Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

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

35 reviews

abi_sarah's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

An expertly written documentary of the lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. The amount of research that went into writing this book is clear from the offset and the writing is engaging, emotional and empathetic. You really start to grow attached to the women and feel a profound sadness and heartfelt sympathies for the way society dictated that they lived their lives and subsequently the end that met them. 

Hallie Rubenhold really sets the scene of Victorian London and effortlessly introduces each of the victims with the societal norms and prejudices which forced them - in most cases - to live largely unhappy lives. She describes what it’s like to live in workhouses and what little privacy there is for those who live in them - perhaps explaining why now we value privacy so much as a society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Grief, and Pregnancy

ylimets's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, and Trafficking

pandin's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

bookshelfhannah's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

richardw2024's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

An interesting look at the victims of Jack the Ripper. This is not true crime, there is nothing at all about the killings but this focuses on the lives of the women. It is an interesting insight into what life was like in Victorian London and the attention to detail is superb. It is, however, slow paced and quite heavy going 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

tlholmes's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Women’s history, non fiction 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

thinkingcatss's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tiernanhunter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

jacs63's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is a stunning book for so many reasons. 
It gives a face, a name and a voice, to the 5 victims of JtR. 
We so often only hear about the perpetrator, and not the victims. 
The book discusses the fact that thru the falsehood and misinformation spread by the Metropolitan Police and journalists at the time, it was convenient for us all to think that JtR only killed prostitutes. 
Only 2 of the 5 were actually known to be sex workers. 
There is no evidence that the other 3 were sex workers at all, but I for one believed the misinformation that was spread. 
One thing that all 5 women shared was that they are all alcoholics. 
I wonder why?? 
Maybe because cheap alcohol was the only thing that dulled the pain, if only for a while, of the poverty; the hunger; the homelessness; the early death of family members, including their own spouses or their own babies/ children; the death sentence that they were given if their spouse died and left them, and their children, destitute; their treatment as a woman with no legal rights; the living hell that was the 'Workhouse'; the lack of education for woman; the disease; the filth and vermin; the lack of medicines; the lack of clean water and sanitation; the violence; the lack of hope, respect and dignity etc etc etc. 
Basically the treatment of women/girls in the 1800's. 

It's full of interesting and informative historical facts about what life, and death, was like, for women in particular, in the Victorian 1800's. 

It's sad and horrific and devastating. It's a book that won't leave me for a while, I don't think. 
Probably not a book to read if you are depressed or feeling melancholic.

We will never know who JtR was. 
But we can know who his victims were. 
These women were daughters; sisters; wives; lovers; mothers; friends. 
May they never be forgotten. 
RIP and love, Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate and Mary Jane.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

4.5

This is a sincere and well-researched account of the lives of the five women killed by Jack the ripper. Hallie Rubenhold ensures their legacies with her diligent research and her focus on the lives of the women, over their gruesome and mythologized deaths. In contextualizing the sexual climate of the Victorian era, Rubenhold offers a vivid image of the nuanced worlds these women lived in, often so different from the straight laced Victorian England canonized today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Incest