Call number
MYST KID
Collection
Genres
Publication
Atria Books (2020), Edition: Reissue, 384 pages
Description
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. Winding her way through the labyrinthine, sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won't rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing a past that she'd rather keep buried. Luckily, her search is aided by an enchanting cast of characters, including a seven-foot tall housemaid; a melancholic, tattoo-covered ghost; and an avuncular apothecary. But secrets abound in this foggy underworld where spectacle is king and nothing is quite what it seems.… (more)
Media reviews
This pacy piece of Victorian crime fiction delivers chills galore: pickled babies, wicked surgeons, a head in a hatbox and other unsettling discoveries. “The baby isn’t suckling the mother’s finger, it’s gnawing it,”...It’s a lovely idea, wittily done, and its warmth is a welcome
Show More
respite from the grisly Victorian police procedural..... it is well worth the price of admission. Show Less
If there was an Oscar ceremony for books, then Jess Kidd’s Victorian mystery Things in Jars would surely sweep the board. The book’s heroine, Bridie Devine, is a shoo-in for Best Female Character in a Leading Role. A detective with a talent for reading corpses in a London “awash with the
Show More
freshly murdered....Kidd is a writer who’s not afraid of having fun, as the passage above suggests, but that’s not to say that Things in Jars is a frivolous book. For all its humour and colour, and there’s plenty of both, this is a story of serious evil....Macabre dealings may be the subject matter of Things in Jars, but tenderness is at the heart of it.....For this wonderful portrait of London, for her beautiful writing and even better storytelling, Jess Kidd richly deserves the award of Best Director. And the Oscar for Best Book? Things in Jars, for all the reasons listed above. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member John_Warner
Cabinet of Curiosities wee common avocations among the English wealthy between the 17th-19th centuries. The collection of natural world oddities often outgrew the cabinet and littering into the other rooms of the home.
Sir Edmund Berwick's cabinet included his adopted "daughter", a young girl with
Generally, the story moved steadily along but occasionally bogged down when I was introduced to her back story in chapters interspersed throughout the book. However, these chapters were necessary in that they explained Bridie's relationship with an adversary from her past. Bridie and her entourage were so well created that I wanted to hang-out with them. The book hinted at a sequel at its end, which I hope happens.
Sir Edmund Berwick's cabinet included his adopted "daughter", a young girl with
Show More
unusual features and habits. When she is kidnapped, Sir Berwick hires Bridget "Bridie" Devine, "flame-haired, pipe- smoking [Victorian London] detective extraordinaire," to find and return her. She will be assisted in her investigations by Cora, her seven-foot housekeeper, who she rescued from a circus side show, and Ruby, the ghost of a deceased tattooed boxer dressed only in shorts and boots. Bridie notices when Ruby and she first met in the graveyard that his tattoos were ever moving about his upper torso.Generally, the story moved steadily along but occasionally bogged down when I was introduced to her back story in chapters interspersed throughout the book. However, these chapters were necessary in that they explained Bridie's relationship with an adversary from her past. Bridie and her entourage were so well created that I wanted to hang-out with them. The book hinted at a sequel at its end, which I hope happens.
Show Less
LibraryThing member yvonnekins
This was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. The setting and atmosphere? Gothic and magical. The characters? Enjoyable. The plot? Engaging. The romance subplot? Filled with tension and heartbreak. The writing? *Chefs kiss* A masterpiece.
Now, admittedly, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of
The setting was an atmospheric wonder. This is directly because of the description-heavy writing style, and I understand why some would find the focus on descriptions annoying. Still, it only helped me feel wrapped in this Victorian gothic mystery. I felt like I was in Maris House or Alberny Hall.
And the characters! I love Bridie Devine. I love Cora Butter. I was even captivated by Gideon Eames and Mrs. Bibby. And Ruby Doyle???? That ghost stole the damn show for me. Potentially my favorite character I've encountered in a book this year. These characters have layers. I loved that. Christabel felt more like a chess piece than a character- she could have been replaced with a rare artifact or the holy grail- but for me, the story wasn't about her. It was about slowly peeling back the layers between all the other characters and picking apart the web that connected them.
Listen, I don't want to give away too much of what happens in this book. I will warn that if you're going into this expecting a more traditional detective mystery type book, you will not find that. This is a book about characters living in a cruel world, with some slivers of light shining through, and where everything is not what it first seems.
Now, admittedly, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of
Show More
tea, precisely because of the writing style. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the flow of this book because of the writing, but once I was into it, I really loved the writing even on its own. After reading some less glowing reviews, I can see that that'll be the point of contention among readers. I 100% understand why it would not work for some people, so I would say that this is for people who want beautiful writing with diction that stays true to the setting and don't mind (or even appreciate) that it can be description-heavy at times.The setting was an atmospheric wonder. This is directly because of the description-heavy writing style, and I understand why some would find the focus on descriptions annoying. Still, it only helped me feel wrapped in this Victorian gothic mystery. I felt like I was in Maris House or Alberny Hall.
And the characters! I love Bridie Devine. I love Cora Butter. I was even captivated by Gideon Eames and Mrs. Bibby. And Ruby Doyle???? That ghost stole the damn show for me. Potentially my favorite character I've encountered in a book this year. These characters have layers. I loved that. Christabel felt more like a chess piece than a character- she could have been replaced with a rare artifact or the holy grail- but for me, the story wasn't about her. It was about slowly peeling back the layers between all the other characters and picking apart the web that connected them.
