will_cat_books's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0


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jessi_lou95's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


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mahmabaer's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

I enjoyed it for the most part and the author's basic theory
that all the women were not prostitutes
, does give one something to consider.  I do wish she hadn't been so heavyhanded in her attempt to find no blame towards the women themselves, as it makes it come across as if she is less interested in telling the stories of the five victims and more interested in proving her point.  

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

What a tragic and depressing, albeit illuminating, book about the horrors of poverty in the late 19th C. We’ve all been told that Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes. This study shows how these morally superior judgments have come to inform everything we know about the case. 

The author focuses on the women, only referring to Jack the Ripper as their murderer. She has done extensive research to find out who these women were and what their lives were like, such that they ended up dead in the gutter. All these women came from working class families but because they were born female, the deck was stacked against them. The smallest setback could literally ruin someone’s life. 

By viewing these women with compassion instead of condemnation, we can see who they really were. 

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magicinwords23's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

2.0

This is not about Jacks the Ripper at all. He gets about five lines in total in this book. 

The author tells the story of five women from the moment they were born to their death. The stories are very similar, poverty, child loss due to illness, alcoholism, homelessness, work houses and prostitution  and to be honest by the third woman’s story I was quite bored. 

There is a lot of speculation in this book by the author and not a lot of fact. We are not certain they were killed The Ripper and we are given no details of how or why. 

This book was far too long at 348 pages. Not a thumbs up from me on this one I’m afraid.

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tlholmes's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Women’s history, non fiction 

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krisha's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0


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thinkingcatss's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0


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laurareadsbig's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.75


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gabriella_brown's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book is a beautifully written and angry exploration of the lives of the women murdered by Jack the Ripper. It de-bunks common misconceptions about the victims and gives an intelligent insight into their experiences as working class women in Victorian London.

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