Lydia Kang’s novel The Impossible Girl came out in 2018. What drew me to the book was its unusual main character, Cora Lee. The book takes place in 1850 New York City, and Cora is a resurrectionist. That is, she steals dead bodies from cemeteries and sells them to medical schools for dissection. She specializes, however, in stealing bodies with unusual physical maladies. Cora and her team sell these to curiosity exhibits for hefty payouts.

Soon, the reader finds Cora’s problem and the fact that drives the plot of the book: she has two hearts. Thus, the title The Impossible Girl. Because she’s an unusual physical specimen herself, however, her dead body is worth a lot of money. Five hundred dollars, in fact. Enough money that certain people are unwilling to wait for her to die a natural death.

As a result, Cora spends most of her adult life hiding her identity by various means. Trouble is, her profession as a resurrectionist brings her into contact with exactly the sort of people who are interested in seeing her dead before her time if they ever learn who she really is.

Good Points of The Impossible Girl

Ms. Kang did many things well in The Impossible Girl. She had a good read on 1850s New York and made the setting come alive nicely. It wasn’t the main point of the book, but the discrepancy between the rich and poor in New York City was glaring, and the book made that clear. The only thing I question is that people seemed to eat oysters at the expense of all other foods. Maybe they did in 1850s New York, but it seems like they should mix it up a bit.

Another strength was that once the story gets moving, the reader is never sure who Cora should trust and who she should stay away from. Some characters move back and forth across that line a couple times. Which is good. Except that a couple of the betrayals didn’t feel realistic to me. Dramatic, yes, but not realistic.

Then there is Cora herself, the Impossible Girl. Try as I might, I never found her a completely sympathetic character. On her side, she could claim several things. People were out to kill her because of something she couldn’t control. She was a female resurrectionist in a man’s world. In addition, she had a mixed ethnic background at a time when most saw that as a detriment. Finally, her character was smart, resourceful, and decisive.

Yet, she was a grave robber. And, in her effort to escape death herself, the bodies pile up around her. She starts to feel remorse over both things as the book goes on, so I guess she can claim character growth in her defense, but neither should be necessary to make someone with Cora’s intelligence consider a new career path.

So, I liked most aspects of The Impossible Girl, enough to give it 8 points out of 10. I may try another of Lydia Kang’s books in the future. If you enjoyed a story like Gangs of New York (or the movie), then the setting of the book should intrigue you. Likewise, if you like strong female lead characters. Or just unusual books that center around death without being macabre.

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