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outsmartyourshelf's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
In 1899's New York City, eighteen-year-old Tillie Pembroke’s older sister, Lucy, has just been found murdered, her body drained of blood & with two puncture wounds on her neck. Tillie can't help but think this bears a resemblance vampire killings alluded to in Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula which has just been published. Her grandmother & mother seem to want to forget it ever happened, & the police have run out of ideas, so taking inspiration from her favourite journalist 'Nellie Bly', Tillie decides to investigate. She soon meets up with a newsie, Tom, (a young man who sells newspapers on street corners) who also has an interest in the case. Trouble rears its head in the form of Tillie's growing addiction to opium, originally prescribed for an injured shoulder, & the fact that Lucy's fiancé, James, now seems to have set his sights on Tillie.
This would have been a 4 star read if it hadn't been for the main character. I found her a bit tiresome to be honest. She is supposed to be eighteen but acts younger, in some ways she is very naïve. I can tell you that if my sister's fiancé tried to pay court to me after she had just been murdered, I would not be flattered in the slightest. The story itself is rather good, with some darker elements, & the hesitant romance between Tom & Tillie is quite sweet.
This would have been a 4 star read if it hadn't been for the main character. I found her a bit tiresome to be honest. She is supposed to be eighteen but acts younger, in some ways she is very naïve. I can tell you that if my sister's fiancé tried to pay court to me after she had just been murdered, I would not be flattered in the slightest. The story itself is rather good, with some darker elements, & the hesitant romance between Tom & Tillie is quite sweet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Sexual content and Miscarriage
sandy50689's review
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gaslighting
Minor: Physical abuse
moiralyle's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness
hnnh_bug's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It's a fun book and a fairly quick read. I would classify it as a historical mystery with a good dose of wholesome romance. Though it deals with heavier themes (drug abuse, murder, SA), the naive and curious perspective of the protagonist gives the book more of a lighthearted, and at times a YA feel. A great vacation book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Grief, Addiction, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Murder, Death, and Sexism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Toxic friendship
larkken's review
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use
bookish_afrolatina's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping
Minor: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Vomit
bec_97's review
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Modern writing for a victorian America which made the scene come to life. Kang created her characters to both be likeable and tolerable in cases of some. Kept guessing til the very end revelation. Would like to read others by her
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse
kylajaynebooks's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was such a fun read! I haven’t heard anything about it but the cover caught my eye; so glad I decided to pick this one up!
The setting was absolutely incredible add in the Dracula backdrop and I was hooked, it was eerie and haunting but almost elegant at the same time
Each character I felt had distinct personalities and faults to them which I always appreciate; I will say Ian was my favourite though
Tillie was such a fun character to follow; I loved how relentless and headstrong she is despite having her whole family and an addiction going against her. She was a feminist light in an otherwise pretty dark book - we love her and I think she’s a character that will stick with me for some time
The setting was absolutely incredible add in the Dracula backdrop and I was hooked, it was eerie and haunting but almost elegant at the same time
Each character I felt had distinct personalities and faults to them which I always appreciate; I will say Ian was my favourite though
Tillie was such a fun character to follow; I loved how relentless and headstrong she is despite having her whole family and an addiction going against her. She was a feminist light in an otherwise pretty dark book - we love her and I think she’s a character that will stick with me for some time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder
Moderate: Blood and Vomit
nickoliver's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Recently, I found this book at the library and decided to borrow it without knowing anything about it. I liked the cover, the plot intrigued me from the get-go, and the author wasn't completely unknown to me, so I was excited to read it soon. And I did actually pick it up quite quickly, which was unusual for me.
The premise of the story was fairly interesting. It was about a girl named Tillie, whose sister was found murdered at the beginning of the novel. It seemed as if she was killed by vampires - which didn't exist (this was a normal historical setting), but "Dracula" had just been published, so vampires were talked about a lot -, and Tillie decided that she was going to try and find out who killed her. However, this proved to be a difficult task. For one, Tillie was a rich girl whose mother and especially grandmother wanted to pretty much keep her in a golden cage and didn't appreciate anything she did. So, going out to investigate her sister's death had a lot of hurdles to begin with. Secondly, what made it even more difficult was the fact that right around the time her sister went missing, she'd had a riding accident and gotten opium prescribed for the pain, which she got addicted to. So she also had that to deal with. Tillie's drug addiction was a focal point in the story and gave it a bit of a unique twist, because it made her almost more obedient in a way. She agreed to things she might not have otherwise because she was promised some opium for it. Though that also made the story more infuriating, because I got very frustrated with Tillie sometimes.
