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A review by courtnoodles
Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper
1.0
I finished this in five days because I just wanted to get this book done and over with. It was painful. Save yourself the trouble. Here's the entire plot summary in a few sentences:
Anne Green, a servant in 17th century England, is raped by her employer's grandson. She becomes pregnant with his child and gives birth after 6 months. The child is stillborn. Her staff and employers don't believe her story and accuse her of murder. In court, the jury, swayed by the political influence of Anne's employer, find her guilty. She is hanged, and her body is donated to the Oxford University Medical School for dissection and study. Somehow, she survives the hanging and somehow, the medical students revive her to nearly full health.
Newes from the Dead was boring, predictable, and difficult to read. Anne is intended to be written as naive and gullible, but comes off as stupid. I wanted to smack her upside the head countless times. The supporting characters were not interesting, and there were too many of them to the point that it was hard to keep who was who straight, except for Anne's rapist and her "love" interest, if you can even call it that (someone apart from her rapist). And don't get me started on the alternating point of view, bouncing between Anne's story and Robert's, a medical student who is present as Anne is trying to be revived. Nothing happens in that point of view for too long, there are too many students and doctors who all blend together, and it was never even fully explained how they managed to revive her. You never learn about Robert, aside from one childhood trauma planted to make you feel for him, but you never do, and his whole character feels utterly useless. He doesn't do anything to help revive Anne either, aside from keeping a log. The only character I was interested in at all was Anne, and only to see how she survived. I feel like I never got a full explanation of how she survived the hanging, or how they managed to revive her, and felt jilted. The book is also split into two "parts". The second part begins after Anne has finished telling the reader her story of how she came to be hanged, and lasts maybe 30 pages or less. In a 250-ish page book, this split felt useless and might have worked better as one continuous tale.
The medical miracle of Anne Green is an interesting premise for a book. Unfortunately, the author's attempts to create an exciting mystery and any sort of emotional connection or sympathy with Anne and her experience falls completely flat. Anne's wikipedia page gives all the info you need on what happened to her. Read that instead, and skip this.
Anne Green, a servant in 17th century England, is raped by her employer's grandson. She becomes pregnant with his child and gives birth after 6 months. The child is stillborn. Her staff and employers don't believe her story and accuse her of murder. In court, the jury, swayed by the political influence of Anne's employer, find her guilty. She is hanged, and her body is donated to the Oxford University Medical School for dissection and study. Somehow, she survives the hanging and somehow, the medical students revive her to nearly full health.
Newes from the Dead was boring, predictable, and difficult to read. Anne is intended to be written as naive and gullible, but comes off as stupid. I wanted to smack her upside the head countless times. The supporting characters were not interesting, and there were too many of them to the point that it was hard to keep who was who straight, except for Anne's rapist and her "love" interest, if you can even call it that (someone apart from her rapist). And don't get me started on the alternating point of view, bouncing between Anne's story and Robert's, a medical student who is present as Anne is trying to be revived. Nothing happens in that point of view for too long, there are too many students and doctors who all blend together, and it was never even fully explained how they managed to revive her. You never learn about Robert, aside from one childhood trauma planted to make you feel for him, but you never do, and his whole character feels utterly useless. He doesn't do anything to help revive Anne either, aside from keeping a log. The only character I was interested in at all was Anne, and only to see how she survived. I feel like I never got a full explanation of how she survived the hanging, or how they managed to revive her, and felt jilted. The book is also split into two "parts". The second part begins after Anne has finished telling the reader her story of how she came to be hanged, and lasts maybe 30 pages or less. In a 250-ish page book, this split felt useless and might have worked better as one continuous tale.
The medical miracle of Anne Green is an interesting premise for a book. Unfortunately, the author's attempts to create an exciting mystery and any sort of emotional connection or sympathy with Anne and her experience falls completely flat. Anne's wikipedia page gives all the info you need on what happened to her. Read that instead, and skip this.