Listen, I don't want to give away too much of what happens in this book. I will warn that if you're going into this expecting a more traditional detective mystery type book, you will not find that. This is a book about characters living in a cruel world, with some slivers of light shining through, and where everything is not what it first seems.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Jthierer
This book really didn't land with me for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. From page one, there was something about the choice of language that just felt out of sync with the story and mood the author seemed to be trying to create, in that the reliance on alliteration and descriptiveness just
Show More
didn't seem to fit the no-nonsense heroine. Not that I think Kidd should have skipped description altogether but something just didn't click between the style and the narrative. Add in a story that has entirely too many ties between present and past, and you get a novel that just wasn't quite a hit for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
It's been interesting to see the reaction to this book here, and at Goodreads, as though it's been too "weird" for some folks, whereas for me, I was expecting more of an experience of cosmic horror in the process. Though Christabel Berwick, the McGuffin of this story, is definitely an uncanny
Show More
being, the real story is about how our main character Bridget McBride, a female detective tolerated for her forensic and medical knowledge, came to be in the position she's in, and how her own past haunts her. If I mark this story down for anything, the motivations of some of the plotters seem a bit weak, but they were mostly weak men, unthinkingly driven by their obsessions. Would I read another book by this author dealing with this cast of characters? Probably. To be honest, I'm not sure another book is really required, if you define a novel as an examination of the defining experience of the main character's life. Show Less
LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
Just in case you don't look past the title, this ain't about your grandma canning green beans. This gruesome novel starts out grisly and never lets up. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about Victorian resurrectionists and collectors of strange medical specimens., about horrific medical practices and
Show More
no end of awful things. But a child, someone who is supposed to be strange and a collector's delight, is a prisoner and then reported as missing. Our intrepid heroine is out to solve the mystery and save the girl. To balance out the grisliness, there is a delightful ghost who wears little other than a battered top hat, and some other wonderful characters, including a very tall, very devoted housemaid. This book was a bit much for my tender sensibilities, but I really enjoyed it anyway. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beamis12
Recipe: Throw in a very unusual detective named Bridie, her housekeeper Cora whom Bridie helped rescue from a freak show, and a ghost, an ex boxer who has a tattooed body, with tattoos that move, wearing only a top hat and baggy underdrawers. Add a missing child from a notable personage, the folk
Don't know how Kidd comes up with the story ideas she has, but I've enjoyed all three of her very different books. This is a dark London, a hidden London where many things go unnoticed and unreported. Bridie has her hands full and a very interesting back story. The ghost insists she knows him from the past, but she doesn't remember,though by books end that will change. The mood, the atmosphere, the gothic storytelling aided in my quest to know how's the author would bring this all together. She does, in a thriller sty!e with an emotional edge.
One can't help wondering where this author will take us next, or if this might be the start of a series featuring Bridie. Time will tell.
Show More
story of the merrow, one or two evil men, a unusual but helpful apothecary and freak shows and oddities galore. What one now has is a truly imaginative, inventive and entertaining look at a time when strange ruled the day.Don't know how Kidd comes up with the story ideas she has, but I've enjoyed all three of her very different books. This is a dark London, a hidden London where many things go unnoticed and unreported. Bridie has her hands full and a very interesting back story. The ghost insists she knows him from the past, but she doesn't remember,though by books end that will change. The mood, the atmosphere, the gothic storytelling aided in my quest to know how's the author would bring this all together. She does, in a thriller sty!e with an emotional edge.
One can't help wondering where this author will take us next, or if this might be the start of a series featuring Bridie. Time will tell.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nancyadair
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
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.
Show More
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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jnmegan
Jess Kidd introduces readers to a fascinating new fictional heroine, Bridie Devine, her primary character in her latest offering Things in Jars. This novel, by the author of Himself and Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, is a chimera of historical mystery and fantasy, with a pinch of romance added as well.
Thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Show More
Bridie Devine is a figure regarded with suspicious respect in Victorian England in her role as a female detective with an odd choice of interests and expertise. Her natural intellect and powers of deduction have become enhanced by an independent spirit and steely hardiness developed as a byproduct of her untraditional Irish background. When Bridie is brought in to help recover the kidnapped child of a Baronet, she wonders why she was selected for the assignment in lieu of the traditional authorities. It becomes clear, however, that the nature of this case involves some unsavory and fantastical elements that require a unique approach. A mystery regarding Bridie’s own past is interwoven with a main storyline that encompasses ghosts, mermaids, Resurrection Men, exploited circus “freaks,” and genetic oddities that attract the interest of unethical medical experimenters. There is a lot going on in this novel, and the stylized language and brief forays into the second person perspective exacerbate a sense of disorientation. Kidd does a fairly good job of keeping the narrative on track, however, with a steady pace and chapter/section breaks that help prevent the reader from getting too lost along the way. Although Things in Jars concludes in a satisfying way, the author leaves open the possibility of a sequel or series featuring Bridie Devine- a character that is compelling enough pique a reader’s interest in revisiting her world.Thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tamidale
Morbidly fun book! Set in the Victorian era, this gothic mystery merges folklore with medical fanatics and an assortment of strange characters found on the streets of London.
Bridie Devine, an Irish orphan, has grown up to become a detective and she has just been hired to find a young girl who has
As Bridie begins investigating the kidnapping, readers are privy to bits of her life in the past and eventually will learn how her past merges with her present case. Along the way, she is accompanied by a ghostly spirit, Ruby, who has a strong connection to Bridie from her days in Ireland.
I absolutely loved this story! Jess Kidd wrote such vivid descriptions, that I felt as if I were actually haunting the Victorian streets of London along with Bridie and Ruby. I hope Kidd is planning a sequel. This book will be one of my favorites of 2020.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.
