My thanks to Atria books, Jess Kidd and Netgalley.
I guess I'm going against the tide here, but I really didn't care for this book. I've tried this author once before, and it just wasn't my groove. This takes place in Victorian London, which for me is often iffy. It's a time period that I love reading about, but it's also a slightly disgusting time! I can read about murder and mayhem, but if someone throws their waste out of the window, then I'm just about gagging my guts out! So, I need something or someone to connect with. This didn't do it for me. I didn't get to far into this book. 22% actually. So, take this review with a grain of salt! I do usually give a book to 30%. But, sometimes a gal just knows when to stop. So, I stopped.

LOVED. This book was so unique and had so many different facets and vibes. The mystery aspect was so engaging...and yet there was this great speculative element that was understated but so well done. Then the humor and dialogue between the characters were fantastic.

What a unique cast of characters and I loved them! This was a witty, well written book. My interest was kept from page one.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel was set in Victorian London with a swaggering female investigator, Bridie, who smokes a pipe, speaks with an Irish accent, and was brought up a street urchin before being taken in by a kind doctor. Ruby is the ghost of a boxer who haunts Bridie in a conscience-like way, advising, observing, and spending time with her (she can see and hear him, by the way), who claims to know Bridie though she can’t remember him. Bridie is investigating a kidnapping of a strange mer-child, and the story switches to the kidnapper and child, then back to Bridie and her ghost and her housekeeper, Cora, the rescued giant woman from a circus. There’s also a story told by the kidnapper woman, in pieces, half to the child and half to herself, of her dark childhood. And the story of Bridie’s dark childhood with the looming incidents of a sociopathic Gideon, the kind doctor’s son, who died after being sent away after raping several women ... or did he die after all?

This story, with it’s many many stories and changing p.o.v’s really didn’t keep my attention and I found it a struggle to continue picking up. I lost sight of what the actual end-goal of the story was, though everyone was strange and fascinating. I can’t stomach the kind of cruelty Gideon showed, and had to skip pages with him, making the book not really an enjoyable experience.

I struggled to get into this book. It’s got an interesting premise that I will definitely be able to sel to customers, but the story felt a little disjointed to me, and I couldn’t truly understand the characters as much as I would like. The plot didn’t move as quickly as I expected it to, but I think there is a niche of people that will greatly enjoy this title.

Magical realism at its best!!! You will fall in love with the main character, Bridie, and will never want this to end. I can't wait to read more by Jess Kidd!

Oh my, this is a weird and wonderful book, full of weird and wonderful characters: Bridie, the red-headed Irish detective who can 'read' the dead: Bridie's seven foot tall maid rescued from a circus; the disreputable freak show owner who will do anything for a new specimen; the snake woman with a heart of gold; the titled father missing his 'child,' and Christabel, the 'child' in question who Bridie must find/rescue/release? The underbelly of Victorian England is not pretty - it is dirty, ugly, dangerous. It is a place where freak shows will kidnap children to put on display, where people wind up dead due to medical experimentation, and where things in jars can cost a pretty penny. Jess Kidd is an extraordinary writer who takes all these weird and wonderful ingredients and mixes them into a spectacular story.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

"Bridie Devine—female detective extraordinaire—is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors trading curiosities in this age of discovery."

Okay story, steampunk isn't a favorite genre.

2.25☆

I loved this book-really different story and beautiful writing. The characters were so different and interesting. The main character is Bridie Devine-the author mentioned many times how attractive she was yet how ugly her hat was. That made me laugh. I loved the relationship that she had with the ghost of a boxer in his drawers (yes, a ghost in his underwear!)-it was funny and yet melancholy. The story itself is a gothic mystery set in Victorian London. Bridie is asked to search for a missing girl who appears to be a supernatural creature. I was sorry to end this book as the world was just so inventive.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in return for my honest review.

Set in the 1800s in London and alternating between two timelines twenty years apart. Bridie is an Irish waif taken in by a wealthy family when she is a young girl. She is quickly taken under Dr. Eames’ wing and he nurtures Bridie’s inquisitive mind.

As an adult, Bridie works as an investigator with her 7-foot tall housekeeper, Cora, and a dead ghost, Ruby, that only Bridie can see. Her current case involves a missing child who no one knows about. She quickly learns that the missing child may not be a child at all, but a mermaid or merrow (evil mermaid).

