Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

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

40 reviews

laurareadsbig's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, and Murder

beebeewin's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

As someone who had heard of Jack the Ripper all my life, it is a sad realization that until this book I hadn't thought about who his victims were. We embrace him as this thrilling mystery who deserves to be remembered, while the victims of his crimes are just demonstrations of his prowess. This book flipped that narrative on its head. With poetic writing and unflinching honesty, Rubehold gives voice to the five women and the society, with values that are eerily similar to modern society values, that put them in harms way. It was a society that failed to see them as anything but prostitutes deserving of their fate, something still echoed today. As said by Rubenhold, "By embracing him [Jack the Ripper], we embrace the set of values that surrounded him in 1888, which teaches women that they are of a lesser value and can expect to be dishonored and abused. We enforce the notion that 'bad women' deserve punishement and that 'prostitutes' are a subspecies of female." Allowing ourselves to paint over the fact that these women were complex mothers, friends, wives, lovers, and  humans, gives Jack the Ripper the power once again over women who were already powerless.  "Insisting Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes also makes the story of a vicious series of murders slightly more palatable." We get to ignore that these were human beings who were poor, disenfranchised, and misunderstood, to instead "gawp at and examine this miracle of malevolence... by figuratively stepping over the bodies of those he murdered, and in some case, stopping to kick them as we walked past." It was heartbreaking to here the story of Annie, Kate, Elizabeth, Mary Jane, and Polly and know that many women today like indigenous women, sex workers, trans women of color, are judged in the same fashion with violence against them being unnoticed or ignored. I will never see Jack the Ripper the same. I would say my biggest complaint was keeping all the names, dates, places, etc. straight. I almost wish there were more figures, timelines, or maps to help with context. I think for such a researched and thorough book it would have helped me absorb and understand more easily. That said I would definitely recommend this book to those true crime lovers, history buffs, and those looking for an informative yet tragic read. Your perspective will be forever changed. 


Othe great quotes:

Shein anyone???- "Poor women's labor was cheap because poor women were considered expendable..." 

One women, Elisabeth, was reported to police as a sex worker so she had to weekly strip and have her body searched for STIs along with other women, in public, and in the cold. "For a young women who had been raised in a religious community... the indignity of this experience would have been shocking. However, as Elisabeth was pregnant with a illegitimate child, is is likely that she, like so many women of her era, would have internalized the punishment as a justifiable one. Society and the church would have her believe she sinned against her parents, her community, herself, and God." Barf.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

Minor: Child death and Sexual violence

slinders's review

It just god too sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Violence, and Classism

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

I really appreciate how intensively this was researched, and I think it's a really important idea. I could definitely see revisiting this and reading it again in small pieces. It tells such an interesting story about just women in general during this time period in England, and I think it's fascinating how so many ideas that were standard then are still hanging on today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death and Blood

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

anibee19's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Sexual violence

louisemcaw's review

dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Alcohol

kmsander4's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

An incredible story giving the power back to the women who had it savagely stolen from them back in the fall of 1888.

Now, we know their stories, their pasts, their lives. They were more than victims. They were mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers. They were women. They were - and will forever be - remembered for who they were and not the man who murdered them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

abby_can_read's review

informative medium-paced

4.0

🎧
I enjoyed this book. It was well research and well written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Chronic illness and Mental illness

directorpurry's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, and Murder