The mystery was overall interesting to read about, I liked following it. I do have to say that it was very predictable - I correctly suspected the right person 100 pages into the story, and there wasn't really anything that truly caught me off-guard. However, it didn't really bother me; I was still immersed and intrigued.
Despite the mystery not being all too tedious, it took a very long time for things to really get going. It was a bit frustrating, especially because a lot that was happening really infuriated me. More precisely, everything that had to do with James, and Grandmama at times, just made me not want to pick up the book anymore. Tillie came to conclusions that made no sense - for example, Grandmama would tell her that Lucy had been lying about James hitting her, despite the fact that she wrote it in her diary in a locked drawer, and after a certain time, Tillie just accepted that as the truth -, and the way she found James to be genuinely interested in her and thought he was a good person, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, made me want to fling myself into the sun. And because it took over half the book for Tillie to start standing up for herself, I was just mad at her for the majority of it.
Of course, though, her actions and thoughts did make sense sometimes. First of all, obviously, the book was set in 1899, and women weren't regarded as being anything more than a baby-making machine, so it wasn't that unusual that she just accepted certain things that someone from the 21th century wouldn't. Plus, like I mentioned above, Tillie's drug addiction often made her ignore red flags if she was provided with enough drugs, so I couldn't really fault her for not seeing certain people as bad, or dismissing certain problematic things they said. Nonetheless, it was still annoying to read about her genuinely thinking James was a good person. Every time he showed up in a scene, I wanted to bang my head against the wall, and like, physically remove him from the scene.
There was a romance in this book, though it felt really messy. Kang wrote three potential love interests, which was a bit much. (Well, maybe more two than three; James barely counted. But he did make advances toward Tillie, no matter if they were genuine or not, so I'm counting him.) The other two were Ian and Tom. Ian was an orphan who sold newspapers and barely scraped by and helped Tillie solve the crime, while Tom was the sickly son of Tillie's misogynistic doctor. It was fairly clear which one Tillie was supposed to be with and that Kang wrote him as the endgame, but the way Tillie also mooned over so many other guys was just annoying.
I did really love Ian, though! He was amazing. Not all his actions were necessarily admirable, but he was supportive and also pretty much the only person in the book who actively wanted Tillie to be clean for reasons other than 'You're supposed to be stronger than that.' He was very delightful, and I did really enjoy his scenes with Tillie.
A character I was weirdly obsessed with throughout the entire book was John O'Toole. He had been hired after some time by Tillie's family as some sort of security guard who patrolled their house at night, and he started to hook up with Tillie's maid Ada.
I have no idea why I was so into him, and it made me feel really weird? Especially because Tillie, for a certain time, kind of suspected him to be a bad guy, which made me feel weird, since I wasn't sure if she was right or not. And I just never wanted him to be a bad guy, based on the aforementioned "crush" I had on him. (To be fair, he mostly just gave me unresolved daddy issues - like just about every good guy over the age of forty. Now that I think about it, I have no idea how old John was, but I definitely read him as older, so to-may-to, to-mah-to.) At the end of the book, I would've liked to see more of him and Ada. It made sense that I didn't, since they weren't main characters and that important in Tillie's life - she didn't particularly see them as anything but people who worked for her -, but still.
Overall, the story was interesting to read, even if the mystery was very predictable. Tillie as a main character could be quite infuriating despite being realistic for the time period and by taking her drug addiction in consideration. The romance was a bit too messy, but I did like who she ended up with; he was very supportive and lovely!
The premise of the story was fairly interesting. It was about a girl named Tillie, whose sister was found murdered at the beginning of the novel. It seemed as if she was killed by vampires - which didn't exist (this was a normal historical setting), but "Dracula" had just been published, so vampires were talked about a lot -, and Tillie decided that she was going to try and find out who killed her. However, this proved to be a difficult task. For one, Tillie was a rich girl whose mother and especially grandmother wanted to pretty much keep her in a golden cage and didn't appreciate anything she did. So, going out to investigate her sister's death had a lot of hurdles to begin with. Secondly, what made it even more difficult was the fact that right around the time her sister went missing, she'd had a riding accident and gotten opium prescribed for the pain, which she got addicted to. So she also had that to deal with. Tillie's drug addiction was a focal point in the story and gave it a bit of a unique twist, because it made her almost more obedient in a way. She agreed to things she might not have otherwise because she was promised some opium for it. Though that also made the story more infuriating, because I got very frustrated with Tillie sometimes.
