a bad book and Johnson does a great job of creating the geography, sights, sounds and smells of Georgian London, but this just never did it for me.
The Verdict:
Catherine Johnson’s historical YA novel combines 18th century anatomists with international conspiracy in a story with an Afro-Caribbean protagonist. However, while Johnson has a real feel for period and I always look for books that have non-white lead characters, the story itself never really popped for me and I couldn’t take to the reckless and at times silly Loveday. Part of the issue is in the relationship between Ezra and Anna, which doesn’t have enough page time to convince and therefore didn’t work for me as a motivation, but in the main it’s because the plot is fairly predictable – not helped by an opening chapter that gives away a large part of the conspiracy up front. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly okay read but it just didn’t grip me enough to want to check out the sequel.
Thanks to Walker Books for the free copy of this book.
