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Lydia Kang

The Impossible Girl Kindle Edition

by Lydia Kang (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 4,788 ratings

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Two hearts. Twice as vulnerable.

Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can slip unnoticed into the slums and graveyards of the city. As the only female resurrectionist in New York, she’s carved out a niche procuring bodies afflicted with the strangest of anomalies. Anatomists will pay exorbitant sums for such specimens—dissecting and displaying them for the eager public.

Cora’s specialty is not only profitable, it’s a means to keep a finger on the pulse of those searching for her. She’s the girl born with two hearts—a legend among grave robbers and anatomists—sought after as an endangered prize.

Now, as a series of murders unfolds closer and closer to Cora, she can no longer trust those she holds dear, including the young medical student she’s fallen for. Because someone has no intention of waiting for Cora to die a natural death.

Print length

365 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Lake Union Publishing
Publication date

September 18, 2018
File size

3403 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The characters and the vivid descriptions bring midcentury graveyards to life…Kang places the reader in the midst of Cora’s life.” —Gumshoe Review

“The setting is expertly laid out, detailed, and realistic, and the characters are relatable and likable…Lydia Kang’s writing is great and Cora Lee is not a character to soon be forgotten.” —All About Romance

“Kang really knows how to develop her world and it’s so very easy to get lost in it…There were so many unexpected twists.” —Broken Teepee

"This book had a little bit of everything, romance, mystery, fantasy, and history…Highly recommend.” —The LitBitch

“This book has such a strong main character—Cora Lee—and she is full of intrigue and mystery…This is an intense and gripping book.” —Always With a Book

“If you like the world of grave robbing with a strong female protagonist who fights for her life on the daily, this is a great read for you.” —Where the Reader Grows

“The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang is an impossibly good read…The writing is beautiful and lyrical, the atmosphere is haunting, and the mystery is engaging. Fans of novels with strong heroines, period pieces, and/or murder mysteries will all find something to love in this book.” —Hypable

“The Impossible Girl was exceptional…This book was an easy five stars. Every detail was perfect.” —Fictionist Magazine

“A cat-and-mouse story of intrigue, set in 1850 and featuring a strong-willed female protagonist striving to stay one step ahead of an unknown foe who would murder her for profit, The Impossible Girl is captivating through and through. Highly recommended, especially for connoisseurs of historical murder mysteries!” —Midwest Book Review

“Kang creates a vividly detailed world with so much atmosphere and intricate pieces…There’s a bit of romance, loads of history, and a splash of fantasy that transforms this book into an impossibly great read.” —Fangirlish

About the Author

Lydia Kang is a physician and the author of A Beautiful Poison. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine. She currently lives in the Midwest with her family, where she continues to practice internal medicine. Visit her at www.lydiakang.com.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07BDHGKJX
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lake Union Publishing (September 18, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 18, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3403 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 365 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1503903389

Best Sellers Rank: #68,663 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #294 in Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
- #534 in Historical Literary Fiction
- #695 in Historical Mysteries (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 4,788 ratings

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Lydia Kang

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Lydia Kang is an author and internal medicine physician. She is a graduate of Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, and completed her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She lives with her family in the midwest. Follow her on Facebook (AuthorLydiaKang) and Instagram @LydiaKang.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

4,788 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		32%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Engie

Captivating

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 11, 2023

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This book had me hooked almost immediately. The beginning had its ups and downs as far as moving the story along quickly but once it picked up, boy was it an adventure. And damn, Leah and Alexander disappointed me deeply. Suzette surprised me the most and I, too, mourn the loss of her team. I somehow mourn the loss of Jacob as well... Lol.

Lydia Kang is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! I loved The Beautiful Poison and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading Opium and Absinthe next.

On to the next book 📖 ☺️

2 people found this helpful

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Jennifer leone

Unique

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 26, 2023

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The plot, characters, and format was different which added intrigue. I admired Cora’s strength in diving into a dangerous career to keep herself safe. With the mystery of her own physical condition placing herself in a position to learn about ailments and the body by working at a medical school providing cadavers. Then the added piece of the persona as Jacob to take on the physical task to be taken seriously at that period of time in history. Then the way she would disguise by binding her breast, adding lifts to shoes, makeup to face and hands along with knowing how to physically care for herself. It never goes into great details on how the character learns to protection or how to act manly but the inner dialogue was fascinating to hear the struggle on how Cora needed Jacob.
I finished it in 2 days and wish would have read slower to savored the story more. Highly recommended will reread!