Bridie Devine, an Irish orphan, has grown up to become a detective and she has just been hired to find a young girl who has
Show More
been kidnapped. This isn’t just an average girl as readers will soon discover.As Bridie begins investigating the kidnapping, readers are privy to bits of her life in the past and eventually will learn how her past merges with her present case. Along the way, she is accompanied by a ghostly spirit, Ruby, who has a strong connection to Bridie from her days in Ireland.
I absolutely loved this story! Jess Kidd wrote such vivid descriptions, that I felt as if I were actually haunting the Victorian streets of London along with Bridie and Ruby. I hope Kidd is planning a sequel. This book will be one of my favorites of 2020.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Darcia
Things in Jars is beautifully written, with a lyrical style that's the perfect marriage of fairy tale and historical fiction. Often I'd stop and linger over sentences simply for their subtle twist of elegance.
The content explores the darkness of human nature, reflecting society's fascination with
The story is wholly unique, incredibly strange, and yet thoroughly engaging and, yes, believable.
I loved all the characters! I hated arriving at the last page, because I didn't want to say goodbye to them all.
This is the type of book that holds you captive. It's one with which you take your time and savor. Things in Jars is a vacation for the mind.
*I received a review copy via Amazon Vine.*
The content explores the darkness of human nature, reflecting society's fascination with
Show More
oddities and our willingness to exploit the hardships of others for our own enjoyment. But we don't stay mired in gloom. Bridie takes us on quite the adventure, and unexpected humor often had me laughing out loud.The story is wholly unique, incredibly strange, and yet thoroughly engaging and, yes, believable.
I loved all the characters! I hated arriving at the last page, because I didn't want to say goodbye to them all.
This is the type of book that holds you captive. It's one with which you take your time and savor. Things in Jars is a vacation for the mind.
*I received a review copy via Amazon Vine.*
Show Less
LibraryThing member Twink
I loved Jess Kidd's previous book, Mr. Flood's Last Resort. I was eager to see what story lived between the pages of her latest novel, Things in Jars.
What's not to love? 1863 Victorian England, a female private investigator named Bridie Devine, curiosity collectors and a baffling new case.
Young
Bridie was such a wonderfully wrought lead character. Bright, tough, accepting, but with hidden wounds in her soul. Those scars figure into the dark plot line that runs parallel to the investigation. Bridie's companions are a ghost named Ruby that only she can see and a bearded, seven foot maid named Cora. Additional supporting players are just as well drawn.
Kidd's writing is absolutely fantastic - she captures Victorian England in every passage. Descriptions of time and place conjure up smoky alleyways, dark rooms, fog on the River Thames, questionable activities, Resurrection Men and more. The dialogue is true to the time, flowery and detailed
Kidd unfurls the mystery slowly, adding in new paths and people along the way. Things in Jars is a journey to be savoured and enjoyed. Mystery, history, fantasy all take turns in Things in Jars, but it is Bridie and her companions that stayed with me after the last chapter ended.
I chose to listen to Things in Jars. The reader was Jacqueline Milne and she was brilliant. The lilt and movement of her voice captured the time, the characters and the plot so very, very well. Her voice supports the magical, fantasy feel of Things in Jars. She provided many different voices for assorted characters that matched the mental images I had created. Her voice was pleasant to listen. Absolutely recommended.
What's not to love? 1863 Victorian England, a female private investigator named Bridie Devine, curiosity collectors and a baffling new case.
Young
Show More
Christobel Berwick has been kidnapped and Bridie is on the case. But, as she investigates, she meets much resistance and more questions than answers. There is a mystery surrounding the young girl - rumours of sharp teeth, water and yes, the word mermaid is whispered. Christobel would be a prize for any collector, exhibit or circus.Bridie was such a wonderfully wrought lead character. Bright, tough, accepting, but with hidden wounds in her soul. Those scars figure into the dark plot line that runs parallel to the investigation. Bridie's companions are a ghost named Ruby that only she can see and a bearded, seven foot maid named Cora. Additional supporting players are just as well drawn.
Kidd's writing is absolutely fantastic - she captures Victorian England in every passage. Descriptions of time and place conjure up smoky alleyways, dark rooms, fog on the River Thames, questionable activities, Resurrection Men and more. The dialogue is true to the time, flowery and detailed
Kidd unfurls the mystery slowly, adding in new paths and people along the way. Things in Jars is a journey to be savoured and enjoyed. Mystery, history, fantasy all take turns in Things in Jars, but it is Bridie and her companions that stayed with me after the last chapter ended.
I chose to listen to Things in Jars. The reader was Jacqueline Milne and she was brilliant. The lilt and movement of her voice captured the time, the characters and the plot so very, very well. Her voice supports the magical, fantasy feel of Things in Jars. She provided many different voices for assorted characters that matched the mental images I had created. Her voice was pleasant to listen. Absolutely recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
To my surprise, I loved this creepy, macabre Gothic novel set in Victorian London. Actually, it was not a surprise; having read the author’s previous books, I had high expectations. Like the best Irish stories, this one is a collection of outsized characters both living and dead, outrageous
The main character is Bridie (short for Bridget) Devine, around 30 years old, who is a doughty and eccentric Irish lass living with her seven-foot tall housemaid Cora and working as a detective for hire. Bridie has a talent for the reading of corpses, and thus Scotland Yard passes her the odd case. She has two suitors: one living and one dead. Inspector Valentine Rose of Scotland Yard has the advantage of being alive, but her dead suitor, Ruby Doyle, a former boxer, has a hold on her heart. Alas, they can’t even embrace.
