challenging dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

I read this alternating between audiobook and hardback. The book is well crafted, bridging historical research with contextual assumptions inferred from historical clues. 

The author’s style is engaging and accessible. The content sheds light on a common subject but through a distinct new lens, frame and with care / compassionate for the women involved. The narration for the audiobook is particularly well done. 
dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

This book gives everything the Jack Ripper mythos/history denies the victims - being seen as humans with lives and worth.

The book is excellently well resourced. Rubenhold never puts words into the women's mouths. If there is no info on what happened during a period, then Rubenhold says that. 

The role of Victorian society and sexism had in these women's lives, suffering and deaths of these women has long needed examining and focus. These women have been cast aside becuase they have been branded worthless fallen women. A issue many female victims face if they don't fit into the Madonna ideal and are seen as "The Whore". I hope this book can change the narrative on this women and allow them to be seen as human beings. 

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informative reflective sad medium-paced

DNF. Ik kon hier gewoon niet in komen

I went into this thinking it would be about Jack the Ripper and was pleasantly deceived. This book is about the stories of the five victims of Jack the Ripper, and I loved it for that.
Some of this recount felt unnecessarily long, but remains an important voice of women most often forgotten by history.
informative medium-paced

poor and without resources, these five victims are finally recognized as fully-fleshed humans...and not a false narrative as designed by misogynistic repoorters.
challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

This really humanizes the people who were murdered by Jack the Ripper. It gave me understanding of the times these women were living in and how the ended up in the situations that lead to their fateful nights. Mary Jane was probably the saddest one to me, but all of these were heartbreaking cases. 
dark informative sad fast-paced

A really interesting read. I've always thought that true crime was done wrong - in that it always focuses on the killers and never the victims. As someone who's always found the case of Jack the Ripper interesting, it never occurred to me that I didn't actually know who the victims were, I just believed the narrative that he was a prostitute killer, and this book has really changed my perspective. To actually read about their lives, who they are, what they did, compared to all the stories told about them since their murder is devastating. These women were a product of their circumstances, but nobody cared about that. Nobody cared that they weren't actually prostitutes, but that was the narrative that made sense to people, the narrative that sold - and continues to sell today. I had this book recommended to me and I'm really glad I've read it. I recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime and will forever take on the perspective now that it's the victims whose stories deserve to be told - not the criminals

Tässä on viisi elämää, joiden riistäjä ei koskaan jäänyt kiinni. Ensimmäisen modernin sarjamurhaajan viisi kaanoniin hyväksyttyä (varmistettua) uhria saavat nimen, kasvot ja persoonan. Ensimmäisen kerran tapauksia tarkastellaan uhrien kautta, ei murhaajaa romantisoiden.

Yksittäiset tarinat eivät kuitenkaan olleet itselleni oleellisin anti, vaan loputtomiin asti ylemmän luokan näkökulmasta kerrottu kuvaus viktoriaanisesta Lontoosta huono-osaisen naisen silmin. Vallitsevaa yhteiskuntaa pohjustetaan teoksen alkupuolella, mutta miljöö konkretisoituu ja tulee iholle naisten tarinoiden läpi. Kuinka nainen ei ollut mitään ilman miestä, kuinka yhteiskunnan rakenteet suosivat vain tietynlaista, kapeaa ja hyväosaista mallia elämästä.

Teoksen ansioihin kuuluu myös myytin selkärangan murtaminen. Uhreiksi ei valittu systemaattisesti prostituoituja - vain kahdesta on näyttöä. Tämäkin kertoo paljon ajankuvasta, kun murhaajan käsiin kuolleet naiset leimataan huoriksi, joiden kuolemalla ei ole merkitystä.

Tämä on ensimmäinen murhien ympärillä pyörivä teos, joka ei puhu juurikaan murhista, vaan ajasta niiden ympärillä - kunkin naisen kohdalla ennen ja jälkeen (tämän vuoksi sopii herkemmillekin). Teos ei myöskään pyri todistamaan, kuka murhaaja on. Sillä ei tällä kertaa ole merkitystä.


Suosittelen tutustumaan, jos viktoriaaninen Lontoo tai Viiltäjä-Jackin legenda kiinnostaa tuoreesta näkökulmasta. Äänikirja oli miellyttävä kuunnella.