Reviews with content warning for Violence - Stalking Jack the Ripper

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

99 reviews

kmizzzle's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It was a fun mystery. Loosely based on Jack the Ripper, though it the story was altered to be based around Audrey Rose. I enjoyed Audrey Rose's character; watching her develop a spine throughout the story was nice (though homegirl had to constantly remind herself of that). And Thomas was very fun, though a bit of an odd duck. I liked that Audrey Rose was doing something women of her time didn't do - she was an apprentice to her uncle, who was a coroner. There were a few things that didn't make sense by the end (e.g., the medium; the old valet and what he was talking about about) but the mystery itself was fine.

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clem9's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Love the characters appart and together. And I love myself a murder mystery. Bonus point cause I guessed the murderer right

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thettvpanda's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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openbookheartmind's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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kary2012's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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robotnik's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Man, I'm sure there's a good story buried in here somewhere but it was really hard to find it underneath all of Audrey Rose's NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS moments. But I digress.

I can't say I was bored with Stalking Jack the Ripper nor did I really dislike it overall. I was entertained by it. But part of the entertainment came from how stupid parts of it were.

For a book that is centered around one of the biggest unsolved serial killer cases of all time, it was really easy to figure out that

Nathaniel

was Jack the Ripper. Literally, within his first appearance (I don't know, 40 pages in? Something like that), I knew exactly that this character was the killer. It made it almost comedic reading through the book whenever he appeared and knowing that the narrative thought it was some big secret when it was probably one of the most obvious plot twists I've seen in recent years.

This honestly almost makes it offensive to the real life case. Jack the Ripper has been such a mystery over these years and no one's been able to confidently deduce who he really was that assuming that

Nathaniel

could have pulled off these murders and not been arrested and that Audrey Rose could have helped figure it out in any way is really a disrespect to all of the Ripper's victims.

Which brings us to Audrey Rose. She is one of the biggest examples of "not like other girls" I've read recently. She spends all this time waxing about how she's equal parts feminine and intelligent and it's alright for women to embrace their femininity and care about that while she cares about science. And yet she is constantly putting other girls/women down for doing just that. She does not feel like a young woman in the 1880s who's wanting to be independent and find her own way. She feels like a teenager from the 2010s who was plucked out of her time period and dropped into the 1800s and was unimpressed things weren't like modern times. You couple this with her constantly making absolutely stupid decisions, and you got yourself an annoying protagonist.

Thomas is probably the better of the two. He's just charming bloke who flirts too much. Their romance was kind of... okay? I guess? I think the biggest flaw in it is that Thomas was instantly interested in Audrey Rose - that's not the flaw - and Audrey Rose was very obviously interested in him too but she was trying to pretend she wasn't. Just like the above "trying to point out her advanced feminism", she brings up how much she doesn't like Thomas an unhealthy amount of times. How much she doesn't focus on men (one of her "not like other girl" traits) and how she specifically was not charmed by him. And yet - and yet!!! - she focuses on him sooooo damn much. Probably more than the crime at hand. For all her complaining about how annoying he is and how much she doesn't like him, she sure does spend a lot of her time thinking about him. I am honestly embarrassed by her.

The climax of the story, much like the rest of it, was just okay. Not really surprising since

Nathaniel

was so ridiculously obvious that there was no shock factor. But it was alright.

Really, this book is just a big bundle of alright. I've heard mixed opinions on the rest of this series, but it has me curious enough to give it a try at some point so I'll continue it.

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gisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Truly one of the best books I’ve ever read. I first read it when it came out years ago and had it stick with me as the years passed, constantly reminded of its beautiful work and characters. Originally picking it up due to my personal fascination of Jack The Ripper, I ended up falling in love (in more ways than one, Thomas Cresswell the man that you are <3) with both Audrey Rose and Thomas, alone and as a wonderful couple. There was no part of the story where I was left bored, or not wishing to pick it up to read more. I cannot recommend this book enough.

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