As the story begins, Bridie is hired to help find the kidnapped daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick. Christabel, age six, was taken from her nursery, and Sir Edmund sent his physician, Dr. Harbin, to hire Bridie to help find her. Dr. Harbin won’t tell Bridie much about Christabel except that “the child has singular traits” which he won’t enumerate.
As Bridie goes about her investigation, she is aided by both Cora and by Ruby, whom she first encounters resting against a tombstone smoking a pipe. He is transparent, but handsome, and claims he and Bridie know each other. He shows her his headstone: “Here lies Ruby Doyle, Tattooed Seafarer and Champion Boxer.” He had been dead half a year, killed in a bar brawl. But Bridie’s memory won’t be jogged. Regardless, he begins to accompany her and provide companionship to her, and they grow close.
The author’s colorful descriptions of the sights and smells of Victorian London are a wonder. Humorously, she includes both Bridie’s contemptuous perspective and Ruby’s laudatory one. Bridie is usually proclaiming disgust over the unpleasant odors in the street, from the sweat of unwashed workers to the reek of the polluted Thames River. But Ruby, who can no longer smell anything in any event, is nostalgic for all of it, as expressed in this passage:
“The street is hopping: the living swarm before Ruby’s dead eyes - street peddlers doing the go-around with trays of oranges and nuts; street performers limbering; kitchen maids sallying forth with market baskets, eyeing the ribbon vendors and eluding the coalmen. Tribes of pickpockets, fleet-footed miscreants, thread through the traffic. Here trots a dapper wag, high collar, and resplendent whiskers. There steps a blue-eyed beauty in a fetching bonnet. Ruby wishes himself a frock coat and new top hat, a hot shave and a good breakfast, a scarlet cravat, a pair of kid gloves, and a pocket watch. He would give the world just to saunter out onto the streets as a living man again, to look and be looked at.”
As they walk through the streets together, Bridie envisions what it would be like to grow old with Ruby and their “rabble of dark-eyed children.” For his part, Ruby conjures up an image of “their raucous children, green eyed, please God.” Both fantasize about physical contact, and both get watery eyes over their fruitless imaginings. It could break your heart in two.
Meanwhile, Bridie picks up clues as to Cristabel’s whereabouts. The net of suspects widens, and the story goes back and forth in time to flesh out their backgrounds as well as that of Bridie. We also learn about the Resurrectionists, who play a supporting role in the story. These were gravediggers commonly employed by anatomists in the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries to exhume the bodies of the recently dead for research. Most impressively, the author includes a riff between two prison guards that mirrors the similar scene of comic relief by the gravediggers in Hamlet, Act V. It is doubly pleasurable for any who catch the reference.
All of the cruelness and horror depicted by the author is juxtaposed by the tenderness and humanity of Bridie and the other “good” characters. It is a truly masterful symphony of impressions and emotions, and the language is so evocative you may think you are watching a movie rather than reading a book. I particularly liked her description of apothecaries, showing both the beauty and the humor of her writing:
“[Apothecaries were] gatekeepers to an esoteric world of unguents and potions and powders. They sold opiate dreams for fractious babies to exhausted mothers, or ointments to unfaithful husbands with the itch. They poisoned and cured in equal measure and everything they dispensed came with a good old-fashioned bracing purgative.”
Evaluation: Jess Kidd is an excellent writer, and for those who enjoy good literature with an Irish flavor and a page-turning plot, this book will not disappoint. Highly recommended!
Show More
escapades, creatures from Irish mythology, seemingly unendurable tragedy, and boundless, eternal love.The main character is Bridie (short for Bridget) Devine, around 30 years old, who is a doughty and eccentric Irish lass living with her seven-foot tall housemaid Cora and working as a detective for hire. Bridie has a talent for the reading of corpses, and thus Scotland Yard passes her the odd case. She has two suitors: one living and one dead. Inspector Valentine Rose of Scotland Yard has the advantage of being alive, but her dead suitor, Ruby Doyle, a former boxer, has a hold on her heart. Alas, they can’t even embrace.
As the story begins, Bridie is hired to help find the kidnapped daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick. Christabel, age six, was taken from her nursery, and Sir Edmund sent his physician, Dr. Harbin, to hire Bridie to help find her. Dr. Harbin won’t tell Bridie much about Christabel except that “the child has singular traits” which he won’t enumerate.
As Bridie goes about her investigation, she is aided by both Cora and by Ruby, whom she first encounters resting against a tombstone smoking a pipe. He is transparent, but handsome, and claims he and Bridie know each other. He shows her his headstone: “Here lies Ruby Doyle, Tattooed Seafarer and Champion Boxer.” He had been dead half a year, killed in a bar brawl. But Bridie’s memory won’t be jogged. Regardless, he begins to accompany her and provide companionship to her, and they grow close.
The author’s colorful descriptions of the sights and smells of Victorian London are a wonder. Humorously, she includes both Bridie’s contemptuous perspective and Ruby’s laudatory one. Bridie is usually proclaiming disgust over the unpleasant odors in the street, from the sweat of unwashed workers to the reek of the polluted Thames River. But Ruby, who can no longer smell anything in any event, is nostalgic for all of it, as expressed in this passage:
“The street is hopping: the living swarm before Ruby’s dead eyes - street peddlers doing the go-around with trays of oranges and nuts; street performers limbering; kitchen maids sallying forth with market baskets, eyeing the ribbon vendors and eluding the coalmen. Tribes of pickpockets, fleet-footed miscreants, thread through the traffic. Here trots a dapper wag, high collar, and resplendent whiskers. There steps a blue-eyed beauty in a fetching bonnet. Ruby wishes himself a frock coat and new top hat, a hot shave and a good breakfast, a scarlet cravat, a pair of kid gloves, and a pocket watch. He would give the world just to saunter out onto the streets as a living man again, to look and be looked at.”
