WOW.... can I just say Jess Kidd where have you been all my life?!

What a masterpiece my friends! What a brilliant storyteller with elements of supernatural, fantasy, and mystery. I was hesitant about reading this one but saw all the raving reviews and am so glad that I took the chance!

I was quickly hooked with the fascinating characters and the gothic vibe in this story. The imagination and vivid details of this tale was quite brilliant! And can I say I couldn't get enough of Birdie Devine... what an investigator.

This was such a fun journey to take and am so glad I was able to read this little gem of a tale!!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Atria for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

4 strong stars!!

Publication date: 2/4/19
Published to GR: 12/8/19

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC. I enjoyed this book, from Bridie the sleuth to the ghost she only can see to the "pike teethed baby" to the seven foot maid, Cora. Charming and full of curiosity.

I absolutely love reading anything set in Victorian Lindon, so I couldn't wait to read this one! Birdie is such a unique, lovely character that I couldn't wait to see what else she would do.
Well developed characters & storyline. I couldn't wait to finish it. List of twists and turns. Would recommend to others who would enjoy this book.

This is a good book, but just not for me.
There is ALOT of description. I also know very little about Victorian London so a lot of scenery description mixed with fantasy I felt confused at times.
Let me preface with the fact that I don’t like fantasy so someone else would like this book much more than I. They use a lot of time period appropriate language which had me googling often.

Absolutely loved this novel! It was dark, Victorian-gothic goodness, right from the start - with components of magical realism, tightly written dialogue, a propulsive storyline, and a fierce female detective at the helm, this book would be a great choice for fans of Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, or The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (all of which I enjoyed).

I've already decided to go back and read this author's previous work, and I can't wait for her next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing a review copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I fell in love with Jess Kidd's writing after listen to, "Himself," on audiobook (full review here) last year. There was something so unique about her storytelling that blended a great Irish ghost story with an incredible amount of heart and humor.  This is why I knew that I was in for something good when I snagged an advanced reader of, "Things in Jars."

Kidd takes a darker turn with a female detective, Bridie Devine, who is trying to solve the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, the secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick. 

The child has been kept away in secret from society because of her peculiarities and supernatural powers. At this time, in Victorian London, peculiarities are displayed as marvels in traveling circuses (or worse) children are killed to display these oddities in jars for collectors and for profit. 

Bridie is determined to find this girl even if it means putting her own past at risk. 

She isn't alone though, she is aided through this story by a tattooed ghost who doesn't leave her side as she investigates. 

Kidd does a great job adding her signature humor into this dark story and weaves in history and folklore that anyone can appreciate. Fans of magical realism will love this Dickensesque story that finds great beauty in the oddities.

This is much darker than her previous work and is a very macabre telling of our curiosities with collecting and displaying the peculiarities of others for profit.

For me, this one leaned a little too heavy into the magical elements that made the story feel a lot less grounded toward the end.

Overall, I was still completely swept away and would still recommend this one for your stack!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy of Things in Jars by Jess Kid! I absolutely adored this book. It initially appealed to me because I'm a big fan of the British mystery genre, however, this book was so much more than that. I don't normally like historical novels but the setting and time period of this novel gave it a very dark, Gothic atmosphere which really absorbs you into the story. I also found the background information about the medical field in the late-1800's to be extremely interesting and an amazing angle on the mystery genre. The main character, Bridie, is lovable, hilarious, and smart and her secondary plot line about growing up in the care of Dr. Eames is extremely engaging. A high point of this novel was also the dialogue. It was incredibly well done and was reminiscent, in my opinion, of Shakespeare. The lyrical nature of conversations and the slight humor tinged on the edges remind me so much of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery, anything slightly off-kilter, or books with amazing heroines.