3 people found this helpful

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A. Steven Toby

History, Mystery, Romance, Medicine

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2020

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All 4 elements are present in this novel. It’s the second I’ve read by Dr. Kang although maybe not in the order in which they were published. Like “Opium and Absinthe,” the one I previously read, it has an authentic view of old New York in the 19th century that rings true for those who , like me, have spent time there in the 20th. This book steps a generation further back than the previous one to the time before the Civil War. It’s the period of P. T. Barnum and the public has an appetite for the grotesque. There’s an underworld with an astoundingly different slang that is now unintelligible but the author has it used by the gang of grave robbers that are featured in the story.
The 4th element in the book is medicine. The author isn’t merely making use of her medical training to explain symptoms suffered by characters, she also has contemporary treatments and medications play an appropriate role. The chief character is the impossible girl because she was born with 2 hearts. Once that gets around she realizes she’s in terrible danger of ending up an exhibit in one of the museums of “curiosities” that are becoming common in Manhattan. Another source of the market for dead bodies is medical schools so it’s clear that fresh corpses are in such demand that it could be a motive for murder.
Cora, the protagonist, leads the gang of grave robbers. She’s also related to the Cutter family who are featured in the previous book. She encounters an interloper who turns out to be a medical student who is an orphan and hopes to fund his education by participating in the market for corpses. We the readers are led through a complex plot that does not strain our credibility as she gradually sees the medical student, Theo, as more than a competitor.
While in a way this book is relentlessly modern in spite of its historical authenticity, the author must be aware that in that period there were powerful religious taboos against disturbing the dead. while none of the characters is shown in church, short chapters recount the last minutes of each victim of the serial killer who is competing with Cora to fill the demand for corpses. In these short chapters the victims’ consciousness goes on somewhat beyond the moment of death, suggesting an afterlife might be possible on a spiritual plane. This is appropriate to the period and in accordance with human nature.
A worthwhile read and it even has a happy ending.

One person found this helpful

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OLT

Entertaining, if slightly gruesome, mystery-thriller.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 22, 2018

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If you don't try to analyze or make sense of some of the characters' actions, this makes for an entertaining historical mystery-thriller. It takes place in 1850s NYC, during an interesting period in history, when medical schools needed cadavers for their anatomy classes and research, with demand high and voluntary supply (by family members, etc.) almost nonexistent. What to do but steal freshly-dead bodies from graves to sell. Those involved in this grave robbing were known as resurrectionists and there were even a few extremely unscrupulous ones who stooped to murder to get a good enough supply of bodies.

With an oversupply of bodies of the poor, who died mainly of mundane, ordinary causes such as malnutrition or common diseases, the more exotic and anomalous maladies and deformations were in high demand: people with tumors, for example, or vestigial tails, three breasts, six toes, or, let's say, two hearts even. These more exotic corpses were in demand both for scientific research and for prurient interest in museums or public exhibitions.

But two hearts? That's impossible, isn't it? Except for the case of our heroine, Cora Lee, illegitimate daughter of a disgraced socialite and a Chinese sailor. Cora never knew her parents and was raised by her Aunt Charlotte, who is recently deceased as this book begins. The doctor who attended Cora's birth was indiscreet about baby Cora's abnormality, so the medical and scientific world has been aware that a half Chinese girl (identity unknown) with two hearts was born in NYC.

To keep Cora safe, Aunt Charlotte had raised her as a boy, Jacob, hoping the rumors about the "Impossible Girl" would die out and that no suspicion would fall on "boy" Jacob. After puberty, both Cora/Jacob co-exist, as Cora during the day and Jacob at night, working as resurrectionists supplying cadavers for scientific research. Cora has chosen this profession in the hopes that she can always keep abreast of any rumors about her or requests to find that two-hearted girl.

And so it goes. Cora finds competition in this grave robbing business heating up. One competitor is medical student Theo, in need of funds. They feel an attraction to each other but mutual trust is quite another thing. And there are other competitors, many quite unsavory. In addition, we have unscrupulous businessmen looking for "freaks of nature" to make money from by charging admission to their museums or exhibitions.

When a list of body requests comes out with the most expensive item being a half Chinese girl with two hearts, things really start to heat up for Cora. It's hard for her to know who to trust, to know who is aware that she is the girl with two hearts. How will she keep herself safe if it becomes known that she is the one everyone is looking for?

Well, just stay tuned. There are lots of bad and seemingly bad guys here, lots of good and seemingly good guys, and an unexpected really bad guy. There are a good amount of twists in here and I had not twigged on to who was the most evil of the evils until the reveal at the end.

The story and plot are good enough to hold one's interest, the author is a medical doctor and knows her medical information, but the writing style is basic and uninspired. In other words, literature this ain't. And Cora's final solution to her problem, the way she thinks she can save herself seemed to me to be very ill thought out and impractical, even if interesting from a medical point of view.

There's a lot that's improbable and impractical here but I kept on reading it all anyway. Just had to find out how it all was going to end.

86 people found this helpful

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Sofia

Could not put down

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 27, 2023

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The topic was morbid but so interesting. There was so much love and humanity in what Cora did even though she dealt with so much death. It was so sad how poverty caused people to betray the people they swore to protect and how cold-blooded people could be about taking lives for money. The ending was a complete shock.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

The Paragon

Stunningly evocative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2020

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In 1850s New York, Cora Lee, a young woman, born out of wedlock with a mysterious heart condition, to a wealthy socialite and an unknown Chinese sailor, carries out her best work after dark.

