Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

35 reviews

jacs63's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is a stunning book for so many reasons. 
It gives a face, a name and a voice, to the 5 victims of JtR. 
We so often only hear about the perpetrator, and not the victims. 
The book discusses the fact that thru the falsehood and misinformation spread by the Metropolitan Police and journalists at the time, it was convenient for us all to think that JtR only killed prostitutes. 
Only 2 of the 5 were actually known to be sex workers. 
There is no evidence that the other 3 were sex workers at all, but I for one believed the misinformation that was spread. 
One thing that all 5 women shared was that they are all alcoholics. 
I wonder why?? 
Maybe because cheap alcohol was the only thing that dulled the pain, if only for a while, of the poverty; the hunger; the homelessness; the early death of family members, including their own spouses or their own babies/ children; the death sentence that they were given if their spouse died and left them, and their children, destitute; their treatment as a woman with no legal rights; the living hell that was the 'Workhouse'; the lack of education for woman; the disease; the filth and vermin; the lack of medicines; the lack of clean water and sanitation; the violence; the lack of hope, respect and dignity etc etc etc. 
Basically the treatment of women/girls in the 1800's. 

It's full of interesting and informative historical facts about what life, and death, was like, for women in particular, in the Victorian 1800's. 

It's sad and horrific and devastating. It's a book that won't leave me for a while, I don't think. 
Probably not a book to read if you are depressed or feeling melancholic.

We will never know who JtR was. 
But we can know who his victims were. 
These women were daughters; sisters; wives; lovers; mothers; friends. 
May they never be forgotten. 
RIP and love, Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate and Mary Jane.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Child death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Physical abuse, Excrement, Misogyny, Medical content, Alcohol, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Stalking, Terminal illness, Violence, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

4.5

This is a sincere and well-researched account of the lives of the five women killed by Jack the ripper. Hallie Rubenhold ensures their legacies with her diligent research and her focus on the lives of the women, over their gruesome and mythologized deaths. In contextualizing the sexual climate of the Victorian era, Rubenhold offers a vivid image of the nuanced worlds these women lived in, often so different from the straight laced Victorian England canonized today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Dementia, Miscarriage, Sexism, Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Grief, Infidelity, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Trafficking, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Incest

pedanther's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Classism

Moderate: Murder, Alcoholism, Suicide, Child death, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Terminal illness

nieva098's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Classism, Medical trauma, and Sexism

louisemcaw's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Murder, and Miscarriage

amelia_douglas's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Trafficking, Death, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Medical content, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual assault and Miscarriage

abby_can_read's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

🎧
I enjoyed this book. It was well research and well written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism, Misogyny, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Child death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, and Sexual violence

Minor: Chronic illness and Mental illness

revived_reading's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

The way Hallie Rubenhold writes, you can feel every single emotion she tries to convey. From dread to a bit of hope to powerless. 

This book opens your eyes not only to the lives of these 5 women, but to the lives of many, many women in the Victorian era. 

Hallie Rubenhold truly gave back these women their stories and their lives. She gave them the respect they were never given. She gave them justice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicide, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Child death, and Domestic abuse

annamorgan27's review against another edition

dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Infidelity, Misogyny, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Trafficking, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

It is good to see the victims of Jack the Ripper as human beings instead of faceless statistics to be gawked at. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Child death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Trafficking, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Rape

Minor: Racism, Gore, and Xenophobia

There is a lot of talk about the abuse within the workhouses and dissolving of familial dynamics.