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Reviews tagging 'Murder'
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
92 reviews
isleofwoman's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Minor: Trafficking
jesshindes's review against another edition
5.0
Rubenhold's book inverts that balance - she isn't interested in the Ripper, doesn't believe it's possible to identify him, and more fundamentally questions why we are so ghoulishly entertained by him in the first place. These are issues that are being addressed more frequently now since the boom in true crime podcasts etc and I think they're very applicable here - but what's more interesting is all the original research that underpins The Five, and the detailed portraits that Rubenhold is able to paint of each of its subjects.
One of the book's primary innovations is to show that only one of the women killed - Mary Jane Kelly - was a prostitute, in the sense of this being her primary occupation. Elizabeth Stride may have participated in sex work towards the end of her life and there's no evidence that any of the other three did so at all. It's not that there's anything wrong with being a sex worker but the fact that the murders are framed as targeting prostitutes when this is evidently inaccurate does show the degree to which these women have been sidelined in the story of their own deaths. Rather than being linked by prostutution, then, what Rubenhold shows is that all five women were linked by destitution and particularly insecure housing; four of the five were killed as they slept on the Whitechapel streets. The Five is therefore largely a series of stories about descending into poverty; falling from security, even the relative and contingent security of the working class, into a position where you might wake up each morning unsure of where you'd spend that night. The causes are so simple and so painful: the breakdown of domestic partnerships. Alcoholism. A lack of access to contraception. Disease. The loss of employment. Every one of these stories is different but the common factors are telling. Rubenhold shows you these women, illustrates their problems, and in doing so makes a wider point about how easy it was to drop out of the bottom of Victorian society - especially as a woman, whose labour was worth less than a man's and whose sexual virtue was treated as both more important and more fragile.
It's no secret that I am super interested in the Victorian period but I really loved this book and would recommend it to anybody interested in women's history but also working class history. As much as anything else, it shows you the importance of the welfare state that the government is presently doing its best to dismantle 🙃 We shouldn't forget these women or the thousands like them, eaten up and spat out by the hardships of the nineteenth century.
Moderate: Murder, Child death, Alcoholism, and Terminal illness
dexkit10's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death, and Murder
jessfr08_'s review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Classism
louisemcaw's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Murder, and Miscarriage
crabbytaco's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Abandonment
Moderate: Murder and Child death
magibeth's review against another edition
4.25
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
3.0
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.
Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Sexual violence, and Child death
bthkly's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Trafficking, Miscarriage, Child death, and Pregnancy
abby_can_read's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. It was well research and well written.
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