As they walk through the streets together, Bridie envisions what it would be like to grow old with Ruby and their “rabble of dark-eyed children.” For his part, Ruby conjures up an image of “their raucous children, green eyed, please God.” Both fantasize about physical contact, and both get watery eyes over their fruitless imaginings. It could break your heart in two.
Meanwhile, Bridie picks up clues as to Cristabel’s whereabouts. The net of suspects widens, and the story goes back and forth in time to flesh out their backgrounds as well as that of Bridie. We also learn about the Resurrectionists, who play a supporting role in the story. These were gravediggers commonly employed by anatomists in the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries to exhume the bodies of the recently dead for research. Most impressively, the author includes a riff between two prison guards that mirrors the similar scene of comic relief by the gravediggers in Hamlet, Act V. It is doubly pleasurable for any who catch the reference.
All of the cruelness and horror depicted by the author is juxtaposed by the tenderness and humanity of Bridie and the other “good” characters. It is a truly masterful symphony of impressions and emotions, and the language is so evocative you may think you are watching a movie rather than reading a book. I particularly liked her description of apothecaries, showing both the beauty and the humor of her writing:
“[Apothecaries were] gatekeepers to an esoteric world of unguents and potions and powders. They sold opiate dreams for fractious babies to exhausted mothers, or ointments to unfaithful husbands with the itch. They poisoned and cured in equal measure and everything they dispensed came with a good old-fashioned bracing purgative.”
Evaluation: Jess Kidd is an excellent writer, and for those who enjoy good literature with an Irish flavor and a page-turning plot, this book will not disappoint. Highly recommended!
Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
The sea rocked asleep, now wakes and answers, a refrain of waves and shale-song. The rain in the sky that is yet to fall, answers; a storm gathers. All the rivers and streams and bogs and lakes and fens and puddles and horse troughs and wishing wells wake and answer, adding their voices: faint and
Things in Jars was not at all something I would usually pick, but I am so glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and dived into this dark, gory, Victorian fantasy. I loved the characters, I loved the story, and I loved the details that the author included with respect to the medical establishment...even tho it would be a far stretch to call this "historical" fiction. The atmosphere that Kidd created was tremendous, and I loved that she conjured up settings of London, Liverpool, Dublin and other places without resorting to popular cliches that make Victorian settings such a drab in lesser books.
Despite the squalor, gory details of the scenes, the cruelty displayed, and the general meanness of some of the characters, there was a whole lot of warmth in this story, too, and that made the book for me.
Things in Jars was not perfect, but I really liked it.
As with all terrible, wondrous sights, there is a jolt of shock, then a hypnotic fascination, then the uneasy queasiness, then the whole thing starts again; the desire to look and the desire never to have looked in the first place.
Show More
rushing, purling and gurgling, muddy and clear. The child looks up. For the first time she can see the stars! She smiles at them, and the stars look back at her and shiver. Then they begin to burn brighter, with renewed fever, in the deep dark ocean of the sky.Things in Jars was not at all something I would usually pick, but I am so glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and dived into this dark, gory, Victorian fantasy. I loved the characters, I loved the story, and I loved the details that the author included with respect to the medical establishment...even tho it would be a far stretch to call this "historical" fiction. The atmosphere that Kidd created was tremendous, and I loved that she conjured up settings of London, Liverpool, Dublin and other places without resorting to popular cliches that make Victorian settings such a drab in lesser books.
Despite the squalor, gory details of the scenes, the cruelty displayed, and the general meanness of some of the characters, there was a whole lot of warmth in this story, too, and that made the book for me.
Things in Jars was not perfect, but I really liked it.
As with all terrible, wondrous sights, there is a jolt of shock, then a hypnotic fascination, then the uneasy queasiness, then the whole thing starts again; the desire to look and the desire never to have looked in the first place.
Show Less
LibraryThing member brokenangelkisses
Victorian gothic: possibly my favourite genre.
Here, Jess Kidd creates a darkly poetic and watery tale. At it’s heart: Bridie Devine, formerly a resurrectionist’s girl, then a medic’s trusted extra hands, and finally a private detective with a penchant for mind altering blends of tobacco and
I felt like I shouldn’t like this (this is a tale firmly rooted in the supernatural), but I definitely did.
-- What’s it about? --
Things that should not exist.
Irish folklore and myth. Men and women who live and breathe violence, anomalies and deceit.
Gideon Eames, a man who will open you up just to see what your insides look like, and the sublimely unperturbed Mrs Bibby, a woman with pus claimed toes and a leg badly in need of amputation, whose cunning and malevolence means she may yet outlive the rest of the cast...
When Sir Edmund Berwick hires Bridie Devine to find his stolen daughter, Christabel, Bridie soon realises that Sir Edmund is a collector of water based curiosities and Christabel may not be his daughter at all.
Can Bridie locate the young girl? Can rumours of Christabel’s terrifying talents possibly be true? And what will Bridie do with Christabel if she does find her?
-- What’s it like? --
Poetical. Intense. Fantastical.
A wonderful depiction of the nonchalance of true evil in an openly brutal era. Oh, and it’s funny, too.
Written in the present tense throughout, except for the regular flashbacks to Bridie’s adolescence, the expansive narrative voice turns London and it’s ancient rivers into a character equally as much as a passing raven. This approach can sometimes lead to a little confusion about happenings, but it does make for a wonderfully lyrical narrative.
