There is nothing I love more than a truly original piece of literary magic.
Throw in some mermaids and ghosts, and I say you’ve got yourself a hit.
When an author brings a wholly different world into existence, one that could only be fathomed by an ingenious mind, it’s breathtaking. That’s how I feel about Things in Jars by Jess Kidd.
A Victorian crime novel, with a diabolically mythological twist. It’s a place where the creatures of the sea have the capacity to wreck havoc on land dwellers pompous enough to presume superiority.
A place where a ghost and living woman can ban together to solve a mystery behind the death of a mother and her pike-toothed infant, while inexplicably falling in love.
Where an extraordinary girl has turned up missing and is in dire peril of meeting a dastardly end at the hands of devious surgeon…
Bridie Divine is a pseudo-investigator/minor surgeon with a shadowy past. Orphaned on the streets of London, and taken as a kind of surgeon’s apprentice at a young age, not much seems to surprise Bridie. Not even the appearance of a smitten deceased boxer named Ruby Doyle, who materializes at the discovery site of a mummified mother and her monstrous infant.
With the help of Ruby and her 7-foot-tall bearded housemaid Cora, Bridie is on a mission to find another child in great danger of meeting a similar fate to the mother and baby.
Cristalbel Berwick is not like other children. She has white blond hair, eyes that can morph from pale to pitch black, a bite as savage and dangerous as the most vicious of piranhas, and the uncanny ability to drown people from the inside out. Christabel has more than one contender vying for her captivity. From oddity collectors, to circus shows, to doctors with dissection on their minds, the child has enemies at ever corner.
With flashbacks to Bridie’s own upbringing and the savagery she witnessed on the estate of her childhood mentor, Bridie’s past and present come together to unsolve a cruel and twisted world of poisoned children, mutilated patients, and depraved minds.
But it’s also a book of unrequited love and humanity. Bridie is the best heroine for the job in this book, and Ruby is her loyal and ever present shadow throughout every tumultuous situation. She’s resolute, resilient, and plucky in every way.
I gotta say though, Cora and Mrs. Bibby were pretty spectacular and my favorite characters. Cora, because she’s just the right amount of sturdy and compassionate. She’s the perfect sidekick to compliment Bridie’s personality. And Mrs. Bibby, because she’s the kind of villainess readers love to hate. Cruel, black-hearted, and born to torture, with just the right amount of mystique about her.
I truly loved this book, and thought it ended on a kind of cliffhanger. I HOPE that means there will be a sequel…?
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Happy & healthy reading!
Lexi
