A review by pepgiraffe
The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.75

I read this for book club and hated it. It is hard to believe that this isn't a debut novel. A lot of the concepts are interesting and if you can visualize things, it is gorgeous, but many of the main plot points are asinine. 

It makes no sense that

Maeve would send someone in with no chance of getting the jewels.

I get that she was desperate, but the idea that

someone with no experience would be able to go to a different realm and find their way to the target and successfully complete the mission

all with a two day lead time is so unbelievable as to take me out of the plot.

Why did the two main characters like each other? One was kind, and the other was, I don't know, there?

How was everyone able to keep borrowing clothes from each other when they weren't the same size? Were the clothes magic?

What was the purpose in

continuing to make absinthe out of jewels

? You are already popular; that seems like a waste.

Was there any point where I was supposed to think that

Maeve wasn't the bad guy

? Why are the two main characters laughably gullible? How does the clock work if it has no innards? Why is the key the only magic thing about Sybil? Why does Sybil think that Lucien abandoned her instead of being worried that he just disappeared? Why would Sybil spend all that time at home stealing things if she wasn't going to bring any of them to pawn when she finally left?  

Okay, I am out.