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd is part mystery/detective part historical fiction novel that has a dash of fantasy with a mystical/other worldly tone that makes this a very interesting and immersive read.
This is one of those gritty, dark Victorian murder/mystery novels that has a fascinating and powerful female protagonist at its center. The author does a fabulous job drawing the reader in to the past, but yet opening a window to another world. The result is nothing but extraordinary and all-consuming that will leave one wanting more.
I also enjoyed meeting many of the eccentric cast of characters. This book is slightly out of my normal genres, and I am glad I took this chance.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am submitting my review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Jess Kidd loves words. The words seem to spill out of her--whirling around, creating vivid images and wonderful prose with unexpected juxtapositions and all kinds of figurative language. They don't feel like deliberate choices as much as thoughts emerging from someone whose use of language is so imaginative, fresh, and creative that she can't contain it.

I loved Himself for those reasons and more, but liked Mr. Flood's Last Resort (also titled The Hoarder) less. Kidd's characters, however, are wonderful even when the plot is a little iffy.

Her latest book, Things in Jars--especially with Kidd's amazing prose--is a mystery, a fairy tale, a nightmare, magical realism, a ghost story, social commentary, a mysterious amalgamation of genres that does not fit any one category.

Set in 1863, Bridie Devine, private investigator with a connection to the police, smokes her pipe on her way to inspect a crypt with the skeleton remains of a mother and child...and finds the transparent figure of former boxer Ruby Doyle lounging on his grave. She doesn't believe in ghosts, yet the marvelously tattooed Ruby Doyle (The Decorated Doyle), definitely dead and transparent, seems to know her. And so the story begins.

Ruby Doyle, the decorated pugilist whose tattoos move and react to situations, becomes Bridie's (initially) unwanted partner. Doyle knows Bridie, but Bridie cannot remember ever knowing Doyle. He accompanies her home and on her adventures, waiting for Bridie to remember him and their connection, and Bridie's feelings for Ruby Doyle confuse her as she begins to appreciate his company.

The main story line begins when Bridie is engaged to find the kidnapped daughter of a baronet. Christabel Berwick, a strange six-year-old with unusual powers and strange needle-like teeth, is a mystery in and of herself. Is Christabel the embodiment of the Irish myth of the merrow? Bridie suspects a possible reason for the little girl's kidnapping...and she doesn't like it at all.

Interspersing chapters reveal more of Bridie's past and diverge to examine the activities of other characters. Each character is the delightful result of descriptions amplified in the style of Dickens as in this description of Cridge, the curate:

"He is a young man with an unfavorable look about him. Slight of stature and large of head, with light-brown hair that cleaves thinly to an ample cranium with bumps and contours enough to astound even a practiced phrenologist. His complexion is wan and floury as an overcooked potato and his mouth was made for sneering."

Moving from past to present and back again, threads that are begun in the past are gradually woven into the present. Aside from such wonderful characters as Bridie herself, we meet Ruby Doyle, Cora (Bridie's seven foot tall housemaid), Bad Dorcas, the Prudhoes, Valentine Rose, and wicked Gideon Eames. London becomes both setting and character in this fantastical adventure.

It is difficult not to become enchanted by Kidd's prose, although it occasionally interrupts the plot. :)

Read in November; blog review scheduled for Jan. 19, 2020.

NetGalley/Atria Books
?Historical Mystery/Fantasy? Feb. 4, 2020. Print length: 384 pages.

If Charles Dickens and Neil Gaiman and Conan Doyle had devised a Victorian Era Gothic mystery with a female detective partial to 'medicinal' tobacco who is hired to find a kidnapped girl who is perhaps not quite human, aided by a dead man and former circus freak, it would not be outdone by Jess Kidd's Things in Jars.

The coal smoke and fog of London, complete with its olfactory smorgasbord of industry and market, the filthy Thames and its dung-filled streets, the miasma blamed for cholera and other deadly diseases is vividly described.

The novel is Victorian in writing style, with Dickensian descriptions and sensational penny dreadful worthy murderous villains. It is populated with Resurrectionists, mudlarks, people with false identities, and avid collectors of curiosities--things in jars.

