Opium and Absinthe

A Novel

By: Lydia Kang

Narrated by: Bailey Carr

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

From the bestselling author of A Beautiful Poison comes another spellbinding historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists.

New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be - can it?

A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum...and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.

Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real - or whether she can trust those closest to her.

©2020 Lydia Kang (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Worst narration I’ve heard in >300 audio books

The story is overshadowed by the horrible narration. I was interested in the story but couldn’t get through it. So many words mispronounced and the accents were unbelievably bad. Save the credit and read the book. I would be interested if they redid it with a new reader.

Fine story, terrible narrator!

The narrator routinely mispronounces words which is incredibly jarring! The most common mispronunciation is "shone". She also couldn't get "ray" (the sea creature), "anatomy", "brooch" and other words correct. Someone who reads without the haughty affectations would serve these stories better. The story itself was pretty good. Better than The Impossible Girl certainly.

Interesting but not gripping

This was an interesting story but it wasn’t gripping. I didn’t find myself yearning to find out what happens next. Some of it was a bit predictable but there are some unseen twists as well.

Great Mystery!

This story will keep you guessing until the final scenes. Almost everyone's a suspect and our narrator, Tillie, while extremely likable, resourceful, and a young woman definitely ahead of her time, is also notoriously unreliable, given that she has to conquer some personal demons while solving the mystery of her sister's death.

The narration could have been better, more nuanced, certainly; but it's not so terrible that it detracts from the story as a whole.

For those hoping this will be a straight-up "vampire" story, move on now. This isn't one of those—it's so much better! I highly recommend this to anyone who'd like to sink their teeth into a well-plotted, historical mystery, I'll definitely be looking for more of Kang's work in the future!

Disappointed

Somehow I expected something more there were too many repetitious phrases, unlikeable characters, 21st century scrambled sensibilities mixed in with Victorian attitudes. Kind of a mess.

Narrator not suited to this book

This book wasn't my favorite. The story was okay but the narration was awful. Just awful. I should've stuck to the kindle e-book. I won't be getting anything else narrated by this young woman. Perhaps she should try juvenile and child fiction to narrate. It would suit her very young voice much better.

Interesting

Not sure how I feel about this book. I think it was well written and enjoyed the fact that it was very different. I didn't have any problem at all with the narrator and the characters were realistic and enjoyable for the most part. I didn't necessarily love it. There were some moments that dragged a bit and certain connections that the characters should have made sooner. But it was still a decent read.

Different

I can't remember why I bought this one but I'm glad I did. The whole book was fascinating whether it was talking about drugs, writing or the murders. I loved Ian and the newsies. This one was well worth my time☺

Entertaining but not the best

This one dragged a bit. Fantastic author but this could have been shorter. Enjoyed the ending though.

Great book

Loved it! Highly recommended it. Wonderful period piece. Very entertaining.
Twist at the end is incredible.