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Reviews tagging 'Suicide'
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
13 reviews
caprivoyant's review against another edition
I give this book 3 heartbreaks: 💔💔💔
I really wanted to like this book, but the writing was a little too fact-heavy for me. I guess I thought "the untold lives" would be more narrative about their lives, and less about how much their job paid or a house-by-house breakdown of everywhere they ever lived? Alas, it was mostly the latter.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm glad this book exists because these women deserve to be seen as women—whole, complete women—not just murder victims. That's why I was so excited about reading it! But, I think, in order to get the full picture of who these women were, I needed emotion. I needed heart. I needed to see what they cared about (don't just tell me, show me). I wanted this book to paint a picture of each person's life, show me all the messy bits as well as the facts.
People are so much more than the events that happen to them—more than the addresses they live in more than the money they make. I wanted to see whole people, and I wasn't getting that, so with a broken heart, I DNF'd it. 😢
I really wanted to like this book, but the writing was a little too fact-heavy for me. I guess I thought "the untold lives" would be more narrative about their lives, and less about how much their job paid or a house-by-house breakdown of everywhere they ever lived? Alas, it was mostly the latter.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm glad this book exists because these women deserve to be seen as women—whole, complete women—not just murder victims. That's why I was so excited about reading it! But, I think, in order to get the full picture of who these women were, I needed emotion. I needed heart. I needed to see what they cared about (don't just tell me, show me). I wanted this book to paint a picture of each person's life, show me all the messy bits as well as the facts.
People are so much more than the events that happen to them—more than the addresses they live in more than the money they make. I wanted to see whole people, and I wasn't getting that, so with a broken heart, I DNF'd it. 😢
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
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
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
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