Sir Edmund has an extensive collection of aquatic life--aberrations--things in jars, including the Winter Mermaid, the Irish merrow specimen that went missing long ago. The fishy merrow could take on female human form, beautiful but dangerous killers. Sir Edmund's reclusive, 'singular daughter' has disappeared, along with her nurse and the doctor. Sir Edmund won't share details, but he is desperate to find Christabel.

Here is time held in suspension. Yesterday picked. Eternity in a jar. ~from Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

Sir Edmund has called detective Bridie Devine to find the missing girl.

Bridie's early childhood was spent with a resurrectionist--once a man of science before ruined by drink and gambling--who taught her how to determine how long a body had been dead. Then a gentleman doctor took her from the streets to groom as his assistant. Now, she helps the police, "working out how people died." She failed to find her last kidnapped child case, and perhaps that failure was why she was chosen for this case.

Bridie is a wonderful character. Like Sherlock Holmes, she dons disguises, she is identified by her choice of hat, and smokes a pipe. She is also quite modern, railing against societal restraints on women, the 'market price' of their value. Middle age is creeping up--is it too late for a lover? Ruby Doyle's ghost has been following her, claiming they had a history; there is an affection between them. Who was he?

Kidd captures a time when Darwin's theory is breaking news and science and pseudoscience is all the rage. I love the novels and era that inspired this novel, and I love this novel, too.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Jess Kidd is an auto-buy author for me. If she writes it, I must read it immediately.

Kidd describes Victorian London with witty aplomb; the sights, surely, but more so the stench and emanations of its denizens. There is so much stink in this book I could taste it, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. There are botched surgeries, festering skin infections, and delectable, if not a little bit hallucinogenic, pipe tobacco. I was often curled up reading this romantic phantasmagoria thinking, “Damn, I love this!” Also, bring a highlighter on this adventure. My vocabulary increased threefold.

The whole story is a mystery involving a kidnapping of an otherworldly, sinister child. The child looks like an angel, but on close inspection really looks more like a corpse. And don’t get too close – she’s likely to snatch at your fingers with her pointed teeth. Draped behind the plot is the backstory of our protagonist, red-headed Bridie Devine, and how she came to be one of the most skilled surgeon’s assistants cum detective. Her seven-foot-tall sidekick, Cora, is a force to be reckoned with as well.

There are inclinations of magical realism, as there are in all of Kidd’s books. Evil mermaids (“merrow”) who can drown people on dry land, curious grotesque specimens in jars, and a ghost with the most winsome personality and animated tattoos that you can’t help but fall in love with him. My favorite character was little precocious Myrtle and her one-eyed doll, Rosebud.

Things in Jars requires a keen reader, as Kidd can be subtle in revealing plot twists. This is not a book to be rushed through, and I think it’s best taken in large doses, not unlike a pipe full of Dr. Prudhoe’s Bronchial Balsam Blend, in order to follow the different characters and the nuanced relationships among all of them. The kidnapping and the motives behind it have very deep roots.

Highly recommend. I want to go back and start it all over again. I did not want to leave the world of Bridie Devine. Many thanks to Atria Books / Simon & Schuster for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

This is a very descriptive book that seems to have a lot going on. It’s full of interesting characters. I did think it was a little wordy at times. It was different. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Set in Victoria London, the book introduces us to Bridie Devine, a pipe-smoking "detective" with a shadowy past. She's hired to find the kidnapped daughter of a landed gentleman. With the help of her unusually tall maid and the ghost of boxer Ruby Doyle, she uncovers more than she bargained for and comes face to face with some unfriendly faces from her own past.

Not as enjoyable as "Himself" in my opinion, but still a very good read. Kidd creates strong, independent female characters with substance. She expertly weaves the weird and wonderful into our world.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. It was a slow start for me and I had difficulty getting into the plot, but the setting in Victorian England was dark and mysterious and the main character had me intrigued. I enjoyed Bridie’s unique strength very much, and did not mind the supernatural/ fantasy elements. The overall mystery kept me turning each page. But that being said, the writing style was a bit cumbersome and I found myself becoming confused by the number of characters and jumps in timeline. A book that, to me, had a lot of potential felt like work to finish.

