Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang

 
Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang
My Rating: ★★★★★

First, Tillie Pembroke is involved in a horse-riding accident that shatters her shoulder. Then her missing sister is murdered, sending her entire life spinning. The Pembrokes are trying to move on as fast as possible, but Tillie is obsessed. Why is no one investigating Lucy’s murder? And was she really killed by a vampire as it appears? Tillie cannot rest until she gets the answers even if she has to put herself in the line of danger to get them.

I’ve been a fan of Lydia Kang for a few years now, so I was excited when I saw she had a new book coming out. There was an audiobook promotion when I was buying the book, so I got the book and then the audiobook free. Sadly, the audiobook really put me off, so I took a long break before returning and starting over on page one. I’m starting to think audiobooks aren’t for me because I’m taken straight out of the story any time I try to listen to them. I wish I just decided to start over on page one on the same day that I ditched the audiobook because I was sucked in right away. Kang has done it again with such a gripping tale!

We follow Tillie, a young lady living in New York City in the late 1800s. Tillie has always been the odd sister busy learning new things and questioning her surroundings. Because of this, she grew up in her seemingly perfect older sister’s shadow. When Lucy is murdered, not only is Tillie left with a huge hole in her heart, but she begins to discover that she didn’t know Lucy as well as she thought she did. On top of everything, poor Tillie is recovering from a terrible injury and quickly finds herself abusing pain medication. If drug abuse will trigger you, I advise skipping this book because her addiction along with her struggles with it is very detailed. As the story continues and more victims turn up, Tillie questions whether or not vampires are real. The victims certainly appear to have been killed by a vampire, especially with the fang marks accompanying the lack of blood left in their bodies.

I absolutely loved this story. I thought Tillie was an interesting character to follow, and the book has a great cast of characters full of good, bad, and everything in between. I love that there was such a variety of types of characters. We’ve got seemingly good people who are 100% smarmy right next to creepy characters who are actually good people. I can honestly say that I didn’t suspect the murderer once because of this.

While I wish the ending wasn’t wrapped up so quickly, I rather enjoyed the book. There are so many fascinating characters here and Kang really had me going with the potential supernatural aspect. I kept going back and forth on whether or not a real vampire was going to bust out during the first half of the book. Once I recovered from trying to listen to the audiobook rather than reading, I got sucked in so fast. I’m looking forward to checking out Kang’s next book.