Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

56 reviews

slinders's review

It just god too sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Violence, 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

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

emilo's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Sexism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

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

carlaah1984's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

A well-researched and engaging look at working-class women in victorian times, highly informative about the lives and realities of the victims and the humanizing storytelling they all deserved—great conclusion to tie into modernity.

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

annamorgan27's review against another edition

dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Trafficking

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