I just absolutely love Jess Kidd’s book that I literally accepted this book without reading the description! Man I was not disappointed! The way Jess mixes common storyline with this twisted and bizarre side just makes her books amazing and Things In Jars is no different. This book just wowed me! The storyline was flawless and the characters were all so amazing flawed. Must Read!!!

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (4 Stars)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Jess Kidd’s previous book, Himself, was a delight! Kidd has a unique writing style, very conversational while poetic at the same time, painting a picture for your mind. Himself was an unusual tale and this one was even stranger because, well, because there are things in jars and that infers strange things. Indeed, this book is strange, but in a weirdly good way. There are some squeamish parts to it because, well, because there are things in jars. The storyline has a dark undertone of gruesome strange things, fantasy, folklore and violence, yet it is a perfect blend of light and dark as there are also curious strange things, sleuthing, humor and love.

The setting is Victorian England, and female sleuth Bridie Devine is investigating the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, a very peculiar child. So peculiar, in fact, that people seek to collect her. Bridie is on the hunt, along with her 7-foot tall maid and friend, a helpful pharmacist and a ghost from her past. Bridie is determined to find Christabel not only because it is what she does, but because she needs to reestablish her reputation after her last case ended badly. The timeline alternates between past and present, with a little more of Bridie’s past revealed each time. Kidd is adept at character development, both major and minor characters. You may not like them, but you certainly get to know them well.

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Jess Kidd is a gifted storyteller, and you will savor the story unfolding before you.

Somehow I failed to read Jess Kidd’s acclaimed novel, Himself, but I will remedy that as quickly as possible. I absolutely loved Kidd’s forthcoming book, Things in Jars. The plot is a perfectly delicious mix of Victorian murder mystery, a child kidnapping case, and a gothic ghostly love story. Mrs. Bridie Devine, private sleuth for hire, dons her famously ugly bonnet to search among London’s most violent characters for the recently stolen and apparently secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick. Missing six year old Christabel Berwick’s picture and description summon Birdie’s dark childhood memories of “The Winter Mermaid” kept in an anatomist’s glass jar, and set Bridie, along with her ghostly bodyguard, Ruby, and Bridie’s devoted seven-foot tall housemaid (the whiskered Cora) on the trail of the kidnappers. Bridie’s mission finds her in London’s darkest environs among a cast of shady surgeons, anatomists, and “collectors” bent on dissecting or promoting for profit those persons billed as freaks or wonders. There is a collision of violent, repressed childhood memories, grief, guilt, and lost love, and Bridie’s unrelenting passion to find Christabel Berwick. I want more Bridie Devine!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. My review is my own.

A dark, bizarre and fanciful world

Imaginative storytelling that was menacing, detailed and plotted to perfection.

I was quickly captivated by the gothic setting and the missing child investigation. The female detective, Birdie Devine specializes in domestic investigations and minor surgery. She was a fantastic character that brought humor and humanity to the tale.

The supernatural elements and fairytale esque cast of characters kept me glued to the pages and immersed in their quest for the "Winter Mermaid". The images of snails, scales and those "things in jars" were mesmerizing. I also learned about merrows, which both fascinated and terrified me!

A splash of magical realism, some wicked happenings and plenty of side characters to love/hate made this one quite a fantastical journey!

This is a beguiling and fascinating mystery, combining forensics and myth and the supernatural in ways that both sit uneasily with one another and complement each other perfectly. Bridie, trained to understand the causes of death, is tasked with searching for a missing child who is not entirely human. Accompanied by a ghost and the traumas of her own past, Bridie seeks out justice while grappling with the implications of her youth and those she knew. The language is beautiful and the plot is masterful; a gothic gem.

I wasn’t personally crazy about this author’s storytelling voice, but the story itself and the characters found within were more than enough to keep me hooked.