Unfortunately this book was not for me. Though I preferred the timeline with Bridie as a child, most of the novel just didn’t hold my interest. The writing was excellent, the characters quirky, and the storyline very unique.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
⭐️⭐️⭐️
pub date: 2/4/20
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Bridie Devine is a rough around the edges female detective, solving cases in an equally rough around the edges Victorian London. Reeling from a failed case that resulted in the death of a child, Bridie reluctantly takes the case of another kidnapped child. Only, this kidnapped child is VERY unusual and highly sought-after by some seedy individuals. Bridie enlists the help of her giantess maid Cora and ghost Ruby to help track down the kidnappee in this fantasy slash detective novel.
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I really wanted to love this because the premise is so interesting. I love a good mystery, and this novel is undoubtedly very interesting. What I found challenging was the very ornate writing... I had to re-read paragraphs and pages to figure out what was actually going on. Not to say the writing was bad, but it just wasn’t my style. I also struggled with the non-linear sections of the novel. I enjoyed learning about Bridie’s backstory, but the switching between the past and narrative present felt jerky to me. I found the story to really pick up around the 3/4 mark and enjoyed the ending! If you are a fan of fantasy, mystery, or Dickinson vibes, I’d give this one a try! Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for my advanced readers copy. Things in Jars is a January Book of the Month selection, and will be released in the US on 2/4/20.

A creepy, skin crawling, afraid to read the next page novel about a girl and who she is. She bit the thief and she left the roo
But he did not.

The reviews of Things in Jars, by Jess Kidd, have been somewhat mixed. I have no idea why. I loved this highly imaginative, disturbing novel that is packed to the rafters with brilliant characters. I inhaled this book. What’s not to love about this novel of homicidal anatomical collectors, ghost boxers, giant maids, and a determined detective who is called in when people need their mysteries investigated discreetly?

In another century, Bridie Devine would have been a surgeon. Her old gaffer, a drunken ex-surgeon-turned-resurrection-man, inadvertently trained her to recognize causes and times of death as he procured bodies for anatomists. Bridie has two strikes against her in 1863. First, she’s a woman. Second, she’s Irish. Still, her powers of observation and knowledge of death stand her in good stead as a private detective. Even more than her experience, Bridie’s determination to do good and see justice done drives her to solve cases in spite of any danger to herself. We meet Bridie as she is still licking metaphorical wounds after a failed case—and also when she is met by a persistent ghost who insists that Bridie knows who he is. The ghost of the boxer who keeps popping up is just one of many mysteries that Bridie tackles in Things in Jars.

The ghost isn’t our first clue that there are supernatural goings on in Things in Jars. A creature (for lack of a better word) is stolen in the prologue, with fatal results for one of her kidnappers. This creature is first described to Bridie as the daughter of a country scientist, who is kept in seclusion because of her “differences.” But things don’t add up. Why hasn’t her client gone to the police to report his daughter’s kidnapping? Why does it appear that the child’s nanny was involved? What’s up with the strange mermaid-like specimen in her client’s house? All of these questions, the active plot, are laid over very interesting, deeper questions about liberty, the right to pursue happiness, and vigilante justice when society at large is oblivious and/or willing to turn a blind eye.

Jess Kidd is absolutely one of my favorite contemporary writers because I know that every thing she writes will be unusual, entertaining, and original. Things in Jars is such a good read—as are Kidd’s other novels—that I honestly couldn’t say which one I love best. What I can say is that, if you’re in the mood for something different, something that makes you question the reality you see around you, if you love books in which old, bloody secrets refuse to stay buried, definitely pick up Things in Jars and Kidd’s other novels, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort (also titled, The Hoarder) and Himself.

Set in Victorian London with the main protagonist Bridie Devine, a female detective, its a story of strange creatures, science and the supernatural.

Im just going to say straight up that this wasnt for me. I didnt enjoy it all. The writing style I found quite jarring and annoying. The over descriptive narrative was hugely annoying and persisted throughout the whole book. It ruined any sort of momentum in the story for me.

