The year is 1863 and London is suffocating in crime, violence, and grime, covered in a ‘low, thick fog that has descended upon the city like an unwashed bedsheet’. The Thames is murky, merrows influence the weather, circuses thrive, fortunes and gained (and lost) in the blink of an eye and the people love a good spectacle.
Red-haired Bridget ‘Bridie’ Devine, is the best female detective in the city. She wears a dagger strapped to her thigh and smokes, several concoctions, like a chimney. She has an admirer in the ghost of a tattooed boxer, Ruby Doyle, even though she is ‘not in the market for haunting.’ He sees her through her nightmares, lends a helping hand and has a mermaid tattoo (that often animates itself!). Cora Butter, a 7-ft tall, self-proclaimed, bearded housemaid (‘Bridie hasn’t had a decent meal since’), rescued from spending her life as a ‘giantess in a bear cage’ at a circus, is Bridie’s sidekick.
The tension builds up as Bridie is entrusted with the task of finding a missing child, Christabel Berwick, with no clues whatsoever. The child was kept hidden in her father’s country mansion and even the maids in house do not know of her existence. This child is peculiar — pike’s teeth, smell of the sea, the ability to draw people’s memories out of them and even drown them on land. A rollicking, action packed hunt for the kidnapped child ensues.
Things in Jars is Utterly Atmospheric
I would be at odds if I had to choose whether it is Bridie that made me fall in love with the novel or the atmosphere. Typical of a Victorian era, it is dark grisly, and not-so-pleasant-yet-makes-you-want-to-know-more. There are wicked doctors, pickled babies, circus proprietors competing with collectors of curiosities for the best ‘items’, audiences cheering performing surgeons on stage (think anaesthetic-free surgeries and amputations; the Victorian life wasn’t pretty, was it?), love sick ghosts and unscrupulous middlemen. Life is macabre, cruel and dirty, but a certain warmth emanates from the characters that make them worth sticking with. Humanity appears as a silver lining even in the tooth and nail fight of an over populated city.
Genre non-specific
This book bends genres — it is historical, gothic, mystery, fantasy and exciting characters, all combined into a single novel. It has the oomph of a Victorian crime novel, puffs of Irish folklore and includes real people like Elizabeth Garrett (doctor) and Jamrach of Ratcliff Highway (menagerie owner, earlier mentioned by writers like Bram Stoker and Saki in their fiction). It is playful, witty, and dramatic; the kind of book you pick up to have a long, entertaining afternoon. Lovers of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Gowar Hermes (review) and The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (review) are in for a treat in Kidd’s latest novel.
Jess Kidd astonishes with THINGS IN JARS, her Victorian crime novel with a badass lady detective, circus proprietors, curiosity collectors, love sick ghosts, merrows, wicked surgeons & an audience that craves spectacles Click To Tweet
Final Verdict
I want to read Things in Jars once again. Or even better, I’d love to listen to it because there is so much beauty in Kidd’s prose. It is marvellous, I loved it.
Title : Things in Jars
Author : Jess Kidd
Publisher : Canongate Books
Publication: 2019
Language : English
Pages : 404
Rating : 5/5
Disclaimer : Much thanks to the publisher for the book. All opinions are my own.
I’m not a huge fan of genre bending novels – all too often they seem to be all things at once and nothing at the same time. This book sounds very interesting though.
Yes, I admit it is quite tricky to get everything right. This one was a good read
This is not a book that I’d normally pick up, but your review sold me, it sounds wonderful!
I hope you’ll love it too
I think I’m going to raid W.H. Smith in Paris…
Hope all is well with you?