Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

12 reviews

thinkingcatss's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Classism, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Death, Drug use, Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Medical content, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Child death, Alcohol, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

gabriella_brown's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Child death, Classism, Death, Misogyny, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Pregnancy, Trafficking, and Suicide

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

kb_sherman's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, Murder, and Suicide

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

bryonymarianne's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Death

odrib's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Suicide, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Misogyny

emilymai's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Trafficking, and Sexism

caprivoyant's review against another edition

I give this book 3 heartbreaks: 💔💔💔

I really wanted to like this book, but the writing was a little too fact-heavy for me. I guess I thought "the untold lives" would be more narrative about their lives, and less about how much their job paid or a house-by-house breakdown of everywhere they ever lived? Alas, it was mostly the latter.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm glad this book exists because these women deserve to be seen as women—whole, complete women—not just murder victims. That's why I was so excited about reading it! But, I think, in order to get the full picture of who these women were, I needed emotion. I needed heart. I needed to see what they cared about (don't just tell me, show me). I wanted this book to paint a picture of each person's life, show me all the messy bits as well as the facts.

People are so much more than the events that happen to them—more than the addresses they live in more than the money they make. I wanted to see whole people, and I wasn't getting that, so with a broken heart, I DNF'd it. 😢

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide