jpezcandy 's review for:

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

5.0

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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.