I found the whole thing a chore to read and honestly its the nearest Ive been to a dnf.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Jess Kidd and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd is a Gothic novel that takes place in 1800’s London. Bridie Devine, female detective, is called on to search for a missing child, Christabel Berwick; the missing child of the Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick. No one is supposedly aware of her existence and it is said she odd with possible mythical powers. Bridie finds she is quickly drawn into an underworld of London where such oddities are often traded and fortunes made. She is forced to confront her own past as she meets a wide array of unusual characters who may or may not be who they seem.
I didn’t care for this book. There was a lot of excitement and Bridie has a lot of energy to keep going through anything. I felt at that minute details that seemed to have no relation to the outcome bogged the story down and I felt I was being dragged along. The story goes back and forth between Bridie’s past and the present and sometimes I found this too abrupt. I assume there will be another book as the ending left questions unanswered. I give this book 4 of 5 stars. I think many will enjoy it.
I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

A mystery set in Victorian England with a bizarre cast of characters and events- what more could you want? There are villains, a mer-creature, and of course, things in jars.

"London is awash with the freshly murdered...Bridie has a talent for the reading of corpses: the tale of life and death written on everybody." Bridie Devine, "a small, round, upright woman of around thirty...with ...vivid red hair tucked...inside her white widow's cap...might be called by Inspector Valentine Rose of Scotland Yard to determine the cause of a bizarre or inexplicable death. The "dark underbelly of Victorian London" in 1863 included kidnapping, a seemingly profitable venture. One could demand a ransom, provide a specimen to a private anatomist, or deliver a curiosity to a traveling circus.

Bridie Devine was devastated. Recently, she failed to find a lost child. She was hesitant to embark upon a quest to find another missing child, Christabel Berwick, the five year old daughter of Sir Edmund Berwick, a baronet. Christabel was anything but ordinary. She had been secreted away, her existence known only to a select few. "Christabel makes you 'remember'...memories you hardly knew you had...she also makes you think 'thoughts'...not entirely your own..."

Bridie enlisted help in her search for Christabel. Ever since she rescued seven foot Cora Butter from a bear cage in a traveling circus, Cora had been Bridie's devoted housemaid. Cora read Penny Dreadfuls and enjoyed singing hymns in "her glorious baritone". Mr. Ruby Doyle was a tattooed ghost, a former pugilist, who appeared to Bridie decked out in a top hat, boots and wearing only his draws. Rumold Fortitude Prudhoe, an experimental chemist and toxicologist, made sure Bridie's pipe was filled with Bronchial Balsam Blend, a "recreational creation".

"Things in Jars" by Jess Kidd provides the reader with entry into the world of collectors trading in curiosities, unethical medical practices, and newfangled methods of specimen preservation. Dark, macabre story elements are tempered with wicked humor. Riding in the Brighton +South Coast Railway Carriage, passengers express concern about a small woman [Bridie] sitting in second class "...whispering emphatically to the empty seat opposite her [Ruby Doyle]". Bridie exclaims, "I am forced to make my own entertainment, sir, which is talking to this...seat." Author Jess Kidd has written an amazing Victorian detective mystery replete with breathtaking prose.

Thank you Atria Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Things in Jars".

Things in Jars has a unique and highly entertaining style - highly atmospheric, hilarious but also a little bit creepy. This book has a lot of fun with the gothic genre and also enjoys turning some of the social conventions of 19th century London on their head.

Unfortunately the writing didn’t quite make up for the weak plot at times. The mystery was revealed early in the story, which meant we spent a lot of time watching Bridie slowly piece together clues to solve a puzzle we already knew the answer to. The supernatural elements aren’t particularly engaging either, as there’s not a lot of explanation about how the unique children at the centre of the plot fit into the broader world beyond the specific case of Christabel’s kidnapping.

A fun read, though not as gripping as I had originally hoped.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

4.5
A Victorian detective novel set in London, 1863..
This cast of characters is something g else.. Bridie, a red haired Irish woman..pipe smoking, a small and tough broad and her sidekick, a ghost named Ruby Doyle (especially loved these two)
Bridie is on a case to solve the kidnapping of six year old Cristabel Berwick, an “oddity of nature” who has pike like teeth, who smells of the sea and draws people’s memories out of them.

Jess Kidd is an amazing writer!
Here is a link where she talks about this book.

https://youtu.be/h6XLYHGDlyw

Thank you so much to Atria through Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was difficult. I just found the way the book was written so hard to read, that I was not able to stay engaged enough. I found myself just struggling to finish it.