A review by ebbie_casuallereading
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
2.0
I just don't understand why this was so beloved. Thomas is insufferable, the romance is shoehorned super quickly and I think the book would have been way better without it. The inner monologue of Audrey Rose about Thomas was making me role my eyes out from the first few comment about how he looked. I really didn't care about them as a "couple" as well.
The feminism is... ok I guess? Audrey Rose is "not like other girls", though she does like pretty garments, but other women only care about superficial stuff and they are boring. Oh ok... I mean, her cousin is somewhat a good egg since she "thinks for herself" and whatnot, but really, UGH. I don't know, if you're going to claim this is feminist, do it well? Find ways to not fall into clichés (it's super easy, just don't make your MC talk against other women like they are dumb and vapid!) when you're not showing us or telling us the female MC is badass and.
Not saying I hated it, but it wasn't what I was told it was going to be, and even without the blurb, I would still have beef with the stuff I mentionned. There was a part around the middle of the book where I thought maybe it could have been a 3 stars, things really picked up and I was interested in what was going on, mostly the whole part involving the fate of Audrey Rose's uncle. But the landing of the second part of the book is... not it. And I knew who was the Ripper pretty quickly, and why I knew is another whole problematic thing to be quite honest (I wonder if I'm the only one who saw it, but not great for mental health representation to say the least).
The best characters were the adults (Audrey Rose's father and uncle) and then Blackburn (which pains me to say, since I'm never on the side of the police unless I'm reading a detective novel, and even then, it depends).
Will I read the second book? It's well rated, so I'm curious, but I'll check some of the review (both good and bad) and go from there. I mean, there's so many series of book that are interesting that I cannot get stuck in something I'm already not happy about...
The feminism is... ok I guess? Audrey Rose is "not like other girls", though she does like pretty garments, but other women only care about superficial stuff and they are boring. Oh ok... I mean, her cousin is somewhat a good egg since she "thinks for herself" and whatnot, but really, UGH. I don't know, if you're going to claim this is feminist, do it well? Find ways to not fall into clichés (it's super easy, just don't make your MC talk against other women like they are dumb and vapid!) when you're not showing us or telling us the female MC is badass and
Spoiler
when she's in danger, don't throw every male character at her so they can save her #yawnNot saying I hated it, but it wasn't what I was told it was going to be, and even without the blurb, I would still have beef with the stuff I mentionned. There was a part around the middle of the book where I thought maybe it could have been a 3 stars, things really picked up and I was interested in what was going on, mostly the whole part involving the fate of Audrey Rose's uncle. But the landing of the second part of the book is... not it. And I knew who was the Ripper pretty quickly, and why I knew is another whole problematic thing to be quite honest (I wonder if I'm the only one who saw it, but not great for mental health representation to say the least).
The best characters were the adults (Audrey Rose's father and uncle) and then Blackburn (which pains me to say, since I'm never on the side of the police unless I'm reading a detective novel, and even then, it depends).
Will I read the second book? It's well rated, so I'm curious, but I'll check some of the review (both good and bad) and go from there. I mean, there's so many series of book that are interesting that I cannot get stuck in something I'm already not happy about...