Book Review: The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton

August 14, 2024

It took me a minute to get into this book, but once I did, I was a fan. There were some definite parts that felt very teen (it is a teen book from a teen section written by an author who writes for teens, so what should I really expect?) but the concept was well thought out and intriguing. My complaints are that I feel like it could have been, at the very least, a duology, if not a series, in addition to me feeling like there were some very teen parts. In the beginning, Jamie doesn’t really make her characters that lovable. I had a hard time feeling connected to either of our heroines, but in the end, I loved them both.

We follow the story of two young women, Sybil and Esme, who live in a small apartment in a big city. They are barely getting by and are having a terrible time finding a job that they can stick with. Esme does her best to support them both by waiting tables and Sybil uses her adventurous spirit and her nimble fingers to steal advertising posters from the walls of the city. One night, Sybil is desperate to make enough for rent, due the next day, and asks Esme to come with her to help her steal a very large and costly poster. They prove to be successful, but this leads them into a grander adventure than either of them could have possibly imagined.

This book is filled with loss and grief as well as friendship, loyalty and deep and unwavering love. There is adventure and romance and reconciliation and I was left wanting more.

Overall, I would suggest this book, just go into it knowing that it is a teen book and it reads like one. There are some attributes (like Jamies insistence on Esme’s obsession with clocks that feels very unneeded) that I found a little cringy, but overall, this is an adventurous love story worth reading.