Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

10 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

rock_island_witch's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

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

millibear's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Diverse Gothic mystery! There really isn't a way for me to not use the word "romp" to describe this book, at least as far as the plot goes. The action clips along nicely, the little discomfiting supernatural details are engrossing, the gruesome past events are hard to stomach, and the voice--the voice!!--is so strong in this book. Characters' and general narration both. Take a look at a preview to see what I mean.

I will definitely keep my eye out for more of Jess Kidd's work in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Abortion

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Violence, and Abortion

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence

helen's review against another edition

4.0

 A gothic fantasy set in Victorian London with an Irish pipe-smoking female detective, lush descriptions and a fantastic cast of characters, including a half-naked moustachioed pugilist ghost sidekick. I laughed and I cried.

The descriptions were very cinematic and I could see it adapted for the screen. I haven't read much in this genre, so my comparisons are narrow, but I couldn't help thinking that it had the same sense of place as Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series with the humour and humanity of T. Kingfisher.

It had a bit more violence and gore then I usually like, but the mystery and the characters were so engaging that I didn't mind. The only thing I really didn't like (and I knocked off a star for this) is the implied sexual assault that happens at 73%. The only reason I could fathom why it was there was to underline how much danger Bridie was in - but all the other violence in the book had shown me that. It felt unnecessary and really soured the last part of the book because it wasn't addressed in a satisfactory way. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Sexual assault

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

jamiev17's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

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