-- A very few favourite quotes: --
‘The servants slumber on...The cook snores fruity, unpeeled and well-soaked under warm sheets, as solid and brandy-scented as plum pudding. She dreams of matchless soufflés; she hunts them down as she sails in a saucepan over a gravy sea.’
‘Sir Edmund’s home is an architectural grotesque, the ornate façade the unlikely union of a war-ship and a wedding cake.’
‘Sir Edmund has done wrong in his collecting. He has been ruminating on his wrong-doing and on the punishments (legal and spiritual) he might reasonably expect. And so rounding the house in a heightened state of remorse and morbid dread, Sir Edmund readily mistakes Bridie Devine for a retributive being of the underworld. A banshee perhaps, or a malevolent imp; it is dusk and her bonnet has the air of a demonic presence perching mid-flight. It takes Bridie several minutes to coax the baronet out of an hydrangea.’
‘The back gates are open. They pass through them and follow the road round, with the high wall bordering Sir Edmund’s estate to their left and the woods to their right. The autumn colours are rich in the early sun, with golden tones and deep reds and startling oranges against a rinsed blue sky. The air is rowdy with birdsong.
‘'Clean air: a tonic to the lungs,’ says Ruby. ‘What does it smell like, Bridie?’
‘'Leaf mould, cow shit and this fella’s feet.’'
-- Final thoughts --
A deeply enjoyable read, for the wonderfully arranged words, the flashes of humour and bathos, the strange-but-recognisably-dark-and-filthy-Victorian-atmosphere and the memorable characters. All these wonderfully effective aspects of Kidd's writing kept me hooked, rather more than for the story itself, which is in places a little predictable and in other places has, perhaps, an unnecessary flourish or two. What, exactly, was the point of Bad Dorcas’ last story? But maybe in seeking a point I am missing a point: that this is at least partly a story about the power of stories.
Keep an eye out for the ghost in top hat, drawers and loose laced boots. This is the point at which I feel I would have given up on most books featuring a ghost, but Kidd's style kept me enjoying the narration to the end.
Here, Jess Kidd creates a darkly poetic and watery tale. At it’s heart: Bridie Devine, formerly a resurrectionist’s girl, then a medic’s trusted extra hands, and finally a private detective with a penchant for mind altering blends of tobacco and
Show More
the odd nip of Madeira.I felt like I shouldn’t like this (this is a tale firmly rooted in the supernatural), but I definitely did.
-- What’s it about? --
Things that should not exist.
Irish folklore and myth. Men and women who live and breathe violence, anomalies and deceit.
Gideon Eames, a man who will open you up just to see what your insides look like, and the sublimely unperturbed Mrs Bibby, a woman with pus claimed toes and a leg badly in need of amputation, whose cunning and malevolence means she may yet outlive the rest of the cast...
When Sir Edmund Berwick hires Bridie Devine to find his stolen daughter, Christabel, Bridie soon realises that Sir Edmund is a collector of water based curiosities and Christabel may not be his daughter at all.
Can Bridie locate the young girl? Can rumours of Christabel’s terrifying talents possibly be true? And what will Bridie do with Christabel if she does find her?
-- What’s it like? --
Poetical. Intense. Fantastical.
A wonderful depiction of the nonchalance of true evil in an openly brutal era. Oh, and it’s funny, too.
Written in the present tense throughout, except for the regular flashbacks to Bridie’s adolescence, the expansive narrative voice turns London and it’s ancient rivers into a character equally as much as a passing raven. This approach can sometimes lead to a little confusion about happenings, but it does make for a wonderfully lyrical narrative.
-- A very few favourite quotes: --
‘The servants slumber on...The cook snores fruity, unpeeled and well-soaked under warm sheets, as solid and brandy-scented as plum pudding. She dreams of matchless soufflés; she hunts them down as she sails in a saucepan over a gravy sea.’
‘Sir Edmund’s home is an architectural grotesque, the ornate façade the unlikely union of a war-ship and a wedding cake.’
‘Sir Edmund has done wrong in his collecting. He has been ruminating on his wrong-doing and on the punishments (legal and spiritual) he might reasonably expect. And so rounding the house in a heightened state of remorse and morbid dread, Sir Edmund readily mistakes Bridie Devine for a retributive being of the underworld. A banshee perhaps, or a malevolent imp; it is dusk and her bonnet has the air of a demonic presence perching mid-flight. It takes Bridie several minutes to coax the baronet out of an hydrangea.’
‘The back gates are open. They pass through them and follow the road round, with the high wall bordering Sir Edmund’s estate to their left and the woods to their right. The autumn colours are rich in the early sun, with golden tones and deep reds and startling oranges against a rinsed blue sky. The air is rowdy with birdsong.
‘'Clean air: a tonic to the lungs,’ says Ruby. ‘What does it smell like, Bridie?’
‘'Leaf mould, cow shit and this fella’s feet.’'
-- Final thoughts --
A deeply enjoyable read, for the wonderfully arranged words, the flashes of humour and bathos, the strange-but-recognisably-dark-and-filthy-Victorian-atmosphere and the memorable characters. All these wonderfully effective aspects of Kidd's writing kept me hooked, rather more than for the story itself, which is in places a little predictable and in other places has, perhaps, an unnecessary flourish or two. What, exactly, was the point of Bad Dorcas’ last story? But maybe in seeking a point I am missing a point: that this is at least partly a story about the power of stories.
