This book was gripping and fascinating! An excellently researched historical novel which felt immersive and at times deeply unsettling.

We have two best friends Lena and Eliza who have a fresh new take on the world and really want to do things their own way. They set out to make wrongs right and fight for justice - which is both inspiring but also challenging to witness!

I couldn't put this book down and although deeply heartbreaking in places, it is an important story and I think may readers will come away from it with new perspectives, new knowledge and having learnt a thing or two about their own beliefs as well!

This novel, based very closely on real events which occurred over 100 years ago, is an astonishing read. The themes that it explores: man's inhumanity to other species; the extraordinary power that statues have to inflame and ignite conflict and civil disorder; the bravery of women in a time when they were powerless and voiceless, are as relevant and poignant today as they were at the time the actual events were taking place. As is often the case, the truth is often stranger than the fiction.

If you are an animal lover, and, in particular, if you share your life with dogs, this book will break your heart, but it will also make it sing.

The female protagonists, Eliza and Lena, are extremely well-rounded characters that you root for from page one.

This book should launch many debates around the rights of sentient species and how we treat nature generally.

It’s 1903, and Britain is desperate for change, but widespread calls for social and gender reform flounder against entrenched misogyny. Navigating this world are best friends Lena Hageby and Eliza Blackwood – two thoroughly modern young women determined to live life on their own terms.

Rumours abound of barbaric experiments taking place within London’s medical schools, and when the women covertly witness a shockingly brutal procedure performed on a semi-conscious dog, they resolve to take down the perpetrator – renowned physiologist Dr William Bayling.

In their fight for justice, the women are drawn into an increasingly vicious ‘David and Goliath’ battle with an all-powerful male medical establishment who will stop at nothing to protect the status quo. But how much are the women prepared to risk? Their friendship, their loves, their freedom, even their lives?
I found this book heartbreaking but a story that needed to be told. This was impossible to put down. I downloaded the arc this morning, and by this afternoon, I had finished.