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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
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Hallie Rubenhold doesn’t just honour the victims of Jack the Ripper in this book, she brings them to life. This is so well written and superbly researched, with details I couldn’t imagine possible from events that happened over 130 years ago. I would highly recommend this book!
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism
Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent
Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Murder, Pregnancy
A great and respectful work. I do disagree with the writer’s idea that everyone fascinated by the Jack the Ripper lore forgets to really think about these women and their humanity. I would argue that, at least for many women, the fact that this man killed five of us and got away with it is exactly what keeps bringing us back to the story - possibly out of frustration and anger. Also, I just want to ask the writer one other thing: would it actually be so terrible if these 5 women were prostitutes? You worked so hard to show that most of them weren’t, but maybe the issue is that society still has an incredibly harmful and antiquated view of sex work? Maybe these women were prostitutes and that should be seen as just the profession they did to live. And that their murders were still horrendous and done by a cowardly person who picked women in a profession with little to no societal protection.
Very well researched. A biographical approach to England during the period. A deep insight into the socio-economic issues of women during this time. Not as thriller, or Rippery as I wanted. A bit dry at times, hence 3 stars.
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
This book was recommended to me by someone in my Goodreads network. I'm so sorry that I can't recall who it was, but I'm very grateful you told me about it!
The five women Jack the Ripper murdered are profiled in this book. There are no gory details of the murders themselves, because that would make it more about him, and this book is specifically written for the women. It is a necessary book because even in the 1880s, fake news was shaping public opinion (yup - not a new political phenomenon post MAGA!). One of the five was a sex worker, and suddenly the news made all of them prostitutes, as if it made the murders more palatable (kind of like how young Black men killed by police are all "not so innocent," have criminal records, were "reaching" for a "gun," were mentally ill, looked threatening, were resisting, etc. - anything necessary to justify, or justify even more, the officer involved shooting).
The truth was, according to Rubenhold, that these were women who killed as crimes of opportunity. They were extremely vulnerable, and before they were victims of a depraved serial killer, they were victims of a systemized misogynist society. They were completely dependent on men, legally, for wages, shelter, clothing, food, etc. There was disease everywhere. The ones mentioned here include typhus, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox, and syphilis. These women were birthing up to eight children, with most of them dying from one of these diseases or being stillborn or miscarried. Compounding the deep grief and unavailability of compassion or gynecological and obstetrical medical care was the lack of clean drinking water made it so that most people were hydrating with one form of alcohol or another. Hence, all five of these women, though they started out much better off than when they died, all five were alcoholics, domestically abused, mentally delicate, and often homeless. They were among Victorian society's most vulnerable. Rubenhold tells us the lives of each of these women.
I'm not sure she accomplished her goal of restoring their dignity, but I am glad she set the record straight. They did not deserve to be killed as they were, simply because their plights made it easy for someone whose mind probably had a worm in it (if you are not sure what I'm talking about, Google RFK Jr - this is a jab at him).
Highly recommend!
The five women Jack the Ripper murdered are profiled in this book. There are no gory details of the murders themselves, because that would make it more about him, and this book is specifically written for the women. It is a necessary book because even in the 1880s, fake news was shaping public opinion (yup - not a new political phenomenon post MAGA!). One of the five was a sex worker, and suddenly the news made all of them prostitutes, as if it made the murders more palatable (kind of like how young Black men killed by police are all "not so innocent," have criminal records, were "reaching" for a "gun," were mentally ill, looked threatening, were resisting, etc. - anything necessary to justify, or justify even more, the officer involved shooting).
The truth was, according to Rubenhold, that these were women who killed as crimes of opportunity. They were extremely vulnerable, and before they were victims of a depraved serial killer, they were victims of a systemized misogynist society. They were completely dependent on men, legally, for wages, shelter, clothing, food, etc. There was disease everywhere. The ones mentioned here include typhus, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox, and syphilis. These women were birthing up to eight children, with most of them dying from one of these diseases or being stillborn or miscarried. Compounding the deep grief and unavailability of compassion or gynecological and obstetrical medical care was the lack of clean drinking water made it so that most people were hydrating with one form of alcohol or another. Hence, all five of these women, though they started out much better off than when they died, all five were alcoholics, domestically abused, mentally delicate, and often homeless. They were among Victorian society's most vulnerable. Rubenhold tells us the lives of each of these women.
I'm not sure she accomplished her goal of restoring their dignity, but I am glad she set the record straight. They did not deserve to be killed as they were, simply because their plights made it easy for someone whose mind probably had a worm in it (if you are not sure what I'm talking about, Google RFK Jr - this is a jab at him).
Highly recommend!
dark
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reflective
medium-paced
challenging
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fast-paced