Keep an eye out for the ghost in top hat, drawers and loose laced boots. This is the point at which I feel I would have given up on most books featuring a ghost, but Kidd's style kept me enjoying the narration to the end.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jillrhudy
In "Things in Jars," Jess Kidd uncorks a gritty Victorian gothic steampunk fairytale horror magical-realism thriller, starring a terrific new detective. Overwritten and way over the top, Kidd's prose is all over the place, turgid as the Thames in one paragraph and flip and coy the next. Plotting is
Kidd's most irritating descriptive device is telling the reader to "look," which adds to the sense that Kidd is churning out words like notes from a calliope. Present: every last Victorian trope, including a street urchin named Jem, evil dissecting doctors, cannibalistic bakers, collectors of the macabre, and circus weirdos.
All this excess is compensated for by the protagonist, round Irish redhead and pipe-smoker Bridget "Bridie" Devine, investigator. Like Mrs. Muir, Bridie's love interest is a ghost, but not a sea captain, thank goodness. There is more than enough of the sea in the book, from the architecture to the "merrow" (a kind of monster-mermaid child) whose kidnapping kickstarts the plot. The lover-ghost is Ruby Doyle, late boxer, who is good at snappy dialogue but no good at finding out helpful information. Far more interesting is Cora, Bridie's 7-foot housemaid and ex-circus "giantess."
While the novel has some weaknesses, I'd be happy to see this grow into a series. However outrageous the conveyance, if Bridie is driving, we are going places.
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit a review.
Show More
fairly solid but suffers from a surfeit of villains. Time leaps are always tricky in novels of the fantastic in which the reader is suspending disbelief while keeping a large cast of characters straight, but Kidd manages the leaps fairly well.Kidd's most irritating descriptive device is telling the reader to "look," which adds to the sense that Kidd is churning out words like notes from a calliope. Present: every last Victorian trope, including a street urchin named Jem, evil dissecting doctors, cannibalistic bakers, collectors of the macabre, and circus weirdos.
All this excess is compensated for by the protagonist, round Irish redhead and pipe-smoker Bridget "Bridie" Devine, investigator. Like Mrs. Muir, Bridie's love interest is a ghost, but not a sea captain, thank goodness. There is more than enough of the sea in the book, from the architecture to the "merrow" (a kind of monster-mermaid child) whose kidnapping kickstarts the plot. The lover-ghost is Ruby Doyle, late boxer, who is good at snappy dialogue but no good at finding out helpful information. Far more interesting is Cora, Bridie's 7-foot housemaid and ex-circus "giantess."
While the novel has some weaknesses, I'd be happy to see this grow into a series. However outrageous the conveyance, if Bridie is driving, we are going places.
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit a review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
A story of a kidnapped child with strange aspects. An unusual detective with a scarred childhood keeping company with a ghost. Very much a gothic mystery which is not a genre I should try to read. This story was not a hit for me, largely because the motivations and the characters didn't mesh. Added
Show More
to my DNF graveyard. Show Less
LibraryThing member Charon07
This was an interesting and entertaining supernatural mystery of sorts, involving ghosts and mermaids (or technically, Irish merrows, a somewhat scarier version of a mermaid) and the titular “things in jars.” I didn’t really remember anything about this book or why I’d added it to my
I recently finished Fingersmith, which shared the Victorian English setting, so perhaps I would have been more impressed by the descriptions of the time and setting if I hadn’t just had that excellent recent example to compare to.
The narrative shifts between two timelines, and maybe because I was listening rather than reading, I found these shifts somewhat difficult to follow. The dates are clearly given—it’s not one of those books that leaves you to figure out from context when things are taking place—so it was clearly my lack of attention.
The characters were interesting and nicely drawn, if somewhat larger than life. The merrow was a fascinating character, as was the protagonist Bridie Devine. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how some of the plot threads were resolved, which is why I’m not rating this a full four stars.
Show More
to-read list, so I was a little surprised when what seemed to start out a light entertainment got pretty dark at points.I recently finished Fingersmith, which shared the Victorian English setting, so perhaps I would have been more impressed by the descriptions of the time and setting if I hadn’t just had that excellent recent example to compare to.
The narrative shifts between two timelines, and maybe because I was listening rather than reading, I found these shifts somewhat difficult to follow. The dates are clearly given—it’s not one of those books that leaves you to figure out from context when things are taking place—so it was clearly my lack of attention.
The characters were interesting and nicely drawn, if somewhat larger than life. The merrow was a fascinating character, as was the protagonist Bridie Devine. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how some of the plot threads were resolved, which is why I’m not rating this a full four stars.
Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
Bridie takes a seat while Mrs Peach battles her crinoline into an armchair. Ruby stands out of the way in the chimney-breast, amid shelves bearing silver-framed photographs, china animals, samplers, ormolu clocks and embroidered bunting. Mrs Peach shows a full-leg's length of flounced pantalettes
Detectives don't wear crinolines; at least Bridie Devine doesn't, as she is a practical woman who likes to be able to 'fit through doorways, climb stairs and breathe'. Her odd childhood has fitted her for a career that mostly consists of working our how people have died, but this time she is investigating the kidnapping of a baronet's secret child, assisted by the ghost of a professional boxer who claims to have known her when she was a child.
I liked it and wouldn't mind reading more of Bridie's adventures if the author decides to continue her story.
Show More
before managing to beat her hooped cage into submission.Detectives don't wear crinolines; at least Bridie Devine doesn't, as she is a practical woman who likes to be able to 'fit through doorways, climb stairs and breathe'. Her odd childhood has fitted her for a career that mostly consists of working our how people have died, but this time she is investigating the kidnapping of a baronet's secret child, assisted by the ghost of a professional boxer who claims to have known her when she was a child.