Cora, her alter-ego Jacob, and a small gaggle of men, are grave-robbers. In an era of medical advancement some of the biggest discoveries can only come from detailed examination of the newly-deceased, and this is how the secretly afflicted Cora can justify her actions and the list of patients she has garnered from some of the city’s busiest doctors.

However, when someone starts murdering the people on Cora’s list, and with the introduction of medical student and would-be resurrectionist, Theodore Flint, will Cora’s second heart prove a prize too grand to pass up?

Another beautifully-written novel by Lydia Kang. The language and settings were evocative and crisply-drawn. The characters were richly observed, the dialogue fascinating. I didn’t know anything of the flash language before picking up this book, but was perfectly able to keep up with the street-speak of nineteenth century Manhattan. The story had me gripped from the outset and I remained on the edge of my seat throughout. Gorgeous.

4 people found this helpful

Emma's Biblio Treasures

A remarkable book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 2, 2018

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Cora Lee is ‘the impossible girl’. She was born on a blustery winter’s night in 1850, the bastard child of a socialite and a nameless immigrant. When she's found to have two hearts the doctor is sure she won't survive and even offers money for her body upon death. Immediately her caregivers decide to raise Cora as a boy to protect her from the clutches of those who would wish to harm her and dissect her body for medical research or worse, display it for the public to gawp and gasp at.

20 years later and Cora is now working as a resurrectionist, acquiring bodies for the Anatomists of New York. She specialises in finding the bodies of those with queer and unusual ailments, the things that Anatomists will pay the highest prices for. This speciality also helps her keep her ear to the ground so she would know if anyone were searching for anyone with her particular malady.

When people on her special list start to die unnatural deaths Cora no longer knows who she can trust or where to turn. Whoever the killer is, it is clear they are coming for her too. Can she find the killer and escape there clutches or will she be the next victim and body on display?

I’ve always had a love for the era that this book was set in and a long standing fascination with the history of medicine so this instantly struck me as the kind of book I’d enjoy. I was right; I was enthralled by this book from the opening pages and couldn’t put it down. The author has facts masterfully interlaced with fiction and it was clear that she had taken plenty of time researching the flagitious history of the study of anatomy. There were many times it was easy to forget I was reading a work of fiction

This book is beautifully written and the author was careful to use language appropriate to the time. While this often led to me having to look things up on google it helped the story overall and the only times I really felt confused is when Cora was dressed as her ‘brother’ Jacob but was still referred to as ‘Cora’ and using female pronouns.

This remarkable story had me on the edge of my seat and unable to tear myself away as it reached its climax. Who was the killer? Who had betrayed Cora and was seeking to profit from her demise? Will her secret be revealed to the world or would she escape? I couldn’t wait to find out and read the majority of the book in one sitting as I had to know how it ended.

‘The Impossible Girl’ is an incredible novel that you will not only enjoy reading but it will also teach you a lot about how we came to understand the human body as we do today. A great read for anyone who loves general fiction, historical fiction, crime and mystery.

Out Now.

4 people found this helpful

LarsLovesBooks

Enjoyable Historical Fiction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 3, 2020

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Fun historical mystery caper about a girl called Cora, born with two hearts who becomes a resurrectionist (grave robber in the Victorian era) supplying bodies with strange anomalies to universities and museums. She does this so she can keep an ear out for people searching for the girl with 2 hearts who is a prized commodity in that market. However someone seems to be killing people with anomalies and Cora is soon put within their cross hairs.

Read this as part of a read along with a book group. First half was really interesting and I had all sort of outlandish ideas of who the bad guys were. Finally finished the 2nd half and I was completely thrown. I was pleasantly surprised by the different twists in the latter half and how unpredictable the conclusion was. 4 stars because some of the side characters are really annoying and. 2 dimensional without any real indication of their motivations.

J A Roberts

Another fantastic book from Lydia Kang!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 10, 2022

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Absolutely love this author! Her books are so well written and grip you right from the start!! This was the 1st book of hers that I read and I absolutely loved it! Fantastic story that reels you in. I couldn't put it down.
I read Opium & Absinthe after finishing Impossible Girl and it was another fantastic book! So well written! This author really does have a way of gripping you from the very first chapter and not letting you go till the last!
Please give this author a go, you won't be disappointed.

writingwithwolves

It was absolutely impossible for me not to love this book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 6, 2018

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The Impossible Girl is full of eerie mystery, questionable characters & addictive twists, that left me on the edge of my seat until the very last page of the epilogue. The idea behind this book was wonderfully original & the writing was brilliantly intelligent. But most importantly, this fantastic story managed to pull me out of my reading slump quicker than Jacob & his boys could remove a body from its grave. This is one of those ARCs that I feel truly privileged to have received.

⚠️ This book contains death, violence, racism, sexism & scenes of a sexual nature ⚠️

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