Lavinia reviewed Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
Review of 'Things in Jars' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A female investigator with a talent for reading corpses. A ghost of a champion boxer who rises from his grave clad only in a top hat. A terrifying seven feet tall housemaid. A six-year-old girl with pike teeth, who smells of the sea and draws people’s memories out of them. Weird and evil collectors of “oddities of nature.” And the necessary Scotland Yard inspector, who apparently is one of the few ‘normal’ persons in this dark and imaginative book by Jess Kidd.
Inexplicable events, atmospheric and eerie settings, Things in Jars reminded me Sherlock Holmes and more specifically, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Jess Kidd sets her story in a realistic environment -the description and images of Victorian London are truly remarkable- but fills this environment with many mysterious and magical elements. The heroine, Bridie Divine is a clever and independent woman who skirts the edges of respectability, and takes …
A female investigator with a talent for reading corpses. A ghost of a champion boxer who rises from his grave clad only in a top hat. A terrifying seven feet tall housemaid. A six-year-old girl with pike teeth, who smells of the sea and draws people’s memories out of them. Weird and evil collectors of “oddities of nature.” And the necessary Scotland Yard inspector, who apparently is one of the few ‘normal’ persons in this dark and imaginative book by Jess Kidd.
Inexplicable events, atmospheric and eerie settings, Things in Jars reminded me Sherlock Holmes and more specifically, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Jess Kidd sets her story in a realistic environment -the description and images of Victorian London are truly remarkable- but fills this environment with many mysterious and magical elements. The heroine, Bridie Divine is a clever and independent woman who skirts the edges of respectability, and takes cases that usually have two things in common: bizarre and inexplicable deaths and victims drawn from society’s flotsam.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing is fluid, lyrical and witty, and it is a story with many fascinating characters. I found the accounts and the descriptions related to the Victorian practice of medicine particularly interesting.
