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taimeow's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Sexual assault, Stalking, and Pregnancy
jodar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I enjoyed the writing style, which evoked the Victorian gothic, creepy and putrid atmosphere very effectively, even poetically at times. The MC is an attractive personality: decisive, intelligent, prepared to put herself at risk for others’ sake. She doesn’t get everything right, but acts reasonably in light of what she knows or suspects.
As I expected with this type of novel, there’s little nuance in the characterisation: the good are good, the bad are bad. But one character struck me as silly and absurd: the MC’s ghost friend cum love interest. I’m bemused by some British authors’ fondness for this sort of fatuous supernaturalism. The MC–ghost–policeman love triangle felt puerile and ridiculous.
At the end I came away feeling that overall this is a great, well-told story with a satisfying conclusion, but with one major flaw.
As I expected with this type of novel, there’s little nuance in the characterisation: the good are good, the bad are bad. But one character struck me as silly and absurd: the MC’s ghost friend cum love interest. I’m bemused by some British authors’ fondness for this sort of fatuous supernaturalism. The MC–ghost–policeman love triangle felt puerile and ridiculous.
At the end I came away feeling that overall this is a great, well-told story with a satisfying conclusion, but with one major flaw.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, and Child abuse
Moderate: Bullying, Murder, Sexual assault, and Gore
clarabooksit's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I want to say I really enjoyed it because I did—I kept flipping back and forth between the audiobook and physically reading it because I couldn’t put it down—but I also thought parts of it were really disappointing.
I loved the main character, Bridie, and wanted to know everything about her and what her connection was to Ruby, the ghost who was haunting her/looking out for her. I loved the world-building—Kidd exquisitely uses all the senses to capture a time and place—the grungy, macabre Victorian medical setting, and the eeriness of how myth and man entwine and who really is the monster.
But the plot was predictable with clunky foreshadowing, and I didn’t care about the machinations of the other characters. I just wanted more Bridie and Ruby. There were also a few too many characters and not enough space given to properly flesh them all out. And while I dug the atmosphere overall, I do wish more explanations were given for the fantastical elements.
I don’t know. I liked it but the flaws nag at me. Maybe it was just so well paced that my enjoyment outweighed my disappointment. A perfectly paced book makes up for a lot.
If you like historical fiction with magical realism, potent world-building, characters you can root for and/or gothic vibes, then I’d say check this one out. But if you like to be surprised by mysteries, this one probably isn’t for you.
I loved the main character, Bridie, and wanted to know everything about her and what her connection was to Ruby, the ghost who was haunting her/looking out for her. I loved the world-building—Kidd exquisitely uses all the senses to capture a time and place—the grungy, macabre Victorian medical setting, and the eeriness of how myth and man entwine and who really is the monster.
But the plot was predictable with clunky foreshadowing, and I didn’t care about the machinations of the other characters. I just wanted more Bridie and Ruby. There were also a few too many characters and not enough space given to properly flesh them all out. And while I dug the atmosphere overall, I do wish more explanations were given for the fantastical elements.
I don’t know. I liked it but the flaws nag at me. Maybe it was just so well paced that my enjoyment outweighed my disappointment. A perfectly paced book makes up for a lot.
If you like historical fiction with magical realism, potent world-building, characters you can root for and/or gothic vibes, then I’d say check this one out. But if you like to be surprised by mysteries, this one probably isn’t for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Animal death, Child abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Classism, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexism
Minor: Gun violence
noelaninadia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I personally was not a fan of this book. I typically like mysteries, but this one did not appeal to me. I found it to be very slow paced and way to descriptive. The writing was beautiful, but the story was just not executed well!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gore
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book gave me Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries meets Alias Grace and The Quick. Much darker and more gruesome than I expected, definitely further on the Dickensian spectrum of the Victorian era. Loved the different storytelling perspectives throughout and I found the is or isn’t elements of magical realism kept me pretty engaged. So happy to have done this book as a buddy read with my mom @kirstensviews as I probably would’ve DNF’d this book without her as it took me about 1/3 of the book to get into the story and find my footing in Bridie’s world. But once I did, I was hooked! Just a heads up though—check the storygraph content warnings as there are many of them!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Kidnapping, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse
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