Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

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

90 reviews

corriejn's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A well-written and thoroughly researched accounting of the history and lives of the five Victorian era women who eventually became the presumed victims of the serial killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. The violence that ended each of their lives is not the focus, and is mentioned only in passing as the end of each woman's life. These accounts are representative of the experiences of many non-wealthy women of the time and area-- the precarities of trying to remain out of poverty and destitution, the limited choices available to women and families without financial resources, the living conditions faced in workhouses or the kind of lodging houses available to lower classes-- but provide specifics details of each woman's life. While this book is important in humanizing and dispelling some myths about these murder victims and their lives, I didn't give a higher rating because some of the language and insinuations are a bit outdated (e.g., some of the things mentioned re: sex work, addiction, or poverty/homelessness). Basically, it would have been super progressive like... 10 or 15 years ago. Still worth a read, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Grief

Minor: Abortion, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

katievh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Murder, Death of parent, Infidelity, Infertility, and Terminal illness

celebrationofbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.25

Since it’s Nonfiction November, I figured I better catch up on some of the Nonfiction Book Club selections from this year. Though book club is on hiatus until May (I am so burnt out on virtual meetings), it is still a very near and dear piece of my heart that has helped me, and many other members of book club make it through the pandemic.

The Five quickly became a favorite of my coworker, Marielle, who joined Nonfiction Book Club after her own book club, YA for all flamed out. She’s recommended it countless times at the store and made it one of her summer picks this year as well, she absolutely loves it. The book itself focuses on the lives of the victims of Jack the Ripper. Their deaths are barely mentioned and there is no gruesome true crime style recounting of how they died – Hallie focuses exclusively on how they lived. She also does not go into speculation about who Jack the Ripper was, and besides a cursory mention in the introduction, he is not mentioned again in the book. So if you are looking for an actual true crime book about about him, this is not it.

The five women of The Five were a fascinating group of women, most of whom fell to the circumstances of being a woman in the late 1800s – it wasn’t an easy time for women on the whole. Their backgrounds were varied, some had wealth, others poor, one an immigrant, one a pathological liar – they were all people, people with friends and families who cared about them, people who were more than just victims of a terrible crime.

One thing that did tie them all together, however, was that at the time of their deaths, they were all in some sort of destitute situation, either due to circumstances beyond their control, mental health crises, or addition. In book club we had a fascinating discussion about female freedom and oppression as well as the lack of agency women of the late Victorian era experienced and compared it to our own. We’re lucky, in book club, to have a number of generations represented by our members and our best conversations always arise when we get to discuss the different experiences we all had with feminism and sexism growing up.

The Five is a snapshot of London and the lives of the people who lived and worked there in the late 1800s. As we always do when we find a book categorized in a genre that we do not agree with, with discussed in book club where we should shelve it at the store. We made well reasoned arguments for true crime (because that’s where we found it and we may not have found it otherwise), sociology, history and biography before ultimately landing on biography. We found ourselves appreciative that Hallie Rubenhold went on the search she did to reclaim this women’s voices so we found biography to be the best fit.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse and Murder

liviy0017's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Excrement, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

books_and_chocolate's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

Best Non-Fiction I read in a Long time - amazing topic and very careful Work that I as an Historian enjoyed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

pollyflorence's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Violence

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

alyciamck's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, and Death

rhiannonxgrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad

5.0

What an incredible book. I really enjoy Rubenhold’s writing style and find her to be an easy read, which can’t be said about all historians! This was a rough read, and more than once I had to pause and step away for a little while simply due to the content. But I am so glad I read this. It’s so important to move the focus back on to the womens’ lives and show them as fully fledged people, something that is often discarded when it comes to the Whitechapel murders.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Trafficking, and Violence

cjblates's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Murder