I liked it and wouldn't mind reading more of Bridie's adventures if the author decides to continue her story.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
It's 1863, and Bridie Devine, a detective of sorts with an unusual and interesting medical background, is investigating the kidnapping of a child. She's accompanied by the ghost of a dead boxer who latched onto her while she was walking through a graveyard, but that fact seems almost mundane when
This is a weird and fascinating novel, dark and magical and very hard to categorize. The writing is particularly remarkable, because it often seems as if it should come across as contrived, silly, even purple. And yet somehow it really, really works. I don't know how Jess Kidd pulls that off, but my hat's off to her for managing it, and for creating something this weirdly compelling with it.
Rating: 4/5, but I'm seriously tempted to kick it up another half star.
Show More
compared to the strange, violent, watery nature of the child herself.This is a weird and fascinating novel, dark and magical and very hard to categorize. The writing is particularly remarkable, because it often seems as if it should come across as contrived, silly, even purple. And yet somehow it really, really works. I don't know how Jess Kidd pulls that off, but my hat's off to her for managing it, and for creating something this weirdly compelling with it.
Rating: 4/5, but I'm seriously tempted to kick it up another half star.
Show Less
LibraryThing member quondame
This one just didn't involve me. I don't even think Bridie being the red haired green eyed feisty Irish main character, of which I've encountered enough for multiple lifetimes. I just got no real gut feeling for a passing parade of obligatory nastiness on the part of the villains and sufferings on
Show More
the part of the victims. The ghost seemed just along to keep Bridie company, when a warning or a discovery would have at least indicated that he was more than a pipe dream. And as the only consequence of such pipes as she smokes, he seems rather minor. Show Less
LibraryThing member Anniik
Very interesting book! The whole thing has a really creepy ambiance, and with the truly disturbing images spread throughout it, this book might fit in the horror genre as well. I really enjoyed it. The story was compelling, and the characters were real and relatable enough to get the reader to
Show More
kill. Mysterious, creepy and a very good read! Show Less
LibraryThing member Andy5185
What a story!!! Where to begin?! This is a Victorian London (but also Irish) mystery but it has all these different elements that make it SO delicious - a ghost, early medical procedures and some gore, circus life with its criminals and innocents, Celtic mythology of mermaids and sea creatures
Show More
(selkies came to mind), a badass woman protagonist and her loyal 7ft tall woman sidekick, and of course, murder, ruthlessness and a young street boy that brought to mind Dickens characters. Once I started this I couldn’t put it down. Really quite refreshing, twisty and also has great humor. Show Less
LibraryThing member forsanolim
Set in a magical-realism version of Victorian England, this novel is an atmospheric tale of myth, anatomy, and specimen collecting. Bridie is a sort of private detective who tackles strange or mysterious cases. With her two sidekicks, a seven-foot-tall maid and the ghost of a boxer, she is enlisted
This was a really interesting book. It was tremendously atmospheric, with rich descriptions of Victorian London and the environments in which the characters find themselves. While I found the discussions of medicine and collecting in Victorian England really fascinating--they were what originally led me to take an interest in this book--I think that there was just a few too many magical and supernatural elements in this book for me to absolutely love it. I really do think, though, that someone with more general interest in/tolerance for magical realism would likely enjoy this book a lot, as the plot and atmosphere were generally compelling, and the story definitely had a number of twists that I hadn't anticipated.
Show More
by a baronet to investigate and find his missing secret (and reputedly magical) daughter. As she attempts to piece the story together, adventuring around London and beyond, she also must increasingly confront the specters (literal and figurative) of her past.This was a really interesting book. It was tremendously atmospheric, with rich descriptions of Victorian London and the environments in which the characters find themselves. While I found the discussions of medicine and collecting in Victorian England really fascinating--they were what originally led me to take an interest in this book--I think that there was just a few too many magical and supernatural elements in this book for me to absolutely love it. I really do think, though, that someone with more general interest in/tolerance for magical realism would likely enjoy this book a lot, as the plot and atmosphere were generally compelling, and the story definitely had a number of twists that I hadn't anticipated.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jo_lafaith
3.5
‘Things in Jars’ by Jess Kidd was an atmospheric blend of a grimy Victorian London setting and a dark fairytale in the form of a mystery.
Bridie Divine, our strong-willed female detective, is an interesting and layered main character. Bouncing back and forth in time was fascinating in
Additionally, Bridie’s companions are wonderful. Cora and Ruby really added an extra sprinkling of charm.
I picked this up because I wanted some historical fiction to usher in Autumn (a bit ahead of schedule). This definitely delivered. It’s rainy, chilly and has a real sense of the macabre. It was a good one to get lost in, and I settled in, indulging in hundred page chunks, till it was finished. Very enjoyable. I even shed a few tears in the end.
‘Things in Jars’ by Jess Kidd was an atmospheric blend of a grimy Victorian London setting and a dark fairytale in the form of a mystery.
Bridie Divine, our strong-willed female detective, is an interesting and layered main character. Bouncing back and forth in time was fascinating in
Show More
dissolving the mystery but also understanding Bridie, her motives and experiences. A young girl, who is rumored to have supernatural powers, is kidnapped. Bridie is hired to handle the abduction with discretion and the deeper into the mystery she goes the more elaborate the connection to her past, it becomes. Additionally, Bridie’s companions are wonderful. Cora and Ruby really added an extra sprinkling of charm.
I picked this up because I wanted some historical fiction to usher in Autumn (a bit ahead of schedule). This definitely delivered. It’s rainy, chilly and has a real sense of the macabre. It was a good one to get lost in, and I settled in, indulging in hundred page chunks, till it was finished. Very enjoyable. I even shed a few tears in the end.
Show Less
Awards
BookTube Prize (Quarterfinalist — Fiction — 2021)
Pages
384
ISBN
1982121289 / 9781982121280