Cora Lee, the protagonist of The Impossible Girl, is an amalgamation of weird circumstances.

Cora, the illegitimate child of a wealthy socialite, is born with a physical anomaly that makes her of scientific interest. Cora's Aunt Charlotte raises her--and Charlotte is only too well of the danger presented by Cora's two hearts. To keep her hidden from anatomist's who would love to dissect such an interesting specimen, Charlotte initially disguises Cora as "Jacob," in hopes that the legend of the girl with two hearts would eventually dwindle away.

Ironically, Cora becomes the only female resurrectionist in New York, exhuming bodies for the medical establishment for dissection and allowing Cora to be aware of what physical abnormalities the anatomists are eager to examine. When the legend of the girl with two hearts is suddenly revived, Cora's safety is at risk. And someone is killing the people on Cora's list before their time.

An intriguing mystery that highlights medical advancement and the New York of the mid-1800's, The Impossible Girl had several twists that I wasn't expecting. Cora proved an interesting character in interesting times!

Read in June; blog review scheduled for 9/2/18.

NetGalley/Lake Union Publishing
Historical Mystery. Sept. 18, 2018. Print length: 364 pages.

4/5 stars

First of all - look at the cover! Look at it! It's so beautiful. Was the cover the reason this book caught my eye? Absolutely, I am a cover whore after all. And then I read the description and I was completely sold!

When I was reading this book a thought sprang to mind "this is what "Stalking Jack the Ripper" should have been. Minus Jack the Ripper. There are a lot of similarities between the books, but they are also very different from each other.
We have the strong feminist character, who is actually a strong feminist character - not just pretending to be one, the macabre world of the dead bodies and dissections, and a mystery.

The Impossible Girl was impossible to put down for the first 50 percent of the book. The plot was moving beautifully, the main heroine, Cora was a delight to read about and the topic was fascinating. I loved, loved Cora's secret identity! It was just such a cool perspective to read from.

The other 50 percent of the book dipped pretty low on the fascination scale - it was a bit too repetitive for my liking and few things happened that left a bad taste in my mouth. But it did pick up later on with a roller coaster speed and I was back engrossed into the world of living and the dead. The plot twist, while I myself figured out early on (I just read A LOT of mysteries when I was a teenager so honestly not many things can surprise me) was still pleasant from the writing point of view. It was definitely done the correct way. And the madness that was uncovered with that twist? Disgusting, but oh so brilliant!

Things were pretty bad for a while for poor Cora, and when you think they couldn't have gotten worse, they of course did. I'd say that the last 20 percent of the book were pretty stressful to read through. Which is how it should be in a mystery book!

​I can tell that this book was brilliantly researched and I genuinely enjoyed all of the medical things portrayed in it - and I am the world's biggest hypochondriac! For the side characters I enjoyed Suzette a lot, which I didn't expect myself to do and I liked Dr. Blackwell, but I wish she got more page time to be honest - there was so much more potential to her.

​Some parts were laced with pretty great humor which made me laugh out loud. There was a part which made me feel very unconformable and I was flabbergasted at how Cora had no proper reaction to it whatsoever. If I saw what she saw I'd be scarred for life, but I guess she was a very tough girl after all.

This will be published in the late September - perfect in time for Halloween, when all of us crave macabre books! I definitely recommend!

Big thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a digital advanced copy for a review. All opinions are my own, honest and come from the heart.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.

The Impossible Girl is the story of Cora, who was born with two hearts. As a resurrectionist procuring bodies with strange anomalies to anatomists she takes us on a mysterious and weird journey through 1850s New York, all the while being the one medical sensation who tops all others and is sought after like a legend.
I truely enjoyed this, Cora is a fascinating protagonist and the story's theme is equally fascinating (and sometimes sad). Plus: A gripping mystery plot. Great read.

I was provided an ARC of this book by Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"The girl with two hearts, too impossible to have truly been born."

The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang is listed as Adult General Fiction/Women's Fiction which is why I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is a mystery book more than anything. And a stellar mystery book at that as I did not, not even once, consider the twist when the murderer is finally revealed

Set in the mid 1800's and written in third person, The Impossible Girl follows Cora, a resurrectionist, aka a grave robber, that procures bodies of people with medical anomalies and sells them to those that wish to study and/or profit from their demise. Cora herself being born with two hearts, is the most sought after anomaly of them all and thus her life is in danger from those wishing to profit from her death.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is a very fast read with a story unlike anything I have ever come across. There is a separate chapter from the viewpoint of each of the deceased that Cora resurrects, giving an insight into their life and their death, which I think was a clever idea by the author. This story offers a twist reveal that is delicious and blindsiding. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me.

A strange and interesting novel that I wanted to read thanks to the great cover. I would recommend this to fans of strange plots.