Reviews

Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang

noirverse's review against another edition

2.0

This started strong, but the story eventually fell apart for me. I liked the atmosphere Kang brought with her prose, and the main character was enjoyable, but so much of the plot felt like it needed another round of editing. What stood out to me the most was the pacing issues and contrived coincidences. Tilly does a whole lot of nothing for significant parts of the book until the plot pushes her into action once again, which got old towards the end.

As for the other characters, I liked them, but most of them didn't really stand out. Ian was one of the best characters, though, and I liked his romance with Tilly. The ending was alright, but I am a bit salty that James gets away with zero comeuppance after being so awful for a huge chunk of the book. I'm willing to try another book from Kang, as I think I started out with the wrong book for me, and I'd like to see what she could do with a different premise.

lexi_01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

kristinbg13's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

2.0

defymavity's review against another edition

5.0

This is a fun book to read

The ending honestly surprised me, though I feel it shouldn't have. Tillie is such a relatable character she's hard not to just love. This was such a fun book and I'd like to read more by this author.

almondcookies's review against another edition

3.0

This book has a real 'who did it?' vibe going for it, and that's not a bad thing. It also had a crap tonne of red herrings, which was also not a bad thing. It has a lot more of Tillie's downward spiral into opium addiction than the murder mystery though, take that as you will.

Good book, crazy ending, brilliant cover.

chris_hope__'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

emily_bg's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

duchessofreadin's review against another edition

4.0

When her sister, the perfect daughter is murdered, Tillie is shocked, but determined to find out more - that is, as soon as she is feeling better.


This was an interesting story, wrapped in the hysteria of the newly released Dracula. I enjoyed reading through this book! Great for weekend reads or those rainy days where you want to stay on the couch! Perfect for book clubs too!

waelderle's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense

3.0

leonoor's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The pacing was off. The midsection of the story was quite slow and uneventful, whereas the whole ending of the book was wrapped up in 30 pages. The author used two cliches in this last part:

having the evil villain explain in detail why they did what they did, and the protagonist fainting at the end of the story so others can fill in what happened after they wake up

. It feels like many details in the slower part of the book are unnecessary and don't make much sense. Some characters feel like caricatures of themselves. 
Overall, this book feels rushed and not quite put together. Still, I appreciate the details about opium use and I think the setting of 1899's New York was quite nice.