The Facemaker

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ebook in exchange for a review.

This book was so good! I don't know when I first heard of Harold Gillies, sometime after I watched Boardwalk Empire and liked Jack Huston's character - the character has a mask to cover his facial damage and I wanted to know more, which led me to the work that Harold Gillies did.

Gillies pioneered modern plastic surgery and realized the importance of working with other sorts of people. His teams included surgeons, dentists, artists, and whoever else had a needed skill. This book focuses on the men and women who worked with Gillies - the medical techniques they created or perfected, the artistic records of procedures, the prosthetics that were created - and the patients who needed his help.

This was fascinating and read easily. There were times it felt a little repetitive as most chapters followed the same format, but the information was all really interesting and presented well.

I've been meaning to read Lindsey Fitzharris's other book, The Butchering Art, so when this came up on NetGalley I was interested. I'm so glad I read this and will need to bump her other book up my tbr list.

(I do wish the ebook included the pictures that Fitzharris mentions, as I think seeing the work and people and places mentioned would be helpful.)