Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women by Hallie Rubenhold

28 reviews

victoria29's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Rape, Murder, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death

womanwill's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking and Miscarriage

daisymaytwizell's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

I love Rubenhold's whole manifesto for this piece, and she accomplishes it in spades. Rubenhold gives these women the best eulogy possible after what is clearly intensive research, and avoids any sort of sensationalism around the stories.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Murder, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content, Trafficking, and Toxic relationship

While this is a book around the Jack the Ripper victims, the focus is primarily on their lives before the murder - the murders themselves are not shown or described in detail, and the horrors of being poor in Victorian London are discussed sympathetically and by necessity.

olivianw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

A fantastic book!
Completely gripping, without sensationalising the story. Hallie Rubenhold treats each woman with respect and care. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Misogyny

scripturient's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Infidelity

sarah984's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

2.0

I think this is absolutely a valuable topic for scholarship, and I commend the fact that this book is written in a way that minimizes the women's murderer in favour of describing their lives instead, but I didn't like the book itself very much. The writing comes across as very silly and melodramatic in places, and in defending the majority of the women against the posthumous charge of prostitution the author sort of winds up doing what she condemns in the final chapter: diminishing sex workers as a subclass of women who are more deserving of ill-treatment.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicide, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Physical abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, and Religious bigotry

jackbifrost's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Trafficking, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Minor: Child death

erinjulia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Terminal illness, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Infidelity, Infertility, Gore, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction, Child death, and Death