Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

90 reviews

notlikethebeer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

As someone deeply interested in critical true crime, feminism, and denied victimhoods, this has been on my to-read list for ages - and I would say that, for the most part, it delivered! Prior to reading this, I knew next to nothing about Jack the Ripper, other than that he killed sex workers. Evidently, that's just not true, as this book so excellently explained. I really appreciated getting to know each of the women, learning about the facets of their lives in a way that victims are so often denied. I'm not much of a historian, so I also really appreciated the extent to which the author contextualised and explained the features of the time.

Reading The Five is really difficult. At each decision each woman makes, you want to cry out, to warn them off. As well, reading about the challenges they faced is incredibly hard when knowing where their stories will ultimately play out.

I do think I'm a bit conflicted about the way that the deaths themselves were approached. It was the underlying aim to provide agency and narrative, rather than focusing on their deaths, and so it's understandable that the actual deaths were somewhat glossed over. At the same time, those deaths are (tragically, horrifically, awfully) what made the women known to us today. More importantly, those deaths were part of their stories. I wonder whether removing the women from the narratives of their deaths is, in a way, another way of removing agency? I don't know.

I would also probably have appreciated a bit more reflexivity. There was some of this, but I think it could have been expanded upon further. It's not a coincidence or accident that the women continue to be known as sex workers: there is so much room for exploring the function of this. Similarly, so much of what was featured in this book was conjecture: "would" and "should" were used so much. It would have been useful I think to explore how many gaps there are, and what we can understand of this. And, whilst Jack the Ripper was intentionally not the focus of this book, I wonder what we can make of the assumption that there could only have been one killer, what that might mean. Then again: what is an important book if not one that provokes further questions?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Murder

yossy_cookie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

An interesting look at the victims of Jack the Ripper. This is not true crime, there is nothing at all about the killings but this focuses on the lives of the women. It is an interesting insight into what life was like in Victorian London and the attention to detail is superb. It is, however, slow paced and quite heavy going 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexism, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Classism, Trafficking, Death, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Murder, Misogyny, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

will_cat_books's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Addiction, Child death, Murder, Classism, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

jessi_lou95's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Minor: Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Trafficking

mahmabaer's review against another edition

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.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Death, Emotional abuse, Dementia, Bullying, Death of parent, Addiction, Grief, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Violence

jhbandcats's review against another edition

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Classism, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Murder

jiao_li's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse

taylasreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, Grief, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Infidelity, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

abi_sarah's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

An expertly written documentary of the lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. The amount of research that went into writing this book is clear from the offset and the writing is engaging, emotional and empathetic. You really start to grow attached to the women and feel a profound sadness and heartfelt sympathies for the way society dictated that they lived their lives and subsequently the end that met them. 

Hallie Rubenhold really sets the scene of Victorian London and effortlessly introduces each of the victims with the societal norms and prejudices which forced them - in most cases - to live largely unhappy lives. She describes what it’s like to live in workhouses and what little privacy there is for those who live in them - perhaps explaining why now we value privacy so much as a society.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Addiction

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, and Grief

tlholmes's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Women’s history, non fiction 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Trafficking, Classism, Death, Grief, Sexism, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Alcoholism