Review: Immortality

Immortality by Dana Schwartz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Hazel was almost entirely alone at Hawthornden Castle. 

Immortality is the sequel to Anatomy and I highly suggest that you read the first in this duology before picking up this one. In the first, we were introduced to late teenagers Hazel and Jack. Hazel comes from a titled family, however, her older brother died from Roman Fever sending her mother into perpetual grief and her father is off guarding Napoleon. Hazel wanted to be a surgeon, so she dressed as a boy to get into the Anatomists school and from there she meets Jack, a resurrection man and Dr. Beecham. The first ends with Jack getting hung for being judged guilty of being the Kirkland Killer and Dr. Beecham disappearing after he gives Hazel a tincture that he claims if drunk, makes you immortal. Hazel gave the tincture to Jack but readers were left with only an unsigned letter saying: “Come find me in America.” 

The envelope was thick and blood red, and sealed with red wax stamped in the shape of a human brain. It was addressed, in red ink almost invisible on the envelope but for the way it glistened in the candlelight. Her name was on the front of the envelope, written in perfect script: Miss Hazel Sinnett. 

This one starts readers off with a jump back in the past to 1794 Paris and the famous chemists Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier. Antoine is being lead to the guillotine and Marie-Anne is surging forward to give him a tincture. This was a good little insight to the origins of the tincture before we jump back to the present of 1818 in Edinburgh and see how Hazel is doing after Jack's hanging and breaking off her engagement with her cousin. Although Hazel never took the doctor's exam, she's thought of as a surgeon and people, rich and poor, go to her for ailments. She's a curiosity barely clinging to propriety. When a woman comes to her after trying to abort her baby, Hazel's maid warns her she's putting herself in danger but Hazel brushes her off. This first half has us seeing Hazel mourning Jack, not certain if that one sentence letter was from him and getting imprisoned under the charge of helping a woman with abortion. 

She felt guilty, as if she had betrayed Jack by kissing Simon, and betrayed him again by enjoying her kiss with Simon so much. 

In Calton Gaol, Hazel spends a few weeks realizing the consequences of chasing her dream of being a surgeon, losing friends and family. After a sham of a trial and found guilty, Hazel is thinking she is being lead out to her hanging but instead a carriage is waiting for her. It turns out that Princess Charlotte has some mysterious disease and the Prince Regent has sent for Hazel thinking Charlotte will let a female surgeon near her. The story then moves to London and we get Hazel trying to treat the princess, starting a friendship, that maybe could be more, with the King's personal doctor Simon von Ferris, and the introduction of the secret society, Companions to the Death. The princess' illness was obviously to get Hazel to London and the secret society. At first, it was pretty wishy-washy with Hazel and the princess, it takes a while for the princess to even allow Hazel in the room with her and until the later second half, this thread was more to the side. The Companions to the Death was a intriguing addition and I wish we could have spent more time there. In a sort of Death Becomes Her thread, Hazel is introduced to the society that includes the likes of the Lavoisiers, Lord Bryon, and Voltaire. They're all missing their pinky and claim to be immortal. After someone gets shot and Hazel sees how their body responds, she believes them and after seeing her skill as a surgeon, they want her to drink the tincture and join their ranks. However, like Bruce Willis, Hazel doesn't want eternal life and she becomes an honorary member. 

Jack Currer, the boy Hazel had loved and lost, made eye contact from across the room. 

With the fleshing out of the immortality thread starting in the first, there was a little political talk/atmosphere of the day with the mad King George and the people pinning their hopes on Princess Charlotte. This political atmosphere gets tied in with the Companions to the Death but I can't say if was fully, clearly done and felt somewhat rushed cobbled together at the end. What I know a lot of readers are waiting for, at around 60%, yes, Jack makes an appearance. We get a flashback from Jack's point-of-view and learn what happened to him. There's some hurt from Hazel about him not contacting her, Jack thinking they had no future, and some questioning of what Hazel wants out of life as Simon and Jack both seem like roads she could travel. 

“My heart is yours,” he said. “Beating or still.” 

This had more of those Gothic feeling tones of the first and leaning towards gruesome with some of the ailments Hazel treats, some political messaging, deciding what matters to you most in life, and some late danger and heroics. There were some meandering moments that I thought could have been edited for expediency and the storytelling didn't feel as tight as it could of but Hazel and Jack got an ending I think readers will be happy with.

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