The mystery was overall interesting to read about, I liked following it. I do have to say that it was very predictable - I correctly suspected the right person 100 pages into the story, and there wasn't really anything that truly caught me off-guard. However, it didn't really bother me; I was still immersed and intrigued.
Despite the mystery not being all too tedious, it took a very long time for things to really get going. It was a bit frustrating, especially because a lot that was happening really infuriated me. More precisely, everything that had to do with James, and Grandmama at times, just made me not want to pick up the book anymore. Tillie came to conclusions that made no sense - for example,
Of course, though, her actions and thoughts did make sense sometimes. First of all, obviously, the book was set in 1899, and women weren't regarded as being anything more than a baby-making machine, so it wasn't that unusual that she just accepted certain things that someone from the 21th century wouldn't. Plus, like I mentioned above, Tillie's drug addiction often made her ignore red flags if she was provided with enough drugs, so I couldn't really fault her for not seeing certain people as bad, or dismissing certain problematic things they said. Nonetheless, it was still annoying to read about her genuinely thinking
There was a romance in this book, though it felt really messy. Kang wrote three potential love interests, which was a bit much. (Well, maybe more two than three;
I did really love Ian, though! He was amazing. Not all his actions were necessarily admirable, but he was supportive and also pretty much the only person in the book who actively wanted Tillie to be clean for reasons other than 'You're supposed to be stronger than that.' He was very delightful, and I did really enjoy his scenes with Tillie.
A character I was weirdly obsessed with throughout the entire book was John O'Toole. He had been hired after some time by Tillie's family as some sort of security guard who patrolled their house at night, and he started to hook up with Tillie's maid Ada.
I have no idea why I was so into him, and it made me feel really weird? Especially because Tillie, for a certain time, kind of suspected him to be a bad guy, which made me feel weird, since I wasn't sure if she was right or not. And I just never wanted him to be a bad guy, based on the aforementioned "crush" I had on him. (To be fair, he mostly just gave me unresolved daddy issues - like just about every good guy over the age of forty. Now that I think about it, I have no idea how old John was, but I definitely read him as older, so to-may-to, to-mah-to.) At the end of the book, I would've liked to see more of him and Ada. It made sense that I didn't, since they weren't main characters and that important in Tillie's life - she didn't particularly see them as anything but people who worked for her -, but still.
Overall, the story was interesting to read, even if the mystery was very predictable. Tillie as a main character could be quite infuriating despite being realistic for the time period and by taking her drug addiction in consideration. The romance was a bit too messy, but I did like who she ended up with; he was very supportive and lovely!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement and Pregnancy
Minor: Vomit, Alcoholism, Child death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexual assault
dinkumbird's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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? Yes
4.0
I read this book for the Uncorked Readers June challenge and I absolutely loved it. It kept my interest the whole way through and it was not as predictable as other mystery books I have read recently. I also really liked the historical fiction aspect of the book. It takes place in Victorian New York right at the turn of the century. Tilly is a sheltered girl who comes from an affluent family. Her older sister gets murdered by an apparent vampire around the same time that Tilly gets injured in a horse fall. She must solve the murder of her sister while at the same time dealing with an opium and morphine addiction. Along the way she befriends a few newsies and has to figure out how to deal with the advances of her sister’s fiancé.
I liked that this book stayed pretty accurate to historical events of the time. Tilly uses Bram Stoker’s Dracula to research vampires and her sister’s name matches the first victim in Dracula as well. Dracula was first published in 1897 so it perfectly fits into the time frame of the book. Tilly’s addiction to opium through Laudanum and as well as Morphine also make sense as both of these medicines were given to patients to control pain and hysteria and many people quickly became addicted to them.
I found most of the characters to be likeable. Tilly is a very flawed character and at times makes very naive decisions. Some of them did annoy me; such as her wandering around New York City at all hours especially because she is aware that there is a murderer around. Some of her other decisions can chalked up to her sheltered upbringing and her addiction opium and morphine. Ian was another interesting character. He is a newsie with aspirations of becoming a writer and he seems to motivate to help Tilly in part because his own brother was killed while in the care of another woman who did not face any penalties for his death. He does not want the same to happen to Tilly’s killer.
Overall I enjoyed this book and I am very glad that I chose it for my June read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use