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blairbusby's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
luminous's review against another edition
5.0
Great biography of forgotten women. Several of the five victims (four of them?) were homeless. They had wildly varying backgrounds. One thread ties them together, one thread that brought them all to Whitechapel: alcoholism. It was sad to hear tales of promising lives cut short by addiction to booze.
Listened to this on audiobook, which had an excellent narrator. I got the feeling that some passages might have felt too detailed or too meandering if I'd been reading visually, but the audio narration kept me spellbound.
What pushed this up to five stars? All the details about life in 19th century England and London, plus the detailed biographies of the women's parents. I learned about professions and home life and street life, cultural mores, class. I may have been dumb all my life, but this is the first time I feel I really have a grasp on what life in Victorian England was like for the working class. And it seemed frakking miserable.
The prostitution aspect has generated controversy in reviews. I think the author's treatment of sex work was not only appropriate, but necessary. If the author had placed the epilogue at the front of the book, the controversy could have been avoided. The book isn't denigrating prostitution or looking down on the women who practice(d) it. The book is aware of **contemporary and modern social mores** that denigrate prostitution and the women who engage in it. The author isn't researching whether the women were actually prostitutes with the goal of "clearing their names because prostitution is bad," the author is doing so because society viewed it as bad and were quick to label them prostitutes because it made them "deserving" of murder somehow.
Listened to this on audiobook, which had an excellent narrator. I got the feeling that some passages might have felt too detailed or too meandering if I'd been reading visually, but the audio narration kept me spellbound.
What pushed this up to five stars? All the details about life in 19th century England and London, plus the detailed biographies of the women's parents. I learned about professions and home life and street life, cultural mores, class. I may have been dumb all my life, but this is the first time I feel I really have a grasp on what life in Victorian England was like for the working class. And it seemed frakking miserable.
The prostitution aspect has generated controversy in reviews. I think the author's treatment of sex work was not only appropriate, but necessary. If the author had placed the epilogue at the front of the book, the controversy could have been avoided. The book isn't denigrating prostitution or looking down on the women who practice(d) it. The book is aware of **contemporary and modern social mores** that denigrate prostitution and the women who engage in it. The author isn't researching whether the women were actually prostitutes with the goal of "clearing their names because prostitution is bad," the author is doing so because society viewed it as bad and were quick to label them prostitutes because it made them "deserving" of murder somehow.
bookswithbrynn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
I have a true appreciation for the author's research and her delivery of the topic. There are 5 portions of this book each covering one of the five women killed by Jack the Ripper. The book says little or nothing about Jack the Ripper but instead focuses on his victims and the general assumption by the media that they were all prostitutes. Take home message: life for lower class women was difficult in Victorian London especially if they didn't have a husband or a home.
lorraineaf's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
this story at its bare bones is a narration of the canonical 5 victims of jack the ripper: Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane but to me I took a lot more from this.
hallie rubenhold does a fantastic job of going through each of the women’s lives and citing her sources without it getting boring. you know and understand the assumptions she makes based on information she is using and tells you where she got the information from.
even more, this book talks about how women are villainized even when they are the victims. how in order to sensationalize or uplift the literal serial killer journalists and historical narrative lumps all the victims into one category and shifts the blame onto them to make them feel nameless or just a part of a number. human beings dying is never just a number, each person had a family, hopes, dreams, and people who cared about them: no matter what media or those in power to control the narrative try to say.
hallie rubenhold does a fantastic job of going through each of the women’s lives and citing her sources without it getting boring. you know and understand the assumptions she makes based on information she is using and tells you where she got the information from.
even more, this book talks about how women are villainized even when they are the victims. how in order to sensationalize or uplift the literal serial killer journalists and historical narrative lumps all the victims into one category and shifts the blame onto them to make them feel nameless or just a part of a number. human beings dying is never just a number, each person had a family, hopes, dreams, and people who cared about them: no matter what media or those in power to control the narrative try to say.