Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen

I would say it's hard to say who the main character of this book is, it has multiple different viewpoints of many people during this crazy time. Perhaps the most time is spent talking about Zachary and he was a good character to view these events through. He grows a lot and feels like a real person growing up from a young boy to a young man in a very short period of time. We get to see all of London's early 1700 through his eyes and experience the culture shock much the same as he does. As for the eponymous Rabbit Queen, she's more cast in shadow, we don't really get inside her head so much and maybe that's just as well since she is a real historic figure, but reading as this event unfolds is highly entertaining and horrifying at the same time. Palmer writing style is very atmospheric and really puts you in this time, however since so much detail is given to establishing some of the smaller nuances of the setting and time, it did seem to slow the pace on occasion. But overall an enjoyable time and actually learned something about this event in history that i didn't know if before. And at the end the takeaways we're enjoyable to reflect on.

Content Warnings

belovedsnail's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I was very impressed by the book. He deals with the material in a smart way which touches many layers involved in the story. Recommended.

Content Warnings

scenic92's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

wordsofclover's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

When in 1726, a patient of surgeon and man midwife John Howard begins to give birth to rabbits, he doesn't quite know how to react - is it something monstrous, or miraculous, and soon stories are flying about Mary Toft; the Rabbit Queen. But is Mary truly birthing kittens, or is something nefarious or horrific going on?

I liked the majority of this book and I actually enjoyed that despite the story being about this woman's strange birthing moments and her medical needs, the POVs we were getting were from John Howard and his young apprentice Zachary. The surgical/medical side of this book was a great one to be a part of from the types of practices they used for certain medical ailments, to the shortcomings and all they entailed. Not to mention the ignorance of all these men when it came to what a woman might do or go through when giving birth. One of the best characters in this book was John Howard's wife Alice who had the best things to say yet very little page time, but I loved her honest mouth and some of the shock moments she delivered.

The story did drop off in interest near the end, and it felt like a long time before it got around to the wrapping up part of the story. I did enjoy most of the author's conversations around how people treated things that were other and monstrous at the time from people born with deformities to people who were just a bit different. There are intersting and shocking conversations in this book as to how people believe Mary is giving birth to rabbits because she had a dalliance with a black man.

One of the things that truly spoiled this book was a horrific act of animal cruelty near the end of it. This act (which had nothing to do with rabbits fyi) was there to make a point about London and the darker side of people, but I really felt like it could have been done without pages and pages of description of what was happening to the animal. It soured me a bit for the very end of the book as then I just wanted the book to be finished, it was too far in to DNF it so i read the rest of it quickly and that was that.

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