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raebo1979's review against another edition
It didn't hold my attention enough. Once I got to the third person I was confusing the women and their stories. I did appreciate the obvious research into the time period relating to women.
cardinalgirl75's review against another edition
5.0
I'm going to admit that I've probably read a fair share of true crime books that delve more into the crime and the psyche of the killer than ever really examine the life of the victim. Hallie Rubenhold, in this incredible book about the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper, dares us to question what's long been considered settled fact--that they were all prostitutes (only two were ever officially documented to have engaged in the sex trade, and there's strong reason to doubt that either of them was still in the profession at the time of their deaths). Rubenhold presents a picture of what working-class England was like for women in the late 1880s, from having little opportunity for education because they were sent out to work in their mid-teens to the repeated pregnancies that often sapped their health, whether they were married or not. But most of all, she honors the lives of the five women that have been almost completely ignored by history, overlooked as nothing more than the footnote to the far more interesting story of the man who killed them.
obiathus's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
5.0
nightwillowfox's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book it also makes me want to get back into reading historical books. It also makes me remember a person called Ruth Goodman who studied every day people and how our history books never talk about the ever day people.
I kind of wanted more pictures, I know that would have been hard but I guess maybe a drawing of the areas(if photos were not taken) the girls lived and such. But over all this is a good book and I would re-read it. I would like to get a copy of this book.
I kind of wanted more pictures, I know that would have been hard but I guess maybe a drawing of the areas(if photos were not taken) the girls lived and such. But over all this is a good book and I would re-read it. I would like to get a copy of this book.
anaffpereira's review against another edition
5.0
This book is important! Jack the Ripper became the stuff of legends, and even today he captivates people’s minds… while his victims fall into oblivion. How is this fair? This book makes the five canonical victims seen and heard. As the author puts it, “(…) the villain as metamorphosed into the protagonist; an evil, psychotic, mysterious payer who is so clever that he managed to evade detection even today. In order to gawp and examine this miracle of malevolence we have figuratively stepped over the bodies of those he murdered (…). The larger his profile grows, the more those victims seem to fade.”