Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

7 reviews

nicosta_music's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Things in Jars is a masterclass in Victorian detective novels and I absolutely loved every second of it. The prose is beautiful and captivating, and author Jess Kidd does an amazing job at painting the atmosphere of Victorian London. The characters themselves are interesting and multi-faceted, and the underlying mystery is thoroughly entertaining and a little bit creepy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Abortion, and Pregnancy

lesiene's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Sexual assault, and Murder

dr_aimz's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

feathers4bookmarks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Graphic depictions of certain scenes. I wish I had content warnings, because I didn’t realize this story would include certain depictions- and I don’t think they were necessary to the storyline always. 
I liked the underlying flaws of the protagonist, but the ending was dissatisfying in terms of the last paragraph. There was so much build up of a storyline between the protagonist and another character that I don’t think resolved well for the amount of hype in the text. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

evnfig's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.75

Reading this book was like building a relationship: at first things were slow and awkward but interesting, then things got easier and we grew to understand each other more, then, when finished, we parted having thoroughly enjoyed each other's company, hoping to see each other again someday.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol