Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

41 reviews

siobhanward's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

I had this on my TBR years ago and then dropped it because I didn't like the writing style. I remember there being a lot more conversations in the book (i.e. "so and so woke up and said x to her mother"), but that was not something in the book at all. Everything was either cited from primary sources (either specific to the women or general for the time), or was posed as a hypothetical ("she likely..." or "it's possible.."), so I have no idea what I was thinking?

Anyway, I'm glad I wound up trying this again because it was a great and informative read. I loved how Rubenhold told the women's stories, focusing on their lives rather than their deaths. It was a new angle for the Jack the Ripper story and it was well done. I'm really glad I didn't miss out on this one in the end!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Death, Violence, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death of parent

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

emilo's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Sexism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Murder, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

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

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

An interesting look into the true lives of Jack the Ripper's conical five victims and thoughts on how they've been forgotten and twisted by the press and others while he's become infamous. The fact that only 2 of them were sex workers was surprising to me because I'd heard the familiar story. But they were sleeping on the street because of poverty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Child death, and Miscarriage

staceyinthesticks's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Alcoholism, and Murder

Minor: Drug use and Death of parent

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

magibeth's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Alcoholism, Murder, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Miscarriage, Child death, Medical trauma, Grief, Domestic abuse, Infertility, and Death of parent

kmsander4's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

An incredible story giving the power back to the women who had it savagely stolen from them back in the fall of 1888.

Now, we know their stories, their pasts, their lives. They were more than victims. They were mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers. They were women. They were - and will forever be - remembered for who they were and not the man who murdered them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Sexual violence, and Child death