Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
Release Date: February 4th, 2020
Genre(s): Historical Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 373
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.25
Things in Jars is a historical fantasy set in the Victorian Era that primarily follows Bridie Devine, a female detective from London. She has been tasked with a peculiar case – the strange disappearance of Christabel Berwick, a young girl with interesting features, also said to have unique powers.
The book is set in an era where people are beginning to discover the supernatural, and many collectors seek to find children like Christabel to either study them, sell them, or otherwise use them in other ways for their own gain.
Early in her investigation, Bridie finds the help of a ghost who claims to have a connection to her past. With his help as well as the help of other supporting characters, Bridie is determined to find Christabel. Most importantly, she is determined to prevent this case from being like her last.
I picked up Things in Jars from Book of the Month as one of their Early Release picks. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the book itself, but as a fan of gothic Victorian literature, as well as mermaids and ghosts, I thought this was a great combination for me.
The first thing I noticed when reading this was the quality of the writing. Kidd’s writing style is so descriptive, atmospheric and perfectly portrays the more gothic setting. This was one of my favorite elements of this book, alongside the features I listed above. This book is definitely more suitable for those that prefer such lyrical writing and a descriptive setting to be immersed in above all things.
However, my primary reason behind rating Things in Jars a 3.25 has to be the way that this story was drawn out. This book is so many things – it’s a historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery novel all in one. And in the same breath, it is just shy of 400 pages. You have so much happening within these lines as well. You have Bridie’s backstory. You have backstories for the supporting characters. There’s also the moral debate on having collectors and others who are taking advantage of the newly-discovered supernatural. Then you have the addition of ghosts, further extending the supernatural aspects of this book. With all of these things, there is just so much to cover in such a short span. Things in Jars could have easily been a couple hundred pages longer with the amount of information that was presented in it.
One aspect of this book in particular that I would have loved to see more emphasis on were the mermaids themselves. You see them primarily through human eyes, which is a stylistic choice demonstrating the human discovery of these creatures. This, I understand and agree with completely. However, there was so much time spent in the book on other topics that I wished for just a bit more on it, and I do think that could have been achieved had it been longer.
In the same breath, although there was so much to cover in this book, I also felt that the story was a bit drawn out. I found that, between all of these elements, there were so many backstories, time-jumps, and sub-plots to cover, that it just ran more slowly than it should have. I think this story could have benefitted from some re-structuring to make the progression more interesting.
Time-jumps in particular are a hit or miss to me, just as multiple POVs can be. To me, these are best executed when you’re anticipating something at the end of one chapter, but get something just as interesting at the start of the next. But in Things in Jars, I often felt like you would get that anticipation, but never really get back to that point again. The story continued on something else, and you don’t get a direct continuation again.
But don’t get me wrong here – Things in Jars was so wonderfully written, and its premise is so interesting. Overall, I did enjoy the book! I do believe that there was so much more that could have been done with this story though. That would have been more pages to emphasize some of the supernatural occurrences of the book (or the results of discovering them), or enhancing the storyline progression to feel a little more cohesive between all of the plot points and subplots. The number of things that were covered in this book are substantial and ambitious, but I do wish we had more time with them.
I know that I’m in the minority with my rating (although, again, I did like the book overall!). But I do think this book could have been better. I would recommend Things in Jars more to those that are interested in the mystery element of this book, the Victorian setting, or the impact on humans of discovering supernatural elements in their world. If you’re mostly in this for the mermaids, just know that you’re seeing them much more from the human lens.
